NASA Has Made A Huge Discovery About Planets Outside Our Solar System

a reply to: jhn7537

Cynical wasn't the word I was thinking..

a reply to: Xcathdra

I actually despise this kind of article.

No offense meant to your good self by this Xcathdra, but articles like this mean absolutely nothing. It is basically saying "Be sure to watch out for the news tomorrow, although, sorry, there is no news today!".

What was the point of it exactly? Those who are going to be interested in the story will pick it up, have newsletter memberships, will spread this information widely through social media. No one who cares will miss it. So why the place holding article!? Drives me totally bananas.

When there is nothing to report, other than the fact that there will be tomorrow, its a better idea to just write a story tomorrow, than write a long nothingy piece of junk today, and that is what Yahoo appear to have done. Just a big, empty, "watch this space".

Underwhelming.

I for one think this is awesome and I will be setting my alarm for 4am to watch it. We live in exciting times where thousands of planets are being discovered, some within the habitable zone of their star. Unfortunately too many libtards here would much rather talk about Trumps ball sack than have anything remotely intelligent to add to this discussion.

originally posted by: PistolPete

Some of the people that will be at the press conference:

Sara Seager "Astronomical Indiana Jones"
Seager developed a parallel version of the Drake equation to estimate the number of habitable planets in the galaxy.[25] Instead of aliens with radio technology, Seager has revised the Drake equation to focus on simply the presence of any alien life detectable from Earth. The equation focuses on the search for planets with biosignature gases, gases produced by life that can accumulate in a planet atmosphere to levels that can be detected with remote space telescopes

Nikole Lewis
Dr. Lewis is an expert in the area of exoplanet atmospheric characterization. Her work focuses on the interplay of dynamical, radiative, and chemical processes (including cloud formation) in exoplanet atmospheres. She has successfully bridged the gap between theory and observation through her pioneering work with Spitzer Space Telescope exoplanet observations and the development of general circulation models for a number of giant exoplanets. Dr. Lewis' work at the Space Telescope Science Institute focuses on enabling transiting exoplanet observations with the James Webb Space Telescope

Michael Gillon
As part of the project TRAPPIST he chief scientist and principal investigator for exoplanets 2 . This project leads to numerous publications as well as the detection of some thirty exoplanets in transit between the end of 2010 and mid 2012 2 . He was the initiator of an international research observing for the first time the thermal emission of a super-Earth : 55 Cancri e 2 , 5 . In 2013 , he was appointed a member of the CHEOPS scientific team . He represents Belgium with his colleague Valérie Van Grootel 6 , 7 .

Hopefully it's the Vulcans, we could use their assistance.

It would appear though, that they've found something in the atmosphere of a large exoplanet that could indicate life.

OK, dunno about the rest of the "wow my pants off" simpleton crowd, but MY interest is peaked AF now. I highly suspect they're going to announce breathable atmosphere chemical signatures discovered.

Guess Tatlurutit island reruns are getting boring by now . Guess NASA needs more funding for a new 'show'. Hadn't they 'invented' a new propulsion system (emDrive) what ever happened to that ?

a reply to: Xcathdra Patiently awaits for the NASA updates.

originally posted by: Kromlech
Underwhelming.

Overwhelmingly underwhelmed by the whelms.

Oh well... Hmmm...

I'm hoping for solid evidence of extraterrestrial life. But my guess would be they are going to announce the discover of an earth like planet in another solar system. Oh hum.

a reply to: dfnj2015
Your hope seems far past the spoon feeding process.
As of now the steps taken actually do seem relevant for the masses as anything associated with your hope brings into question religions, interplanetary shadow govs and or politics and possibly genetics. And an unstable population may go into down spiral if not mentally prepared for such exposure.
Individual bases, who knows...

This is all subjective ofcourse

a reply to: Xcathdra

One day in the not distant future NASA and ESA will announce Sagan's old refrain: "Yes, ETs are out there, (we have identified their stars and even planets) but they can't get here."

Then, after a prescribed time, there will be discussions of what manner of physics (that current conceptions can't recognize) will the ETs be using to eventually come visit us. (That is retro thinking at its finest!)

Then, after another pause (to refresh stunned minds across the planet) they will magically discover that the ETs are here and always have been.

It is not a simple process of uniting other life forms in the galaxy with their advanced technology to human civilization. The step-by-step acknowledgment of other life forms out there is the gradual destroying of the mostly impregnable cocoon we humans accept as our reality. Our self-defined place in the Universe is at stake. Our self-taught reality has scant room for any other perspective, especially, a superior reality in every manner. 'Tis troubling times ahead for humanity and no wonder UFOs have been ignored.

a reply to: TrueBrit

No I get it.. These types of articles bug the snot out of me also however when it comes to this topic I remain optimistic. Even if its not aliens discoveries of this nature are important and help feed the soul so to speak.

I would rather the US spend 600 billion on space science and technology to get off this rock than on the military.

a reply to: Xcathdra

You have my unfettered support in everything you just said.

I literally could not agree more. I just prefer when the only news article is "Look, this is the announcement!" rather than "Good news everyone! Tomorrow, there will be an announcement!".

