Hi Mike, These are candidate planets, not confirmed planets. It takes longer to confirm planets. Most of them are not habitable. As to some that are in the habitable zone, and I'm only guessing about this, they may orbit closer to their stars. The distance to the habitable zone varies according to how much heat the star puts out, and there are all sorts of differences. But I think most of the stars involved are sun-like, so that doesn't really answer the question. It's a good one and I'll try to find a better answer. Thanks, Joe --- On Thu, 3/17/11, M Wilson <astro_outwest@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: M Wilson <astro_outwest@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Tuesday's SLAS meet To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Thursday, March 17, 2011, 8:45 AM Joe, I'm afraid I missed that meeting. Thaks for your excellent reporting. ALMOST feels like I had attended. If I was there I would have asked the following question: "How can they be sure that any those 1,200 sightings are indeed habitable planets after only 4 months of observation?" He said that to determine if it's a planet there would have to be repeated dimmings of the parent star. If they've found that many repeated dimmings after only 4 months, those 53 "habitable" planets must be extremely close to the star. So close that I would think that they couldn't be in any inhabitable zone.
--- On Wed, 3/16/11, Joe Bauman <josephmbauman@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Joe Bauman <josephmbauman@yahoo.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Tuesday's SLAS meet To: "Utah Astronomy" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 10:14 PM
Hi friends, If you missed last night's fascinating meeting, or if you'd like to review what was said, here's my take!
http://www.deseretnews.com/blog/47/10011639/Nightly-news-astronomy-Examining... Thanks, Joe
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