July 8, 2019
Posted by in Science and Technology | 8.15am
Imagine there are 40 BILLION planets out there that can support life in our universe… Wow… There has to be other life forms. The mathematical chances is beyond doubt in my mind.
Tsem Rinpoche
Could ‘Goldilocks’ planet be just right for life?
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein, Ap Science Writer
An artist rendering by Lynette Cook, National Science Foundation, shows the new planet on the right
WASHINGTON – Astronomers say they have for the first time spotted a planet beyond our own in what is sometimes called the Goldilocks for life: Not too hot, not too cold. Juuuust right.
Not too far from its star, not too close. So it could contain liquid water. The planet itself is neither too big nor too small for the proper surface, gravity and atmosphere.
It’s just right. Just like Earth.
“This really is the first Goldilocks planet,” said co-discoverer R. Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
The new planet sits smack in the middle of what astronomers refer to as the habitable zone, unlike any of the nearly 500 other planets astronomers have found outside our solar system. And it is in our galactic neighborhood, suggesting that plenty of Earth like planets circle other stars.
Finding a planet that could potentially support life is a major step toward answering the timeless question: Are we alone?
Scientists have jumped the gun before on proclaiming that planets outside our solar system were habitable only to have them turn out to be not quite so conducive to life. But this one is so clearly in the right zone that five outside astronomers told The Associated Press it seems to be the real thing.
“This is the first one I’m truly excited about,” said Penn State University’s Jim Kasting. He said this planet is a “pretty prime candidate” for harboring life.
Life on other planets doesn’t mean E.T. Even a simple single-cell bacteria or the equivalent of shower mold would shake perceptions about the uniqueness of life on Earth.
But there are still many unanswered questions about this strange planet. It is about three times the mass of Earth, slightly larger in width and much closer to its star — 14 million miles away versus 93 million. It’s so close to its version of the sun that it orbits every 37 days. And it doesn’t rotate much, so one side is almost always bright, the other dark.
Temperatures can be as hot as 160 degrees or as frigid as 25 degrees below zero, but in between — in the land of constant sunrise — it would be “shirt-sleeve weather,” said co-discoverer Steven Vogt of the University of California at Santa Cruz.
It’s unknown whether water actually exists on the planet, and what kind of atmosphere it has. But because conditions are ideal for liquid water, and because there always seems to be life on Earth where there is water, Vogt believes “that chances for life on this planet are 100 percent.”
The astronomers’ findings are being published in Astrophysical Journal and were announced by the National Science Foundation on Wednesday.
The planet circles a star called Gliese 581. It’s about 120 trillion miles away, so it would take several generations for a spaceship to get there. It may seem like a long distance, but in the scheme of the vast universe, this planet is “like right in our face, right next door to us,” Vogt said in an interview.
That close proximity and the way it was found so early in astronomers’ search for habitable planets hints to scientists that planets like Earth are probably not that rare.
Vogt and Butler ran some calculations, with giant fudge factors built in, and figured that as much as one out of five to 10 stars in the universe have planets that are Earth-sized and in the habitable zone.
With an estimated 200 billion stars in the universe, that means maybe 40 billion planets that have the potential for life, Vogt said. However, Ohio State University’s Scott Gaudi cautioned that is too speculative about how common these planets are.
Vogt and Butler used ground-based telescopes to track the star’s precise movements over 11 years and watch for wobbles that indicate planets are circling it. The newly discovered planet is actually the sixth found circling Gliese 581. Two looked promising for habitability for a while, another turned out to be too hot and the fifth is likely too cold. This sixth one bracketed right in the sweet spot in between, Vogt said.
With the star designated “a,” its sixth planet is called Gliese 581g.
It’s not a very interesting name and it’s a beautiful planet,” Vogt said. Unofficially, he’s named it after his wife: “I call it Zarmina’s World.”
The star Gliese 581 is a dwarf, about one-third the strength of our sun. Because of that, it can’t be seen without a telescope from Earth, although it is in the Libra constellation, Vogt said.
But if you were standing on this new planet, you could easily see our sun, Butler said.