On the funding issue for NASA, I have to say that people are under some strange misapprehensions when it comes to the budget for that organisation. They always seem to think that it is many hundreds of times, what it actually is. If anything, that speaks to the massive efficiency of NASA, that they can achieve as much as they do, with a budget far smaller than anyone tends to assume that they have at their disposal. It needs to expand in size, relative to the military budget though, you are dead right there.

NASA regularly (at least once a month, sometimes more) holds press conferences to discuss new findings. There is no indication from NASA that this is some HUUGGGE announcement about finding life elsewhere; that is just speculation. These regular press conferences are held as a way for HASA (a public agency) to announce their scientific findings and data to the public.

While the announcement may not be history-making news, Scientists and laymen interested in science and learning about nature find these press conferences interesting. However, it seems many people are not that interested in learning about the universe around them, and are underwhelmed by anything announcement that isn't about finding life or contacting aliens.

Going by some of the responses on ATS every time NASA holds one of these press conferences, I'd say that many of those people who are uninterested in learning about nature and our universe are right here an ATS.

So it's more likely that this press conference will NOT be huge history-changing news, but I (for one) usually find this sort of scientific research highly interesting, even if some other people feel underwhelmed unless it's about finding ET....

...Then again, who knows -- maybe this press conference IS the announcement that they found ET (but I doubt it).

So... NASA has announced that they have an announcement?

Then....


NASA announces that it's really dark in space!



Man I'm tired of reading those.

originally posted by: projectvxn
NASA has, in recent years, hyped up a lot of things that are now commonplace. Like the discovery of exoplanets. Not to lessen the impact of discovering other worlds, but hype is unnecessary and turns people off when commonplace discoveries are announced via hyped up press conferences.

Like the discovery of water on Mars. By the time they had made the announcement many publicly made observations had already confirmed the presence of water on Mars.

In fairness, is it NASA doing the hyping? They didn't mention alien life anywhere in their title, it's the editorial in the link that is posing that question.

originally posted by: StallionDuck
So... NASA has announced that they have an announcement?

Then....


NASA announces that it's really dark in space!


Man I'm tired of reading those.

So you don't think NASA should hold these occasional press conferences (which they hold on a semi-regular basis) to explain the scientific research they are doing and the scientific findings that comes out of that research?

Would you rather have NASA just quietly publish their findings in a journal without having the general public get easy access to the info -- both through the live stream of the press conference and through questions asked by the media in attendance?

originally posted by: StallionDuck
So... NASA has announced that they have an announcement?

Then....


NASA announces that it's really dark in space!



Man I'm tired of reading those.

Dude, it is all part of the PR package to prepare you to not get so excited once they release something truly earth-shaking. Don't hold your breath, simply understand that you're being sucker-played.

'Course, if you deny ETs anywhere or even the UFOs here, you will probably find yourself running in the streets screaming that "the sky is falling" once the real news does get released and the imperious claims of human superiority are dashed forever.

WHen they and those like them use the term "big news"........ it has a very different meaning than what the unwashed masses consider to be terribly exciting.
You gotta keep in mind that stumbling across a specimen of dual horned scuttlebutt fornicating in their natural habit is enough to send a scientist into an intellectual orgasm.... while the rest of us are ready to swat it with a newspaper to stop our old ladies from freaking out about a bug.

So I am sure it is big news.... and it is probably better than porn to a lot of folks.... meanwhile the rest of us will look and shrug our shoulders

originally posted by: Zimnydran
WHen they and those like them use the term "big news"........ it has a very different meaning than what the unwashed masses consider to be terribly exciting...

...So I am sure it is big news.... and it is probably better than porn to a lot of folks.... meanwhile the rest of us will look and shrug our shoulders

NASA's announcements for scheduling these press conferences do not use the terms "Big News" or "Huge News". In this case (as is usually the case), the phrase "Huge Discovery" was only used by the outside media -- not NASA.

Her is the oinly thing NASA said about it:

NASA will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 22, to present new findings on planets that orbit stars other than our sun, known as exoplanets. The event will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

Details of these findings are embargoed by the journal Nature until 1 p.m.

Limited seating is available in the NASA TV studio for media who would like to attend in person at the agency’s Headquarters at 300 E Street SW in Washington. Media unable to attend in person may ask questions by telephone. To attend in person or participate by phone, media must send an email with their name, affiliation and telephone number to Dwayne Brown at [email protected] by noon Feb. 22.

Media and the public also may ask questions during the briefing on Twitter using the hashtag #askNASA.

The briefing participants are:
·        Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington
·        Michael Gillon, astronomer at the University of Liege in Belgium
·        Sean Carey, manager of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at Caltech/IPAC, Pasadena, California
·        Nikole Lewis, astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore
·        Sara Seager, professor of planetary science and physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

A Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) about exoplanets will be held following the briefing at 3 p.m. with scientists available to answer questions in English and Spanish.

Link to NASA Announcement:
NASA to Host News Conference on Discovery Beyond Our Solar System

As usual, there is no place where NASA ever said when scheduling the press conference that this is "Big News" or a "Huge Discovery".