Jun 18 2008Scientists Discover 'Super-Earths' 42-Light Years Away, Regular Earth Gets Depressed

HAHA @ ogle its mountains.

Man thats cool, with the billions of stars there as to be at least 1000's of other planets like ours. Maybe even parallel to ours. So right now someone is writing a comments on a website about the discovery of a puny earth.

but the facts can't be proven.

P.S. FIRST! punk asses!

And my sixth grade science teacher was right! Not about the fierce baby fine comb over he rocked every day. Or that deoderant and toothpaste are optional, but he was right about the possibility of Earths in other galaxies.

HAHAHAHAHA @ Manda, niceeee

Where does Bizarro-Earth figure into this nerdfest? And will they come to our planet looking for ice? Because of that ever happens, I'm buying myself up about 100 My First Sony "Halt Pederast!" Gobots and shoring up my freezer.

i gotta get a job at nasa so i can get some of this glory

pdrunk, I think the Halt Pederast robots are f-ing awesome too!

any chance of us being able to escape to super earth before we blow up this one? if so, i'm jumping ship...er, planet.

A galaxy 42 light-years away is... the same galaxy we're in now.

@Manda - These 'planets' are in our own galaxy, only 42 light years distant.

I am very skeptical of these "discoveries." Considering the technique used to detect these supposed planets, I find the claim to be highly dubious. This "wobble" method is akin to describing the type of cheese on the sandwich your dog is dreaming about based on the way his leg twitches. Now, I'm no astrophysicist (or are I?), but I know that when compared to what there is to be known about the world what we know amounts to precisely dick. In my slightly-less-than-humble opinion, this news is more interesting for the leap of faith represented on the part of the scientists than for the shadowy exoplanets supposedly revealed. I'm not saying there aren't planets out there. I'm just saying that paramecia can't count craters on the moon.

OK, I'm breaking my one word-athon week to say this:

@9, are you actually telling us that scientists are in fact not the know it all's that the Darwinist loving liberals worship?

Further, are you actually putting forth the notion that much of science is nothing more than a "leap of faith" (as you so eloquently put it)?

Why that sounds a lot like....dare I say it? A Christian!

You get my award of the day for bringing up the fact that science has more theory and guessing involved than supporters care to admit. Of course, you have to keep that nasty Bible teaching out of schools! After all, we don't want our kids growing up with direction, moral fiber, respect or love for their fellow man!

They ARE awfully similar in their bullshit, aren't they? Both camps are absolutely terrified by their lack of understanding. Scientists have all got their heads up their own asses, while Christians have all got their heads up the ass of a 2,000 year-old dead guy who never even existed. Let's go pick their pockets while they're at it, want to?

Thanks, I'll put it on the mantlepiece!

Astronomical observations are based on empirical analysis of data, not "leaps of faith." The only "leap of faith" you have to make is when somebody thinks a single object detected at 1sigma defines an entire population, but that's another matter altogether.

Being "highly dubious" of a method of study that you know very little about without researching and completely understanding how measurements are performed is ludicrous. Simply because you have not taken the time to understand the method fully does not make it wrong.

Do you even know how the radial velocity detection method works? Did you bother to read how they made their measurements or how accurate they were? Is this just an elaborate troll by an actual scientist? God only knows.

A proper critique would be to examine the statistical uncertainties in their detections, not to pontificate about things you know nothing about.

As I was reading the headline I wondered, "What does 'despressed' mean?"

@9 & 10

Hehe, I love laughing at the logic of idiots (read Biblethumpers):

"Umm, I can't add or subtract and I can't even read the word astrophysics, but in my expert opinion the methodology of these stupid liberal scientists (who have spent 50 years of their life studying this subject and who I envy for their superior intellect and who I despise for not letting me into their smart peoples club) is highly suspect. Praise Jesus."

Actually, I do know how it works. It's more of a philosophical point I'm making. To come to the conclusion of three "super-Earths" based on the information at hand requires a leap of... something - call it a leap in reasoning if that word reddens your ass a bit less. The readings are what they are. Fine. But what are they? Have we got a transiting planet? That may well be the case, but it's hardly incontrovertible. I know, I know, it wiggled - and it wiggled every so often!!! But for all the direct evidence we've got, it *could* be a giant space monster with a stopwatch making shadow puppets. The reports that I read carried no sense of humility or scientific skepticism. Contrary to what these astronomers (or at least the media) would have us believe, this evidence, while fascinating, does not constitute a big, booming voice from the sky, "PLANET HO!"

Also, I can't tell you how much it pleases me to know that I have in the eyes of another pontificated today.

@14 Ha! A Ph.D in Truthology!

I might have overlooked something very obvious and am consequently going to sound very stupid but isn't it a bit misleading for them to call these "super earths"?
It sounds to me more like they are "super mars'" (what the hell is the plural of mars?) being that they are too hot to support life. If indeed they are solid planets at all...
That aside, it is definately very interesting to know there are potentially alot more planets out there than origionally thaught

^ I probably should have said "super mercurys"...

@13

Psshhh...

It's when you're desperate and depressed at the same time...

It never happened to you?

You're all a bunch of Scientologists!

Holy hell, you all sucked every ounce of fun out of this.

Our poor little Earth...it tries so hard.

THAT'S IT!!

I'm all despressed now!

Thanks to your pseudo-scientific gibbering... I fart in your general direction!