The low-energy dwarf star will live on for billions of years, much longer than our sun, he said. And that just increases the likelihood of life developing on the planet, the discoverers said.
“It’s pretty hard to stop life once you give it the right conditions,” Vogt said.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=11759961
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Other than earth that exist in the solar system astronomers have for the first time spotted a planet too. Amazing discovery called the Goldilocks, there could be as many as 40 billion Earth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zones. Thanks to new research with modern technologies . Buddha has said before we are not alone. There are many up in the unknown universe similar to the earth. Astronomers and scientists are trying to discover more and possibility checking whether there’s life on other planets. With better detectors they found so many unexpected things about planets.
According Buddhist scriptures as mentioned that other forms of life do exist in other parts of the universe. Interesting read.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
Buddha has said that earth is just one of the planet or realms that has lifeforms on it. There are other beings in other places and dimensions that we are still unable to connect. The world is bigger than we thought and there are still many unknowns in the world.
Buddha’s teachings have talked about these other beings in other planets and dimensions since 2600 years ago. This is another evidence of the teachings taught by the Buddha are the truth and powerful. They are always applicable and now science starts to catch up with them and proving them to be correct. However, it is best for us to learn the Dharma and prepare for our future lives as taught by the Buddha.
We may think human being has become more advanced as time passes. However, the more we progress, the more unknown we discover. For example, in the very beginning we thought our planet is flat but as we advanced in science, the scientists found that our planet is round.
The universe is very huge, there are so many things we have not discovered. I am not surprised there are lives in other planets. Sometimes, we hear sightings of UFOs, this is another proof that there are lives out there in the universe.
Buddha already knew that, he mentioned there are many living beings, some seen, some unseen. We have to respect each other and live in harmony because we don’t own anything.
For the past many years, there have been several planets that human can stay, as such, that means the planet earth is not the only planet that can have life forms, but due to our technology, until today we still can’t really explore the actual condition of the planets like the living beings there, condition for human to live, etc.
Our technology is still not advance enough to explore further, I’m sure there must be many many more planets out there in the universe, there definitely must be countless beings who stays in their planet just like us in the Earth.
I always believe that there are other life forms out there due to so many planets out there. We can’t be the only one and they could be life forms that much advance than us that has been visited us. Looking at the ancient development of the building and structure, it’s impossible with what they have to be able to build. There must be some advanced technologies and methods of calculation to guide them. We always hear that people are looking for another livable planet similar to earth. I would say these people beside looking for another life form living similar to our earth, they are also looking for living on that planet too. Looking at how we treat our mother nature, I don’t think is a good idea to migrate to another planet because we would just bring another disaster to another place. If these people really have this intention, then I would wish that better don’t find any. We can always explore but what is the motivation behind exploring is very important because it can cause harmful action. Some may say we can learn from them how they take care of their planet but aren’t we already know what causes our planet to be degenerate and aren’t we know what we supposed to do to heal the earth? We can keep searching but it will be good to pay more focus on our earth and save her for our next and future generations.
Wow ….what a fantastic discovery by astronomers’ search . There are other habitable planets out in the sky. Planets like earth in the out space are not rare to the scientist. There’s more to life on earth and earth is often referred to as a Goldilocks planet. Astronomers found a first truly earth-like planet in habitable zone after years of research. New discovery lead by Steven Vogt and Paul Butler suggested our galaxy may be teeming with potentially habitable planets . Could not have imagine there are 200 billion stars in the universe, there could be a possibility that there are more life in other planets which are not yet found. Steven Scott Vogt and Paul Butler are one of those astronomer whose main interest is the search for extra solar planets. The planet Earth was believed to be the center of the universe, there are innumerable beings in the universe. Interesting read.
According to the Buddha, there are some other forms of life existing in other parts of the universe. I do believe that as found in other Buddhist scriptures.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
Somehow I always believe that there are other life outside of earth. By the simple logic that there are so many planets out there, how can there no other life out there other than earth? It just doesn’t make sense.
Many of the search for life form is based on water, because they are the basis life, but may be for other life form, they are not dependant on water, but something else?
