We discovered an atmosphere on a small super earth

[insert_name]

We discovered a methane/water vapor atmosphere on a super earth with only 1.6 earth Mass and 1.4 earth radius, the smallest yet.

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Edited April 6, 2017 by insert_name
Added link

[sevenperforce]

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[Razorforce7]

In light of this discovery. Why can't we all agree and say out loud "aliens exist"
Ice, water vapor, water had already been discovered to exist beyond Earth.
All other elements is same story.
In case biological life as we know it did originate on earth it had hundred millions of years to spread beyond Earth (it must be everywhere)
And if it didn't originate on Earth..... same story (it must be everywhere)

Or MUST we neccesarily have a organic tissue sample to say that it is so?
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Edited April 7, 2017 by Razorforce7

[Green Baron]

26 minutes ago, Razorforce7 said:

 Why can't we all agree and say out loud "aliens exist"
*snipped*

Or MUST we neccesarily have a organic tissue sample to say that it is so?
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Because science is not about guessing or believing. It's about finding out in a meaning that everyone can reproduce.

So, yes, we must have proof. Not necessarily a tissue sample, there are more subtle ways.

Life did not spread beyond earth in 100s of my. It took ~3.3bilion years for multicellular life to develop on earth. If you mean men on the moon than i must object, they did not multiply there, they just paid a few days visit and gladly and well trained returned.

 

[KSK]

Just now, Green Baron said:

Because science is not about guessing or believing. It's about finding out in a meaning that everyone can reproduce.

So, yes, we must have proof. Not necessarily a tissue sample, there are more subtle ways.

This. Taking this exoplanet as an example, sure there might be water vapour in its atmosphere but, from the article, it also has a surface temperature of over 2000 degrees Celsius. If there's anything alive down there then a) it's not based on anything resembling terrestrial biochemistry and b) I ain't going anywhere near it. Anything that can survive those temperatures be tough, yo.

More seriously - we can observe all the ice, CO2, prebiotic organic molecules etc. we like beyond Earth. That's still not proof of life beyond Earth, although it does make it more likely.

[Steel]

14 minutes ago, KSK said:

...from the article, it also has a surface temperature of over 2000 degrees Celsius. If there's anything alive down there then a) it's not based on anything resembling terrestrial biochemistry and b) I ain't going anywhere near it. Anything that can survive those temperatures be tough, yo...

You've misread the article I'm afraid, the planet with a 2000 C surface temperature is 55 Cancri e, an example of one of the only two other super-earths with atmospheres that we knew about before this new discovery, GJ 1132b.

However, I completely agree with the sentiment that life cannot simply be assumed because we know some planets might have water vapour in their atmosphere.

Edited April 7, 2017 by Steel

[Green Baron]

Am in discussion mode :-)

Presuming aliens in the first place bears a danger of putting them as a cause for phenomina and thus actually leads to avoiding to research of the natural causes, as was the case with the silly megastructure around a dimming star. Natural explanation for the class of dimming stars later did not interest anybody in the public (search the Astrophysical Journal).

I am sure that the same will be the case when we discover life somewhere. Did aliens bring it there ? Or take it to earth ? They must be somewhere ! But this thinking does not lead to findings about nature.

So, i find it cool that they found an atmosphere and hope more will be found in the future. So, while all the aliens are content with their thinking "We are not alone !" we should try to prove them right :-)

Edit: the article

Edited April 7, 2017 by Green Baron

[HebaruSan]

1 hour ago, Razorforce7 said:

In light of this discovery. Why can't we all agree and say out loud "aliens exist"

An atmosphere doesn't necessarily mean a good atmosphere (emphasis added):

Quote

“This detection implies it has a massive and extended atmosphere, composed largely of hydrogen and helium, probably more similar to Uranus or Neptune than to Earth,” said Louden. “To be clear, an atmosphere that we would think of as Earth-like would be completely invisible to these observations, and to all other currently existing telescopes.”

Personally, I do think there's life out there somewhere, even civilizations. But that's not a reason to say I've seen evidence for it when I haven't.

[KSK]

1 hour ago, Steel said:

You've misread the article I'm afraid, the planet with a 2000 C surface temperature is 55 Cancri e, an example of one of the only two other super-earths with atmospheres that we knew about before this new discovery, GJ 1132b.

*blushes*

Yes indeed. Thanks for the correction.

And regardless of what it says about life beyond Earth, the fact that we can do this sort of stuff now is just mind-blowing.

[Green Baron]

25 minutes ago, KSK said:

*snip* the fact that we can do this sort of stuff now is just mind-blowing.

Yes, sir. This is the harvest of current generation telescopes and active/adaptive optics. The next generation will be two magnitudes better resolutionwise.

btw.: E-ELT construction: the mountain top is flat now (Cerro Armazones). Construction starts in may, they say ... TMT must hurry :-)

[Fdkhio]

Also know that we are actually looking back in time.

If there is any intelligent life there (if any) then we just cannot see it now.

[benzman]

1 hour ago, KSK said:

And regardless of what it says about life beyond Earth, the fact that we can do this sort of stuff now is just mind-blowing.

Agreed.  One advantage of being an old bloke is being able to marvel at  the advances you have seen.  It doesn't seem that long ago that astronomers were saying that we would NEVER see a planet around another star because the stars were much too far away to allow a planet to be resolved and it would be lost in the glare of the host star anyway.  How things have changed!

 

[Green Baron]

Oh, we are still faaaar from seeing planets around other stars. What we see is the flickering in the lightcurves as planets traverse in front of a star or the back and forth movement of the star (red-/blueshift) as it orbits together with a planet around the common center.

:-)

 

[Steel]

2 hours ago, Fdkhio said:

Also know that we are actually looking back in time.

If there is any intelligent life there (if any) then we just cannot see it now.

You are right, but it's only 39 years in the past so the probability that intelligent life has sprung up or died out since then is pretty slim

Edited April 7, 2017 by Steel

[Bill Phil]

It would be pretty sweet if we could build the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope. It'd be even better somewhere in space. It'll be a long time before that, though.

[Green Baron]

It was an ESO concept study of a 100m popeye but was decided that it wasn't manageable with current available technology. Also, at that time it began to be foreseeable that interferometry could take over the part of RLTs (ridiculously) and LLTs (ludicrously) in the future. But who knows, maybe with recent advances in adaptive optics someone will one day build such a pan for visual goggling.

Now we're waiting for 30 and 40m telescopes as well as possible VLBIs with telescopes in space and terrestrial ones.

 

[MaxL_1023]

It would be interesting if the planet has retained a thick, H/He atmosphere in the habitable zone - usually 1.6 earth masses isn't enough for that. Maybe the cooler star has less short-wavelength EM which facilitates escape, or the planet has a very strong magnetic field.  

[WinkAllKerb'']

the flow must flow, preferably liquids it help density related to melt a various range of stuff & for being that we may have a chance to interact with at some point

for others beings, insert suspension of dis or that belief (because why not)

Edited April 10, 2017 by WinkAllKerb''