Star Trek Armada II: Fleet Operations

AN EARTH-LIKE planet which could be covered in rivers, lakes and oceans and may support life has been discovered outside the solar system.

The new world, 20.5 light years away, orbits a region with the right temperature to allow liquid water on its surface.

Scientists believe it is only one-and-a-half times larger and five times more massive than Earth, making it the smallest known extra-solar planet.

But the really exciting discovery is that the planet is in the habitable zone of its parent star, Gliese 581. Also known as the "Goldilocks zone", this is the narrow orbit in which temperatures are not too hot, not too cold, but just right for surface water to exist as a liquid.

The habitable zone varies according to the star's heat output, and Gliese 581 is much smaller and colder than the Sun. So, even though the planet - known only as Gliese 581 C - is 14 times closer to the star than the Earth is to the Sun, it lies in a region where rivers and oceans are possible.

Dr Stephane Udry, from the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland, who led the European astronomers who announced the find yesterday, said: "We have estimated that the mean temperature of this super-Earth lies between zero and 40C, and water would thus be liquid. Its radius should be only 1.5 times the Earth's radius, and models predict the planet should be either rocky - like our Earth - or covered with oceans."

The vast majority of planets already discovered orbiting stars outside the solar system are giant gaseous worlds the size of Jupiter or bigger. Life as we know it could not exist on these.

But the new planet is highly unusual because it is so small, and therefore probably rocky. Given its size and location, it is likely to have an atmosphere. Scientists have also calculated the planet has about double the Earth's gravity. Any creatures living there would, be twice as heavy as they would be on Earth.

The planet, which has a 13-day orbit - or year - was discovered using the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-metre telescope at La Silla in Chile.

Astronomers employed a method of long-distance planet-finding that looks for the "wobble" on a star caused by the gravity of a large object orbiting it.

By measuring the wobble motion, shown as shifts in the star's light spectrum, astronomers are able to calculate a planet's orbit and mass. Gliese 581 C is certain to be a key target for future missions dedicated to the search for extra-terrestrial life.

"Liquid water is critical to life as we know it," Dr Xavier Delfosse, a member of the team from Grenoble University in France, said. "On the 'treasure map' of the Universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X."

COROT, the first space telescope designed to search for Earth-like rocky planets around stars other than the Sun, was launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) last December. By 2020, at least one space telescope should be in orbit with the capability of detecting signs of life on planets light years from Earth.
MAELSTROM IN SPACE

THE Hubble Space Telescope has captured images of the tumultuous central region of the Carina Nebula where a maelstrom of star birth - and death - is taking place.

The image, one of the largest panoramas taken with Hubble's cameras, has been issued to mark the 17th anniversary of its launch.

The 50 light-year-wide view of the nebula shows star birth in a new level of detail. The landscape of the nebula is sculpted by outflowing winds and scorching ultraviolet radiation from the monster stars that inhabit this inferno.

In the process, the stars are shredding surrounding material that is the last vestige of the giant cloud from which they were born.

The nebula contains at least a dozen brilliant stars that are estimated to be at least 50 to 100 times the mass of our Sun.

What if there is a civilisation there?  That would be sooo cool!  We could like abduct them and do all the things people on earth think aliens are doing to them!!

Cool n ow we can destroy this one  :pinch:

Ok then some one has probably already posted but what the heck


the planet has bean there 4 3billion years so what eva life is there has evolved to withstand the gravity
and live under groung due to the fact the BBC sed that it takes 40 years to go around the sun
imagen that 40 years of day light ow the sunburn must be bad whell so the life there can then
be very advaced and genetic engernering can fix the problem of us getting crusht on that planet :D :D :D

Ok then some one has probably already posted but what the heck


the planet has bean there 4 3billion years so what eva life is there has evolved to withstand the gravity
and live under groung due to the fact the BBC sed that it takes 40 years to go around the sun
imagen that 40 years of day light ow the sunburn must be bad whell so the life there can then
be very advaced and genetic engernering can fix the problem of us getting crusht on that planet :D :D :D

Nope Nasa has ben order by Press Bush to spind most of its munny on going back to the moon in sted of reashering space fisics and new ways to keep humans in spase for longer and longer times with out  letting thare bodys tern in  to jello. 

Space in a big place. you can have 100 telescope and still not see every thing the Hubble is still useful.

As scientists expose the myths concerning global warming, the fears of an apocalypse should subside. So rather than legislating in haste and ignorance and repenting at leisure, our government should maintain rational policies, based on science and adaptable to future discoveries.

On the contrary, neither of them truly have any standing.

It's not as if scientists are in agreement over this, and the rest smacks of politics, which is not to be mixed with science in any way. (I'm looking at you, Al Gore...)

It is unfortunate that the video went down.  It presented points much more succinctly and accurately than I could.  Bloody shame.
Well if your point is valid their should be

The FACTS disagree and so do I.

agreement on global warming

Delegates from more than 160 countries met in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997 to draft the agreement that became known as the Kyoto Protocol. That agreement calls for decreases in the emissions of greenhouse gases.
Text above comes from link below.
http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/global_warming_worldbook.html

other sores you can use.

Its not Spaming. Its my pont of vouw

just for a laugh, some Irony
a Global Warming conference in northern U.S.A. was canceled recentley due to-
a blizzard :lol: