Is it true that some people have found planets similar to ours in another star system?

Question

I heard this rumor. Not sure if I believe it or not. I do believe that they have found some gas giants similar to Jupiter and Saturn. But This is the first time I ever heard this.

Well I have no doubt whatsoever that there is other planets that conatin life. But I find it very exciting that we are beginning to discover planets outside the solar system! Who ever thought that would be possible?

Answer 1

Wll think about it as probability.

There is 1 universe.
This universe contains millions of gallaxies. Like our own
These Galaxies contain millions of stars.Like our own
These stars have thousands of planets All in their Green Zones.

Hell you do the maths?

Theres a pretty good chance that thres life out there

Answer 2

Three small bodies have been found in orbit around the pulsar PSR 1257+12. They have been designated "PSR1257+12 A, ..B, and ..C". One is about the size of the Moon, the other two are about 2 to 3 times the mass of Earth. These planets are believed to have formed after the supernova that produced the pulsar. The present planets would have originally been within the envelope of the progenitor star and therefore wouldn't have stood much chance of surviving the supernova explosion, and wouldn't have remained in circular orbits after the explosion.
What may be the first discovery of a planet orbiting a normal, Sun-like star other than our own has been announced by astronomers studying 51 Pegasi, a spectral type G2-3 V main-sequence star 42 light-years from Earth. At a recent conference in Florence, Italy, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of Geneva Observatory explained that they observed 51 Pegasi with a high-resolution spectrograph and found that the star's line-of-sight velocity changes by some 70 meters per second every 4.2 days. If this is due to orbital motion, these numbers suggest that a planet lies only 7 million kilometers from 51 Pegasi -- much closer than Mercury is to the Sun -- and that the planet has a mass at least half that of Jupiter. These physical characteristics hinge on the assumption that our line of sight is near the planet's orbital plane. However, other evidence suggests that this is a good bet. A world merely 7 million km from a star like 51 Pegasi should have a temperature of about 1,000 degrees Celsius, just short of red hot. It was initially thought that it might be a solid body like a very big Mercury but the concensus now seems to be that it is a "hot Jupiter", a gas planet formed much farther from its star that migrated inward.

These are the most widely known objects, but there are many others doccumented.

Astronomy is a fascinating hobby. check it out.

Answer 3

The other answers gave you a lot of good information--but here's a bit more.

Recently ( last month) astronomers announcce the discovery of a planet about 1.5 times the size of Jupiter orbitinng at a distance similar to our own gas giants around epsilon Erindani--a yellow star like our sun --and just 10.5 light years from here. This the equivalent of being on our "front doorstep"--and there may be a second planet--though they've been unable to confirm that as yet.

The other item is that earlier this month, the European Space Agency launched a new "planet finder" space tlescope. It is designed to detect more--and smaller--planets. whether it will be able to detect anyting as small as Earth or Mars is unlikely, but it should be able to detect gas-giant type planets that are comparable in size to those in our solar system.

Answer 4

Not only have other Jupiter-like planets been detected, but I've heard of at least one instance where the planet was described as similar to Earth in size-- well, about five times larger, but that's closer than Jupiter.

These planets are detected by measuring a slight "wobble" in the motion of their star, caused by their gravitational influence.

Answer 5

The answer, apparently, hinges on how "similar to ours" you consider these planets to be. Quite a number of "Earth-like planets" have been found, but don't start packing your bags just yet.

The first article included in the Sources field (written in 2005) mentions 150 planets found orbiting other stars. One of them is described as "Earth-like," meaning a rocky planet rather than a gas giant, but it is seven times more massive than Earth.

More recently, from January 2006, scientists using a new detection method have identified a rocky planet only about 5.5 times as massive as Earth, with an atmosphere, orbiting a red dwarf star about 28,000 light years away. And intriguingly, that article mentions that "Earth-sized planets have been detected, but only around dying neutron stars."

Finally, I've included a link to the Terrestrial Planet Finder site from Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a key contributor to space exploration. It describes the signatures that we're looking for to call a planet "Earth-like." The criteria include the mass of the planet (large enough to hold an atmosphere), distance from its star (at a range that allows liquid water on the surface -- neither all-ice nor all-steam), and other characteristics that make the planet a likely source for "life as we know it."

Perhaps the most intriguing comment I read while looking up these articles is one to the effect that, based on our current understanding of how planets are formed, many astronomers believe the ratio of "Earth-like planets" to gas giants may be as high as ten to one. This would suggest that for the 150+ planets that we KNOW about, there may at least 1500 "Earth-like" planets that we can PRESUME, based on this ratio.

But there are confirmed sightings of "Earth-like planets," that is, rocky planets with a thin layer of atmosphere over a solid core. The composition of that atmosphere, the gravity, the temperature and other issues may mean that the common definition of "Earth-like" may differ from your conception of "similar to ours." But we have new techniques for planetary discovery that we're just beginning to use.

Answer 6

There are quite a few planets that have bean discovered but the technique is only sensitive enough to find Jupiter sized planets. There have been no discoveries of earth like planets. They have almost 200 counted up so far.

http://obswww.unige.ch/~naef/who_discovered_that_planet.html

Answer 7

No. Current techniques cannot detect Earth-sized planets. However, upcoming missions WILL be able to - keep an eye out for results from Kepler and the Terrestrial Planet Finder.

Answer 8

factors of your question feels love it is asserting that people have seen extraterrestrial beings, yet we've not ever seen any extraterrestrial beings. of direction television and flicks extraterrestrial beings often seem humanoid because of the fact they are actually people donning costumes and complex makeup. actual smart extraterrestrial beings would not seem very like something on earth. they would not even have bilateral symmetry. think of of the life kinds of: an insect, a mammal, a crab, a sponge, and then attempt to think of something that seems purely as distinctive from those as they are from one yet another. perhaps sometime, time holiday must be invented, besides the undeniable fact that it is not likely.

Answer 9

yes and no - they have found planets with the mass of gas giants - and they know nothing else

the whole thing is based on a wobble in the orbits of suns and a computer program ( we will see ! )

Answer 10

Look at the drake equation.