Study says:

Most Earth-Like Worlds Have Yet to Be Born, According to Theoretical Study

Earth came early to the party in the evolving universe. According to a new theoretical study, when our solar system was born 4.6 billion years ago only eight percent of the potentially habitable planets that will ever form in the universe existed. And, the party won't be over when the sun burns out in another 6 billion years. The bulk of those planets - 92 percent - have yet to be born.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/most-earth-like-worlds-have-yet-to-be-born-according-to-theoretical-study

---

How about this as an idea? Send out a probe in the most likely direction for finding a planet that could support life with as many sensors and instruments as possible that could detect "life signs". On the way out of our solar system aim it back toward earth periodically and find out how far out it can detect the evidence of life here. If it can't find life here then it isn't going to be likely that we can detect life, intelligent or not, elsewhere. If it does continue to find evidence of life here then we will begin to have a gauge of how far out our instruments can find life elsewhere.

I think that unless your probe could carry an Arecibo-sized receiving dish it's not going to tell us much about anyone else's chances of hearing us.

To be exact, the nearest star is Proxima Centauri, at 4.1 pc. Alpha Centauri is at 4.3 pc.
Tullio

---

K2

NASA’s K2 Finds Dead Star Vaporizing a Mini “Planet”

Scientists using NASA’s repurposed Kepler space telescope, known as the K2 mission, have uncovered strong evidence of a tiny, rocky object being torn apart as it spirals around a white dwarf star. This discovery validates a long-held theory that white dwarfs are capable of cannibalizing possible remnant planets that have survived within its solar system.

“We are for the first time witnessing a miniature “planet” ripped apart by intense gravity, being vaporized by starlight and raining rocky material onto its star,” said Andrew Vanderburg, graduate student from at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and lead author of the paper published in Nature.

http://www.nasa.gov/ames/kepler/nasa-k2-finds-dead-star-vaporizing-mini-planet

---

K2

NASA’s K2 Finds Dead Star Vaporizing a Mini “Planet”

Scientists using NASA’s repurposed Kepler space telescope, known as the K2 mission, have uncovered strong evidence of a tiny, rocky object being torn apart as it spirals around a white dwarf star. This discovery validates a long-held theory that white dwarfs are capable of cannibalizing possible remnant planets that have survived within its solar system.

“We are for the first time witnessing a miniature “planet” ripped apart by intense gravity, being vaporized by starlight and raining rocky material onto its star,” said Andrew Vanderburg, graduate student from at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and lead author of the paper published in Nature.

http://www.nasa.gov/ames/kepler/nasa-k2-finds-dead-star-vaporizing-mini-planet

sad...but nature in it's own dominion...

but awesome science! ;)

---

non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU

The disappearance of Alpha Centauri Bb raises questions for planet hunters looking for Earth-sized alien worlds.

It Turns Out the Closest Exoplanet to Us Doesn't Actually Exist

The thing about Alpha Centauri Bb is that there is no Alpha Centauri Bb. Back to the drawing board.


In 2012, astronomers announced a tantalyzing find: the closest exoplanet to our solar system, an Earth-sized world orbiting Alpha Centauri B in a close orbit. As the closest star to the sun, That put a planet in our cosmic backyard just 4.3 light years away, around the closest star system to our own. Except ... there is no Alpha Centauri Bb.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a18003/no-alpha-centauri-b-planet/

---

No, it just states that it "maybe" result were not accurate...maybe it exists in it's form?!

Sci have to come back to drawing table again...
;)

---

non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU

Makes you wonder about the "discovery" of possible big objects dimming a star some 1500 light years away.

Earth-sized worlds are at the very edge of what we can detect at the moment. It's not surprising that some of these results can be ambiguous. The amount of star-dimming that Jovian planets, or even larger objects cause is far more difficult to dismiss.

Makes you wonder about the "discovery" of possible big objects dimming a star some 1500 light years away.

nope...'cause:
1. dimming was seen by a K2 (next Kepler mission), which is IN SPACE
2. it was observed by a radio telescopes on ATA (but was not confirmed)

but hey, an Earth is getting 1y in a 365d...don't know when will a structure/object be dimming a star again?!
;)

---

non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU

A new theory says ginormous worlds may be hidden in the massive spiral patterns that can collect around newborn stars.


