Birth of a new earth like planet

HumanisticJones
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Birth of a new earth like planet

Planet nursery

Recent article from NASA really caught my eye. Aparently we've spotted a planetary nebula that has formed a ring of dust around a star in a place that's just right... the Goldilocks Zone. Not only that, but spectroscopy on the dust ring has returned that it is made up of the right material to form into a terrestrial planet larger than Mars but smaller than Earth. Somewhere in the next 10 to 100 million years, variables depending, a new terrestrial planet should form that has all the right conditions to hold liquid water, an atmosphere, and a viable solid surface.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/news/spitzer-20071003.html

This is pretty awesome in many regards. For one, we now have another point of reference for earth-like extrasolar planets (in a few million year, it might be quite the happening place). Second, assuming humanity surives the time span, we get to record the formation of a planet very much like our own, giving us vast insight into our own cosmological history. Lastly, the next time a creationist or IDer tries to pull out the whole "fine tuned earth" argument, we have the fact that "the right mix of material at the right distance from the right kind of star for life" is happening elsewhere as we speak.

The Regular Expressions of Humanistic Jones: Where one software Engineer will show the world that God is nothing more than an undefined pointer.


Pathofreason
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Well you know...

You know no matter what they will try to act like this is a conspiracy or lie. They can never accept truth even when it slaps them in the face.

Co-Founder of the Atheist/Freethought website Pathofreason.com

www.pathofreason.com

Check it out


magilum
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It's oddly comforting to

It's oddly comforting to think that so much is still happening out there.


rugerac556
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all it needs now is a sun to grow crops and its golden

and a set of planets to keep to it from crashing into that sun