Anyway, Buddha scriptures did mention there are other life other than earth 🙂
We have only begun to explore the planets “close” to Earth. Considering the vastness of the universe, the existence of planets with other life forms is very much possible.
We have been looking for planets similar to Earth conditions because this is the only condition we know that can sustain life forms like us. Who is to say there are no other life forms out there that have evolved and adapted to living in different conditions compared to human beings on Earth.
For me when we do find other life forms or aliens out there, what would we do? We cannot even along among human beings on Earth. Can we establish a harmonious co-existence with other life forms in the universe or are we just going to bring our disastrous nature into a bigger playing field.
In July 2015, NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has spotted “Earth’s bigger, older cousin”: the first nearly Earth-size planet to be found in the habitable zone of a star similar to our own.The planet, Kepler-452b, is about 1,400 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. Before the discovery of this planet, one called Kepler-186f was considered the most earth-like, according to NASA.
Of course, there are many more planets that are believed to have the basic required conditions to support possible life. This Habitable Exoplanets Catalog is maintained by the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo.
It may seem sensible to look for extraterrestrial life in regions where any Earth-like planet would have liquid water on the surface. Liquid water is an essential solvent for the chemical reactions that Earth biology relies on. If we find planets with liquid water, they satisfy a key criterion for being conducive to life as we know it.
However, did ever think that perhaps life doesn’t require surface liquid water to survive at all? Some have speculated that the liquid hydrocarbons on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, could be a solvent for a very different form of life, for example.
Luckily, there are other methods employed. For example, the Breakthrough listen project that will focus on sifting data from radio and infrared telescopes for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. It will not restrict its focus to zones, particular conditions, or even planets at all, but scan more widely to look for signals that can’t be explained by natural phenomena.
i m hopeful that we r going to find a planit like earth and people living their will not be dangrous
Hey, I haven’t checked in here for a while, but I will put you on my bloglist so I don’t forget to check back.
I really think that the article is very interesting! Thank you Rinpoche for sharing the article! I guess just like MJ’s song, “You are not alone” We are not alone. We were never alone.
Maybe there are somethings like heavens deep in space far away from planet Earth. We may never know yet but I am sure that Scientists will discover and confirm life on other planets. I am really sure of it.
Just like what Buddha Shakyamuni said, “This planet is like that of a grain of sand in a river.”
I have been starting to read about the hard science of the possibilities of UFO’s and life on other planets. I have decided to abandon most of the “major media” reports and stick to hard science. Issac Asimov said in our universe, with all known factors taken into account, there are hundreds of thousands of planets that have beings evolved to our human level or beyond. This is taking OUT the planets with just trees and bugs or dinosaurs, or even monkeys.
Falling back on hard science is the only way I can really get answers, I have found. That, or Enlightenment. Enlightenment is a ways away for me right now though.
The sheer expanse of the universe is such mind-boggling and the possibility of intelligent life out there is a mathematical fact. Just considering that sheer size of the universe and there are so many possible worlds out there sure makes our world and our problems seem very small. I find this contemplation very comforting at times to know that what I am going through is really no big deal. Actually, it is really no big deal compared to many other people I know who have incredible responsibilities and problems. I feel really small and minuscule and I think that the people and problems Rinpoche have to solve would be mind-blowing too.
Incredible! The whole universe is so huge, beyond my imagination! And it can support so many different life forms.
Thank you Rinpoche for this interesting information.
Very cool. I feel like I am being teased – knowing there is likely other life forms out there but I cannot get to meet them?
How interesting! Another planet where there life can exists. And this is the 6th planet after lots of testing whether it is conducive enough for life to be able to sustain. I remember during my young days when the moon was visible. I like watching it for a very long time and thought I can see inside the moon shapes of mountains and land. And I will think could there be life like it is on earth like us. At that time I did not know about research and science. How nice if we have a choice to experience how life is on another planet like the moon. Where “Goldilocks” planet is mentioned even though proven that life can and do exist. We will not be able to experience it. Maybe after many rebirths of being a human.
Thanks Rinpoche. It was a very informative article.
Super awesome!
wow.. and so soon even!