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[mithridates]

The first was discovered in 1995. It was enormous -- half the size of Jupiter -- yet orbiting the star at a distance eight times closer than Mercury. Scientists did not think it was possible, that such a thing could exist. It did not fit their models. Yet there it was, undeniable, circling and circling with the ageless precision of the cosmos.

Once again, the universe had popped a new surprise on humanity. And once again, humanity shook its collective head, took a deep breath, and saw the universe afresh.

They called it, eventually, Bellerophon, the first exoplanet.

We live in a new age of discovery, the first days of a new renaissance. It is the dawn of the age of planets.

The discovery of the first extra-solar planet -- 51 Pegasi B, later dubbed Bellerophon -- was the clarion call announcing this new age. It's an age which will come to revolutionize our relationship with the universe as much as Galileo's discovery of the four moons of Jupiter.

In the decade since Michael Mayor and Didier Queloz announced their discovery, new discoveries have followed hot and fast, and with quickening pace. The recent announcement by Geoff Marcy and Paul Butler of an 'Earth like' planet only seven times the size of ours was the latest advance, appropriately marking the age's first decade. As this is written, scientists have detected over 150 exoplanets.

Allow yourself to take that sentence in. 150 planets. 150 new worlds. Our sun has, at most, nine (depending on how you regard poor Pluto). In a single decade we have found fifteen times as many worlds as are resident in our solar system.

But it is the future that makes the mind stretch with anticipation. For 150 is only the earliest taste of what is to come.

The age of planets will fundamentally shift our understanding of the universe, because it is planets which harbor life. If there is life beyond our tiny plot, it will live on a planet. The first decade has provided the existence proof that planets do spin beyond the confines of our solar system. But the real questions are still to come, and will take decades to answer. The evolution of that quest will map the evolution of humanity's relationship with the universe. Over the coming years, we will learn whether planets are ubiquitous, or rare. We will learn what types and sizes of planet are normal, and which unusual. We will learn if there are any truly Earth-like planets out there, and after that, if any will increase to many. And, someday, we will be able to see whether there is life out there.

The world's space agencies are hard at work constructing spacecraft that will augment the careful research conducted so far with existing telescopes. Missions like Kepler, Corot, Spitzer and the Terrestrial Planet Finder will dramatically improve our vision and allow us to see deep into the hearts of far-off solar systems.

Are we alone, goes the ancient call of humankind, ringing through the ages across oceans and continents, islands and mountain ranges. Always, up to now, the answer has been no. The coming decades of the age of planets may uncover the ultimate answer to the greatest question ever posed.

George T. Whitesides is Executive Director of the National Space Society.

[rapier]

I guess its ok to finish off wrecking earth then- we can simply jump onto another planet when we're done.

[Ya-ta Boy]

That is SO cool, mith. Thanks for posting it.

When I was in college there was an article in Scientific American (?) about space colonies. They ended up being called O'Neill Colonies, after the man who thought them up. Huge, miles-long tubes rotating in space with people living inside them. NASA started making plans to build them.

I started scrambling around to find some skill that I had that would get me on the list to be a settler.

Then the budgets got cut in the late 70's. I don't think I've ever really recovered from that disappointment.

[igotthisguitar]

http://www.google.com/search?biw=1004&hl=en&q=nibiru

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&biw=1004&q=nibiru+sitchin



http://www.xfacts.com/MUFON_LA/

[mithridates]

Check this out, it's the first extrasolar planet ever imaged directly:


2005 image of 2M1207 (blue) and its planetary companion, 2M1207b, one of the first exoplanets to be directly imaged, in this case from the Very Large Telescope array in Chile.


I predict that we will find...5000 extra planets in the next ten years.

Once Terrestrial Planet Finder is launched (2014), we'll be able to just look at a star and bang! There they are, a planet with hydrogen, a rocky planet, an asteroid belt, everything. I'll be 34 then.

[Norm]

I recently purchased the Space Odyssey DVD made by the BBC. It was a very entrtaining look at a possible 6-year investigative mission through the solar system. They do all kinds of stuff like land on Venus, land on Mars, land on Pluto, and land on a comet. Highly speculative, but as scientifically-based as they could make it, and very well 'filmed' using CGIs to great effect. When they actually depicted Pluto's surface with earthlings bouncing around on the ice, I thought, hmmm, what if, when they do arrive there, they discovered some totally mundane earth object like a toilet bowl or something sticking right there in the ice.

Age of the Planets. Age of the Absurd. Why not?

[some waygug-in]

It's nice to think about space exploration in our future, but I often wonder if the rest of the universe is ready and or "willing" to allow us to do so.
Until we can live in peace with ourselves that is.

[stumptown]

Thanks for posting that Mith, but it brings one question to mind. Does life exist on other planets? And by that I mean life as we could understand it. Surely Occam's razor will back up the fact that we aren't the only species to exist in an (yet unknown) infinte universe.

[Captain Corea]

If anyone wants an "easy read" to try to dip into scientific exploration, Bill Bryson; A short history of nearly everything is a good read.

Thanks for posting this Mith.

[mithridates]

Well,

400 000 000 000 galaxies, each with approximately
240 000 000 000 stars, makes a total of approximately
96 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 stars, each with maybe about 5-10 planets. I would say there's a near-nil chance of having no life anywhere.

If that's a hard number to imagine, think of this: 16 trillion stars for each person on this earth.

[mithridates]

And BTW, here are a trillion pennies stacked right on top of each other:

[mithridates]

Cap'n Corea, do you have that book on hand?

[Nowhere Man]

[ChimpumCallao]