Exoplanet News

@sonhouse said
@Liljo
It will be great if we can figure out what the percentage of dud planets like that close one with a surface temperature of 1700 degrees C compared to Earth-like planets, one in a thousand? Even if the odds were like that there should be a half dozen Earth-like planets we already have noted. Maybe Webb scope can figure out the percentage of nice livable planets Vs ones like Jupiter or Venus.

@Ponderable
So that gives us some perspective on the stats, about 5000 exoplanets found and about 25 'earthish like' so that comes out to about 1 in 200, 1/2% ish.
I wonder if that number will hold out when we get to 50,000 exoplanets found.
Interesting, that list shows 4 within 20 odd light years of us. Things will get interesting when James Webb scope comes online.

@sonhouse said
@Ponderable
So that gives us some perspective on the stats, about 5000 exoplanets found and about 25 'earthish like' so that comes out to about 1 in 200, 1/2% ish.
I wonder if that number will hold out when we get to 50,000 exoplanets found.
Interesting, that list shows 4 within 20 odd light years of us. Things will get interesting when James Webb scope comes online.

@ponderable said
If they use it to find exoplantes it surely will fill the list quite rapidly I agree.

And there is also a new mission at the horizon:
https://phys.org/news/2022-05-esa-exoplanet-hunter-plato-space-like.html

@Ponderable
Funny how they say the resolution in terms of one million parts of a circle which means the actual resolution is more than one arc second which is 1,296,000 parts in a circle so why didn't they just say 1.2 arc seconds of res?

@sonhouse said
@Ponderable
Funny how they say the resolution in terms of one million parts of a circle which means the actual resolution is more than one arc second which is 1,296,000 parts in a circle so why didn't they just say 1.2 arc seconds of res?

@Ponderable
So they should be saying the resolution of hubble breaks a circle into 25 million parts I guess.

@ponderable said
@sonhouse

My observation is that science journalists ofetn are insecure what is clear and what needs to be explained...

@soothfast said
It seems relatively easy to give either an elementary or an advanced explanation of a scientific or mathematical concept. The intermediate level is hardest. For instance, there is no shortage of basic and advanced texts on ordinary differential equations, but very few intermediate-level ones.

@Ponderable
Looks like the first target of Webb will be tackling distant asteroids or dwarf planets in our solar system.

now up to 5044...and counting.

There are an additional 9017 NASA candidates that are awaiting verification.

@Liljo
Advances in math algorithms and advances in supercomputers, now up to EXAbyte/second level is also a big key to finding such planets because cosmologists are awash with massive amounts of data given to them by optical and radio telescopes and now they think we can make optical telescopes effectively the size of the whole planet like we can now do with radio telescopes, the signals from radio telescopes thousands of miles apart can be combined with computer analysis to make the effective resolution similar to one the size of the distance, a reflector ten thousand miles wide. Of course that doesn't give the sensitivity of a real radio scope that large but the resolution can be figured out that way.,
Now they think superposition of quantum mechanics can be used in the same way with optical scopes and that would lead to optical scopes separated by thousands of miles to equal the resolution of a mirror that size, and that would lead to not only discovery of exoplanets but the ability to visualize what they look like and get a really good look at atmospheric compositions and the like. Webb can do some of that when it gets running but quantum scopes will change astronomy forever.

@ponderable said
Indeed, there seems to be amgical step in between 😉

I think it was Boltzmann who said, that he developed his theory on statistical thermodynamics on very loose ideas impossible to prove, but from retrospect all fell into place...

@Soothfast
You heard of the astronomer's creed?

If it radiates, measure it. If it doesn't ask it for money🙂

@sonhouse said
@Soothfast
You heard of the astronomer's creed?

If it radiates, measure it. If it doesn't ask it for money🙂