Kepler-10b – The first extrasolar system rocky planet

Follow this link for an interesting article on M class stars. Red dwarfs (M class stars) make 75% of all stars in the galaxy. They produce frequent and powerful flares which would destroy life on any planet orbiting such star. Implications are quite interesting. Original research paper can be found here Eugen

Here are a few links for finding a truly 'habitable' planet: Privileged Planet Principle - Michael Strauss - video http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4318884/ Here is a article speaking of a computer analysis for JUST ONE habitable condition 'accidentally' being meet: Weird Orbits of Neighbors Can Make 'Habitable' Planets Not So Habitable - May 2010 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100524143419.htm Updated reference: Hugh Ross - Evidence For Intelligent Design Is Everywhere (10^-1054) - video http://www.metacafe.com/watch/4347236 Linked from "Appendix C" in Why the Universe Is the Way It Is Probability for occurrence of all 816 parameters ? 10^-1333 dependency factors estimate ? 10^324 longevity requirements estimate ? 10^45 Probability for occurrence of all 816 parameters ? 10^-1054 Maximum possible number of life support bodies in observable universe ? 10^22 Thus, less than 1 chance in 10^1032 exists that even one such life-support body would occur anywhere in the universe without invoking divine miracles. http://www.reasons.org/files/compendium/compendium_part3.pdf And of course this: The Privileged Planet - video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV5zkifLSbc Privileged Planet - Observability Correlation - Gonzalez and Richards - video http://www.metacafe.com/watch/5424431 The very conditions that make Earth hospitable to intelligent life also make it well suited to viewing and analyzing the universe as a whole. - Jay Richards But of course even if by some fantastic fluke of chance another planet was found in the universe that was truly 'habitable', that only produces a necessary condition for life and certainly does not produce the 'sufficient' condition to guarantee life will 'emerge', Professor Harold Morowitz shows the Origin of Life 'problem' escalates dramatically over the 1 in 10^40,000 figure when working from a thermodynamic perspective,: "The probability for the chance of formation of the smallest, simplest form of living organism known is 1 in 10^340,000,000. This number is 10 to the 340 millionth power! The size of this figure is truly staggering since there is only supposed to be approximately 10^80 (10 to the 80th power) electrons in the whole universe!" (Professor Harold Morowitz, Energy Flow In Biology pg. 99, Biophysicist of George Mason University) Dr. Don Johnson lays out some of the probabilities for life in this following video: Probabilities Of Life - Don Johnson PhD. - 38 minute mark of video a typical functional protein - 1 part in 10^175 the required enzymes for life - 1 part in 10^40,000 a living self replicating cell - 1 part in 10^340,000,000 http://www.vimeo.com/11706014 Dr. Morowitz did another probability calculation working from the thermodynamic perspective with a already existing cell and came up with this number: DID LIFE START BY CHANCE? Excerpt: Molecular biophysicist, Horold Morowitz (Yale University), calculated the odds of life beginning under natural conditions (spontaneous generation). He calculated, if one were to take the simplest living cell and break every chemical bond within it, the odds that the cell would reassemble under ideal natural conditions (the best possible chemical environment) would be one chance in 10^100,000,000,000. You will have probably have trouble imagining a number so large, so Hugh Ross provides us with the following example. If all the matter in the Universe was converted into building blocks of life, and if assembly of these building blocks were attempted once a microsecond for the entire age of the universe. Then instead of the odds being 1 in 10^100,000,000,000, they would be 1 in 10^99,999,999,916 (also of note: 1 with 100 billion zeros following would fill approx. 20,000 encyclopedias) http://members.tripod.com/~Black_J/chance.html bornagain77

Bantay: thanks for comments. "Which is it? Too close to its sun to sustain life, or habitable?" It is too close to its sun to sustain life, and it is not habitable. I agree that there are many many characteristics that make Earth a habitable planet. An editorial in the current issue of Nature is concerned about the hype surrounding the findings of rocky exoplanets, and wants a clearer definition of what characteristics match up to the description: "Earth-like planet". Needless to say, they put the bar fairly low and do not interact with the fine tuning issues. Link is here: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v470/n7332/full/470005a.html David Tyler

"Although the world orbits too close to its sun to sustain life, the finding is a milestone in the quest to find out how common Earth-sized, habitable planets really are." Which is it? Too close to its sun to sustain life, or habitable? The article goes on to say... "with some luck and some innovative new technology, astronomers could be announcing the discovery of a habitable Earth-like exoplanet within a few years" Luck? LUCK?! How much luck? There are presently over 500 finely tuned parameters that must be met to a near miraculous precision in order for even simple life to exist on any planet other than earth. And at this time, there is no positive evidence that life has to exist in environments that it can exist. I don't know about you folks, but I'm not going to even begin to make assumptions until at least 450 finely tuned parameters are met on an exoplanet. Any less, and it's just another rock. Bantay

"Although the world orbits too close to its sun to sustain life, the finding is a milestone in the quest to find out how common Earth-sized, habitable planets really are." Which is it? Too close to its sun to sustain life, or habitable? The article goes on to say... "with some luck and some innovative new technology, astronomers could be announcing the discovery of a habitable Earth-like exoplanet within a few years" How much luck? There are presently over 500 finely tuned parameters that must be met to a near miraculous precision in order for even simple life to exist on any planet other than earth. I don't know about you folks, I'm not going to even begin to Bantay