Aside from the desire to go there and explore (if that were ever to be possible) what is the inportance of a 'discovery' that can be neither proven nor disproven? and What is the importance of cliaming to understand the makeup of said place when it is obvious that it is NOT possible tu know?
2007-04-25 05:42:04 · 6 answers · asked by athorgarak 4 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Stating that it was done is not the same as explaining WHY it is or that it should be considered important.
2007-04-25 05:50:49 · update #1
Look, every discover no matter where it is (science, astronomy etc) is important. When you talk about astronomy seems to me that all of this discoveries got one task, to prove that we are not only one in Space (and I believe it). If you want to read more about this go to http://emienco.freehostia.com There you can find some interesting articles about this thematic. Best Regards! Neven.
2007-04-25 05:56:52 · answer #1 · answered by NEVEN , 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
What's important? If we can find life somewhere besides Earth it tells us something about life itself.
What do you mean by "can neither be proven nor disproven?" Just because we haven't gone there doesn't mean we don't know the conditions there. It's a fairly simple process to calculate the mass of the planet from its orbital period and distance from the star, which are measured using spectra of the star. Knowing the distance and the luminosity of the star it orbits tells us roughly what the temperature on the planet are. Just because we don't know something exactly doesn't mean that we know nothing about it. It may be possible in the next 100 years to get images (pictures) and spectra of the planet using arrays of large telescopes separated by large distances (interferrometry). Then we'll be able to actually look for actual signs of life like ozone in the atmosphere or color changes with seasons (green during "summer", brown during "winter"), etc.
2007-04-25 07:46:43 · answer #2 · answered by Faeldaz M 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Every small step we make towards the goal of discovering and in theory populating some place besides earth is one step closer to saving humanity as we know it. One day the earth will no longer be habitable and for the sake of the human race we need to explore our universe.
That seems pretty important to me.
2007-05-02 11:40:40 · answer #3 · answered by Bob 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's only importance is that we found a planet close to the size of the earth. All the others were giants.
2007-04-25 05:48:03 · answer #4 · answered by Gene 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
it is important because it is close to the size of earth, and is a good distance away from its star, so it ma have life, that is why it is important.
2007-04-25 06:37:20 · answer #5 · answered by i love my Emily 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
maybe the temprature and other life parameters are OK so we can live on it (maybe)
2007-04-25 06:24:07 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