CASPER
THE FRIENDLY GHOST
Do you think that the new planets that have been recently found can maintain life?
The new planets we are finding around other stars are detected only by way of their gravitational influence on their parent stars. We have no information on what they might actually be like, except that they are there. Because we detect them via their gravity alone, we are only able to find Jupiter-sized or larger planets. Such planets are probably entirely gaseous, like Jupiter, and therefore probably unsuitable for life. Their moons, however, might be a very different story.
UPDATE by Ryan Yamada, October 18, 2005The majority of new planet discoveries are in close orbits to their parent star (usually under 10 days or so). Consequently, most of these planets are well within Mercury's orbit and are very hot. Current searches favor detecting short-period planets around sun-like stars. It will probably take observations around low-mass, dim stars to detect a planet at Earth-like temperatures.
The new planets we are finding around other stars are detected only by way of their gravitational influence on their parent stars. We have no information on what they might actually be like, except that they are there. Because we detect them via their gravity alone, we are only able to find Jupiter-sized or larger planets. Such planets are probably entirely gaseous, like Jupiter, and therefore probably unsuitable for life. Their moons, however, might be a very different story.
UPDATE by Ryan Yamada, October 18, 2005The majority of new planet discoveries are in close orbits to their parent star (usually under 10 days or so). Consequently, most of these planets are well within Mercury's orbit and are very hot. Current searches favor detecting short-period planets around sun-like stars. It will probably take observations around low-mass, dim stars to detect a planet at Earth-like temperatures.