SETI: Newfound Planet Shatters Distance record

[JWMiddleton]

Found this info on a new plant Planet that is more than three times farther than second most-distant one.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4750766/?GT1=3256

The far-off planet is estimated to be about 1.5 times the mass of Jupiter and presumed to be similarly gaseous. It orbits the star about three times farther than Earth is from the Sun, or 3 astronomical units (AU). Jupiter is 5.2 AU from the Sun. Its presence does not surprise astronomers, but they are thrilled to have developed a new technique that can locate such faraway objects.

 

[TofBnT]

Sweet, now if we can just find a way to go see them.

 

[amdxborg]

Cool Thanx John!

Anybody got a instant teleporter we could borrow...

 

[Smoke]

I like the way we have been turning our attention to the science lately. Thanks for the link, JW.

 

[kamper]

Wow, some smart people who do that work!
JWM, you might have mentioned that the planet was from another star Before reading the article I spent a while trying to figure out how the planet could be 3x farther than any previously discovered and yet have a smaller orbit than Jupiter. (Obviously I'm not the smart astronomer type )

 

[ericlp]

One thing it could do is find more sun / earth like objects so we can focus on them.... beats doing random searches....

 

[Schadenfroh]

lol, when i first read it, i was thinking that they were talking about a planet beyond pluto. BTW, they ever figure out what gravitational force was causing those wierd effects on the outer planets?

 

[networkman]

Originally posted by: ericlp
One thing it could do is find more sun / earth like objects so we can focus on them.... beats doing random searches....

You know, I do hope somebody else in-the-know has thought of that too! Hopefully, the SETI project(or any other similar type) is targeting those star system where we have found some planets of any kind; just because, we've only found gas giants so far, doesn't mean there aren't Earth-type(or life-sustainable) planets in closer orbits too. Consider.. there might be other races out there doing similar research.. they might only detect Jupiter & Saturn in our system and conclude there's no intelligent life in this system. :Q