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Astronomers find new planet capable of supporting life
Astronomers have discovered their “holy grail” – a planet capable of supporting life outside our solar system. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/9230801/Astronomers-find-new-planet-capable-of-supporting-life.html
I spotted this hilarity in The (UK) Telegraph.
“Astronomers have discovered their “Holy Grail!”
They have finally located a planet capable of sustaining life!
The only problem is…we’re just now allowed to see it?!
This is exactly what the evolutionist hucksters do to promote evolution propaganda. “WE’VE GOT PROOF! WE’VE GOT PROOF!!!” (“but you can’t see it.”)
They make wild claims about discovering evidence and instead of showing the evidence, they display a drawing not tied to reality in any way.
They tell us that Astronomers have found a planet outside of our solar system that can sustain life, and all I got was this lousy Milky Way photo.
Why not show us the planet? Could it be because they have not located it yet?
How in the universe can you claim to have found a planet whose atmosphere can sustain life if you haven’t even gotten close enough to it to snap a picture of it?!
Call me skeptical, but I’d bet you’d have to actually have found a planet before you can speculate on it’s life sustainability!
Across the Fruited Plain 
Adam Benton wrote:
It is correct you can’t see it, it’s too far away. However, you can detect it.
Planets have mass and thus exert a gravitational influence on nearby objects, including their stars. Earth, for example, alters the radial velocity of the sun by ~0.08 meters. This influence can alter the behaviour of the star and so by observing the star you can see if it has something in orbit.
The strength of the influence can reveal information on the cause of it. That is how this planet was found.
For more information on the actual discovery itself, you can read the paper here
Click to access 1202.0446v1.pdf
I believe it’s open access, so you should have no trouble checking it out.
Thank you, Adam!
That is good and valid information regarding how a far away planet may be detected and I look forward to reading this tonight.
I hope it addresses how the same methods used to determine an unseen planet could “prove” that a planet can sustain earth life.
Adam Benton wrote:
Well this work doesn’t prove the planet can say life and if you read the discovery you’ll note at no point do they say it can. The important thing about this planet is that is was in the habitable zone of the star and of a size that could support liquid water under the right conditions.
Thus it is far from being proven from being life-capable, but the possibility is certainly there. Of course, whilst the scientists involved are careful about these claims, the press are a bit more liberal with their description.
It is correct you can’t see it, it’s too far away. However, you can detect it.
Planets have mass and thus exert a gravitational influence on nearby objects, including their stars. Earth, for example, alters the radial velocity of the sun by ~0.08 meters. This influence can alter the behaviour of the star and so by observing the star you can see if it has something in orbit.
The strength of the influence can reveal information on the cause of it. That is how this planet was found.
For more information on the actual discovery itself, you can read the paper here
Click to access 1202.0446v1.pdf
I believe it’s open access, so you should have no trouble checking it out.
http://xkcd.com/1071/large/