Billions of Earths
Posted on February 16th, 2009 by Tariq Nelson
Scientists say there could be billions of earth-like planets in our galaxy alone
Dr Boss estimates that Nasa’s Kepler mission, due for launch in March, should begin finding some of these Earth-like planets within the next few years.
Recent work at Edinburgh University tried to quantify how many intelligent civilisations might be out there. The research suggested there could be thousands of them.
Filed under: Science
The Qur’an says there are seven earths–not billions of them. The scientists say what they say, but as often as not, they are guessing and building theories very on erroneous assumptions.
@ Swathmoor
there are 8 planets just in THIS solar system and hundreds of other planets have already been discovered. I suppose you also believe the earth is flat and that the sun sets in a muddy pool as well? You can’t be literal dude
JMc
SwarthMoor didnt say there are only seven planets, which would be absurd, he said there are seven EARTHS…which I’m guessing he is basing on the verse in Qur’an. Now I’m not agreeing with him nor am I disagreeing with him, just stating that you overlooked what he actually said in your hasteness.
The only EARTH like planet that has been discovered or known until now is ours. I hope we find more earths that would be amazing! (that’s my sci-fi geekiness part)
-MT
Is earth not a planet? I’d be interested in knowing what exactly he meant by ‘earths’. The scientists meant earth-like planets. Seeing as how there are billions of planets in our galaxy alone, it is pretty reasonable to assume many of them can sustain life. I don’t see why this is a religious dogma point
We don’t know that there are billions of planets in our galaxy alone, It is a reasonable inference on the evidence. The scientists , like the muslims, are guessing and building theories on assumptions. However, there are objective bases for the scientists’ assumptions. The only planets we o know about rather than infer are not at all earth-like: they’ve been detected through the effects they have on the gravitational fields of the stars they orbit and are gas-giants like Jupiter. However, the number of those detected and the number of stars like the sun make it reasonable to think there are a great many eath-like planets with life and some with intelligent life. There may be unknown factors greatly reducing the possible number, however. One example is the possible importance of a large moon, which may be very rare indeed. The earth’s moon is much larger than any other in the solar system absolutely and in propoortion to the size of the planet. It’s been suggested that without the moon the earth would have a very hot heavy atmosphere like Venus, inimical to life. We just on’t know how important that factor may be and how common such moons are. Even if they’re very rare, however, statistically that means there’d still be a large nuber numerically.
Actually, the largest moon in the Solar System (in absolute terms) is Jupiter’s moon Ganymede. It is bigger than Mercury and almost as big as Mars.
Ganymede is followed by Titan (Saturn), Callisto (Jupiter), and Io (Jupiter). Earth’s moon is 5th largest
Apologies for my carelessness- always check your facts. However, my main point stands: we don’t know what all the significant factors are so any claims must be very tentatively put forwar.
The planet Earth is a part of the solar system. In this system there are nine major planets with fifty-four satellites, and an uncounted number of asteroids all revolving around a single star called “Sun”, a middle-sized star compared with others in the universe. Earth is the third planet from the sun.
Let us first try to understand the size of this system. The diameter of the sun is 103 times that of the earth. To visualize this, the planet Earth has diameter of 12,200 kms. If we scaled that down to the dimensions of a glass ball, the sun would be about the size of soccer ball. But the interesting thing is the distance between the two. Keeping to the same scale, the two balls should be 280 meters apart. Some of the objects representing the outer planets would have to be set several kilometers away.
Big though this might seem, the solar system is a quite miniscule in size compared with the Milky Way, the galaxy in which it is located. There are over 250 billion stars in the Milky Way–some similar to the sun, others bigger, others smaller. The star nearest to the sun is Alpha Centauri. If we wanted to add Alpha Centauri in our model system, it would have to be located 78,000 kilometers away.
That’s too big for almost anyone to grasp, so let’s reduce the scale. We’ll assume the earth to be as big as a dust-particle. That would make the sun as big as a walnut about three meters from the earth. On this scale, Alpha Centauri would have to be located 640 kilometers from the sun.
The Milky Way consists of about 250 billion stars with similarly mind-boggling distances between them. The sun is located closer to the edge of this spiral-shaped galaxy than it is to the justify.
Even the Milky Way is dwarfed by the vast size of the whole universe. It is just one of many galaxies–nearly 300 billion of them according to recent calculations. And the distances between galaxies are millions of times greater than that between the sun and Alpha Centauri.
George Greenstein, in The Symbiotic Universe, comments on this unimaginable vastness:
“ Had the stars been somewhat closer, astrophysics would not have been so very
different. The fundamental physical processes occurring within stars, nebulas, and the like would have proceeded unchanged. The appearance of our galaxy as seen from some far-distant vantage point would have been the same. About the only difference would have been the view of the night time sky from the grass on which I lie, which would have been yet richer with stars. And oh, yes-one more small change: There would have been no me to do the viewing…All that waster space! On the other hand, in this very waste lies our safety”.
Greenstein also explains the reason for this. In his view, the huge distances in space makes it possible for certain physical variables to be arranged so as to be exactly suitable for human life. He also notes the importance of this huge space in allowing Earth to exist while minimizing the risk of collision with other stars.
In short, the distribution of celestial bodies in space is exactly what it must be for human life to exist on our planet. These huge spaces are the outcome of an intentional design for a purpose and not a result of coincidence.