Hidden Planets, Ten Times the Size of Jupiter


When a star is born, it is the result of immense pressure on hydrogen atoms until fusion reactions begin. And for many stars, a pancake-shaped glob of gas and dust particles—a feature called a circumstellar disk—ends up hanging around for a few million years after formation.

http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/10/giant-unseen-planets/413308/

---

Found exoplanet GJ 1132b.

'Toasty' exoplanet resembles Earth but for oven-like temperature

Scientists have spotted a new planet that’s both a dead ringer for our own and resides just around the cosmic corner from our part of the galaxy.

The planet’s proximity and uncanny resemblance to Earth make it “arguably the most important planet ever found outside the solar system,” the University of Maryland’s Drake Deming wrote in a commentary accompanying the scientific report about the discovery.

Dubbed GJ 1132b, it is slightly wider and more massive than Earth. Its composition is similar to Earth’s, and it lies only 39 light-years, or 230 trillion miles, away, which isn’t very far compared to the unfathomable spread of the universe. Other Earth-sized planets are more than three times as distant as this one and therefore much harder to get to know.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/11/11/new-planet-resembles-earth/75578542/

---

'Toasty' exoplanet resembles Earth but for oven-like temperature

It does not resemble Earth. It would need to match perhaps a dozen features to resemble Earth.

'Toasty' exoplanet resembles Earth but for oven-like temperature

It does not resemble Earth. It would need to match perhaps a dozen features to resemble Earth.

+1

they probably have sthg like a super-Venus found...
;)

---

non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU

Dubbed V774104.

Scientists Just Spotted The Most Distant Object In Our Solar System
It may lead to the theoretical Planet X.

Astronomers have spotted what they believe is the most distant object in the solar system -- a dwarf planet floating some 9.5 billion miles from the sun.

Dubbed V774104, the object is between 310 miles and 620 miles across -- about half Pluto's size and about three times farther from the sun.

"That's pretty much all we know about it," Scott Sheppard told Space.com. "We don't know its orbit yet because we only just discovered it about two weeks ago."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/v774104-discovered_56467f49e4b06037734928b8?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

---

well, NO...of course it's not!

Planet X doesn't exist...WISE has proved it!

here's a little reading, with articles:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planets_beyond_Neptune
;)

---

non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU

well, NO...of course it's not!

Planet X doesn't exist...WISE has proved it!

here's a little reading, with articles:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planets_beyond_Neptune
;)

Thanks. :)


Planet X, is used to hype an article. They have no idea what they found.

---

well they know what they found...another one of KBO!

but HP is just a "trash yellow papers", so it has a bad headlines... :D

---

non-profit org. Play4Life in Zagreb, Croatia, EU

A Blue, Neptune-Size Exoplanet Around a Red Dwarf Star

called GJ 3470b

A team of astronomers have used the LCOGT network to detect light scattered by tiny particles (called Rayleigh scattering), through the atmosphere of a Neptune-size transiting exoplanet. This suggests a blue sky on this world which is only 100 light years away from us. The result was published in the Astrophysical Journal on November 20 (and is available on ArXiV).

http://www.astrobio.net/topic/deep-space/new-planets/a-blue-neptune-size-exoplanet-around-a-red-dwarf-star/

---

Survey Says:

Missing Water Mystery Solved in Comprehensive Survey of Exoplanets

A survey of 10 hot, Jupiter-sized exoplanets conducted with NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes has led a team to solve a long-standing mystery -- why some of these worlds seem to have less water than expected. The findings offer new insights into the wide range of planetary atmospheres in our galaxy and how planets are assembled.

Of the nearly 2,000 planets confirmed to be orbiting other stars, a subset are gaseous planets with characteristics similar to those of Jupiter but orbit very close to their stars, making them blistering hot.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/missing-water-mystery-solved-in-comprehensive-survey-of-exoplanets

---