Most exoplanets, we are told, fall into this size range and it is not yet known if it has a rocky surface, considered important for life. Here’s a roundup of some things we know.
Extraterrestrial life
At New Scientist: We’ll soon find out for sure if aliens are out there
Of course, they’re out there and as long as there’s an Out There, they’ll always be out there.
Researchers: Earth may not be the most life-friendly planet
Their computer model might seem more convincing if a single extraterrestrial life form of any sort had ever been found.
Rob Sheldon: Don’t give up all ET hope due to recent exoplanet disappointment
Sheldon: … in our own solar system, Saturn is far outside the “Goldilocks Zone” yet it has a moon, Enceladus, that is emitting steam jets filled with hydrocarbons. … The danger of being overly-quantitative is not just the overreliance on models, or the higher risk of failure, but rather the real probability that “certainty” blinds one from observing the actual phenomenon.
Bad news about life on rocky alien planets
Kreidberg’s team estimated that the promising planet had temperatures of –273 degrees Celsius on the night side and 767 degrees C on the day side, which implies little or no atmosphere to moderate it.
How many Earth-like planets are there?
Claim: ” Based on their simulations, the researchers estimate that planets very close to Earth in size, from three-quarters to one-and-a-half times the size of earth, with orbital periods ranging from 237 to 500 days, occur around approximately one in four stars.”
Caution! Knowing the universe is a simulation will end it…? Wow, magic.
At least the crackpot cosmologist is mostly scaring himself. The rest of us are wondering whether water bears could survive on the moon. That’s all the “space aliens” we can be sure of.
Rob Sheldon on the chances of the tardigrades (water bears) surviving the recent moon crash
Sheldon: Well, I do think that dormant tardigrades, which could survive for hundreds if not thousands of years in a “freeze-dried” state, can be revived when placed in water. If the spacecraft, Beresheet, had crashed with dormant tardigrades, then most definitely they are scattered about the surface of the Moon, waiting for their resurrection day in water.
Evolutionary biologist: Space babies will be more alien than human
“Eventually,” he recently told Business Insider, “people living in space could evolve to be different enough from people on Earth that we would consider them to be different species.”
Why are scientists “terrified” to do SETI research?
We need more “speculative work”? No, we don’t. It seems as though the enthusiasts don’t understand that people can just lose confidence in a failing program and there is nothing wrong with them on that account.
Claim: ET, if discovered, would change our morality
Funny how all road leads in the same direction, isn’t it? If we don’t find extraterrestrial life, humans are just a cosmic blip. And if we do find extraterrestrial life, humans are just a cosmic blip.
Why SETI is asking the public for help in dealing with ET
At the Royal Society summer exhibition. They are trying to create a legal framework that assumes ET’s existence without evidence.
Do we really need a “plan” for a response to aliens?
If a tenth of the effort were put into cleaning up the corruption around peer review, as for example in: The astonishing rise of junk science, that would be a better use of time than figuring out what to say to the Klingons or Jabba the Hutt when they or theirs finally show up.
University of Maryland: Oumuamua was not an alien spacecraft
“Stick with analogs we know, you advise”? Yes, good idea. It used to be the usual approach among scientists. So why was it suddenly suspended? We are still wondering. Or maybe we know but no one wants to discuss it. See Tales of an invented god .
Why are we still talking about the Oumuamua space alien sighting panic?
Look, these people needed a miracle from outer space and it was great while it lasted. But why is the embarrassing story being kept alive? Won’t another, similar one come along soon?