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roseembolism) wrote2011-02-02 03:33 pm
(Science) What's Frustrating? THIS is Frustrating!
First though, congratulations to the Kepler mission, because as of now, they have identified multiple Earth-sized planets, and multiple planet systems.
As part of the press release states:
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- NASA's Kepler mission has discovered its first Earth-size planet candidates and its first candidates in the habitable zone, a region where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface. Five of the potential planets are near Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of smaller, cooler stars than our sun.
Candidates require follow-up observations to verify they are actual planets. Kepler also found six confirmed planets orbiting a sun-like star, Kepler-11. This is the largest group of transiting planets orbiting a single star yet discovered outside our solar system.
"In one generation we have gone from extraterrestrial planets being a mainstay of science fiction, to the present, where Kepler has helped turn science fiction into today's reality," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "These discoveries underscore the importance of NASA's science missions, which consistently increase understanding of our place in the cosmos."
The discoveries are part of several hundred new planet candidates identified in new Kepler mission science data, released on Tuesday, Feb. 1. The findings increase the number of planet candidates identified by Kepler to-date to 1,235. Of these, 68 are approximately Earth-size; 288 are super-Earth-size; 662 are Neptune-size; 165 are the size of Jupiter and 19 are larger than Jupiter. Of the 54 new planet candidates found in the habitable zone, five are near Earth-sized. The remaining 49 habitable zone candidates range from super-Earth size -- up to twice the size of Earth -- to larger than Jupiter.
This is tremendous news, and a wonderful scientific discovery, because it shows again that Earth-sized planets (With the potential for Earthlike conditions and life) are fairly common.
It's also frustrating as hell.
Because here we are with Earthlike planets in abundance, and no starships. No prospect for an FTL drive. Hell, not even any prospect for STL starships in my lifetimel
We have a frontier out there, and we're as stuck as fish eying land before legs evolved. *sigh*
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OMG, tell me about it! Where are the space colonies?! Sci-Fi has been telling me for years that we would have space colonies by now. *sad*
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