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comment by am_Unition
am_Unition  ·  2633 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: 7 Earth-Size Planets Identified in Orbit Around a Dwarf Star

Don't get too excited. At that distance, there's about one-to-one odds that each planet is tidally locked to the sun, so one side only ever sees day, and the other, night. Maybe there'd be some hospitable areas near the terminator line, but the temperature gradient alone would induce some very stiff winds. And that's if there's an atmosphere, we haven't even broached the problem of a global magnetic field and any solar variability.

Could they harbor life? Maybe, but don't paint these worlds as humanity's next colonization target, that's naive on umpteen different levels.

If any of that's in the press release, sorry.





b_b  ·  2633 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I feel like NASA needs to temper their "WE HAVE THE GREATEST ANNOUNCEMENT IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND TOMORROW AT 2:00PM" kind of press releases. This is exciting, if incremental, work on exoplanet discovery. If they discovered liquid water, or O2/CO2 in the atmosphere of a planet, then make that press release. I'm constantly disappointed by what should be really exciting news, due to their overexuberant hype.

am_Unition  ·  2633 days ago  ·  link  ·  

totally agree, but funding