I wonder if there are some astronomers on another planet wondering if
there is any life in our solar system.

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Earthlike planets may be common: study

Fri Sep 8, 5:45 PM ET

Earthlike planets covered with deep oceans that could harbor life may be
found in as many as a third of solar systems discovered outside of our
own, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

These solar systems feature gas giants known as "Hot Jupiters," which
orbit extremely close to their parent stars -- even closer than Mercury
to our sun, University of Colorado researcher Sean Raymond said.

The close-orbiting gassy planets may help encourage the formations of
smaller, rocky, Earthlike planets, they reported in the journal Science.

"We now think there is a new class of ocean-covered, and possibly
habitable, planets in solar systems unlike our own," Raymond said in a
statement.

The team from Colorado, Penn State University and NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center Maryland ran computer simulations of various types of
solar systems forming.

The gas giants may help rocky planets form close to the suns, and may
help pull in icy bodies that deliver water to the young planets, they
found.

"These gas giants cause quite a ruckus," Raymond said.

Water is key to life as humans define it.

"I think there are definitely habitable planets out there," Raymond
said. "But any life on these planets could be very different from ours.
There are a lot of evolutionary steps in between the formation of such
planets in other systems and the presence of life forms looking back at
us."

As many as 40 percent of the 200 or so known planets around other stars
are Hot Jupiters, the researchers said.


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http://tinyurl.com/oasn6
--
John Hachmann aa #1782

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit

-Voltaire

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