belgium scientists have discovered 3 planets orbiting a sun that they think

You old cynic you.

Are they detecting planets in other galaxies now? The Milky Way being about 100k light years across.

They could crowd source their plans, but that would involve convincing people it's worth further enquiry.

I would doubt it Bongo, these are in our galaxy.

I hope they get the funding for this.

The thinking is water is required for life, if we want to find it, we look at planets with water

I think?

Ofcourse there is water up there , rain and fkcing hail stones been battering down in scotland for the last month

The Star is called Trappist-1 and it`s 40 light years away. Bongo is 100% correct, the Milky Way is 100,000 light years across, so if it was 40 million light years away it would need to be in another Galaxy. Typo by brassneck.

apologies

You were right what you said gerry, "these are in our galaxy", I quote.

40 light years away not 40 million light years as stated by Bongo.

... sorry not Bongo, but brassneck!

ta for that mightmac you have saved me

I was wondering how they could see planets in other galaxies????????????????

I`ve got a telescope that is so strong that when I point it at the church 5 miles away, I can hear the organ playing

BULL - they can't tell you how many moons are around the earth? how many planets in OUR solar system. But they tell you what's on a planet thousands of light years away? GET REAL. Could be anything from Nitrogen to Mercury?

I hope it's intelligent life form they find and not absolute muppets like the ones that frequent the chit chat forum.

Hubble has detected water vapour in planets of other star systems in our galaxy

I think Belgium scientists want money to pursue this.

I think we should spend the money because finding out about our universe is what the Human Race does best.

We are quite good problem solvers as a species

In fact we are so nasty I don't see any other use for us personally.

Animals are saints compared to humans in my opinion.

water vapour? let's see? the most abundant element is hydrogen? so maybe they picked up some oxygen?

Cheers might mac - Trappist-1 is quite close by in relative terms. It has a Wikipedia entry now.
I've read that observing time at the ESO telescope facilities in Chile is expensive so giving these Belgian gentlemen more funding would presumably mean another worthy project gets less time at the lens.
What's really needed then is more facilities like the ESO.

I see you are still not convinced Zorro

It's amazing how far we're advancing. I said to the missus the other day "I know you keep saying it’s not possible, but how long do you think it will be until we are able to fully experience Uranus?"

doantwin2easy


Our detection will get better over time, in would be an incredible result if we discover an earth like planet so relatively near.

We could go there one day. Scientists are developing things like photon drive which give very little acceleration but over time would

reach very high speed. Once there it would still take 40 years for the pictures to get back, but if we not too impatient, we could go there.

My religion as a child was Science Fiction, but I was nowhere near clever enough to be a scientist myself.

It still excites me today.

Zorro, regarding your post of 2002. Water is a chemical compound. Its properties are different to those of its constituent elements. If Hubble detected water vapour on a distant planet it doesn't follow that they also detected hydrogen and oxygen.

*20:02

Lets be honest, scientists could tell us anything and none of us would have the knowledge to know whether it is true or not.
And who cares. If there is life out there let them find us. What a cultural uplift that will be for them. 
Spending billions on this cr4p whilst we have more pressing problems at home.

I would be happier if you substituted "journalists" or "politicians" for "scientists" Akabula.

Spending billions on this cr4p whilst we have more pressing problems at home.

I have heard that argument before,

In my opinion we are never going to solve our problems at home so I would spend it on this, I think it would be more useful

The problem is we have science used to change our World, but I don't think we can ever change ourselves.

In the 19th century there was a view we were becoming more civilised and peaceful, but in the 20th century

we fought two of the worst wars ever WWI and WWII and numerous others. There are smaller wars still going on now.

This on top of possible Climate change problems, an exploding World population, we are still in economic recession

from the Credit Crunch, plenty of other problems, we will always have problems.


I think scientific curiosity about our Universe is healthy, it may even benefit us, I believe we should spend money on it.

The best things about Human Beings is our brains, the worst things about Human Beings is our nature.