Friends,
I wrote about Science misrepresenting reality, or truth. And it was interesting to read from a comment that we should expect reporters to sensationalize data. And that does not mean Science lied.
OK.
Now NASA and BBC report that 1 in 5 stars will have an Earth like planet that can host life. HINT: So, do the ‘Scientists’ who originally wrote about all of this hoopla …. read through to the end.
You read, first from BBC, the title telling us, “One in five suns has habitable world.”
But, what they meant was, “they argue that one in five stars like the Sun hosts an Earth-sized world located in the “habitable zone”.”
Still, I have followed ‘exoplanets’ for some time. Don’t you like the name? Sounds like exoskeleton. But, they do not quite mean the same thing.
We have NOT found very many exoplanets …. So, this whole story surprised me.
So, I looked up what the ‘report’ was really supposed to be saying.
And guess what? The scientists at NASA’s JPL reported, “Scientists from University of California, Berkeley, and University of Hawaii, Manoa, have statistically determined that twenty percent of Sun-like stars in our galaxy have Earth-sized planets that could host life. ”
One in five. Really?
I read further into their report,
The team focused on the 42,000 stars that are like the sun or slightly cooler and smaller, and found 603 candidate planets orbiting them. Only 10 of these were Earth-size, that is, one to two times the diameter of Earth and orbiting their star at a distance where they are heated to lukewarm temperatures suitable for life. The team’s definition of habitable is that a planet receives between four times and one-quarter the amount of light that Earth receives from the sun.
10 planets out of 603 candidates out of 42,000 Sun type stars ….
It has been a long time since I got my math degree, but that is nowhere near 1 in 5 ….
Not even close.
And then you read on and find out, THEY NEVER LOOKED AT SUN TYPE STARS ….. seriously. I thought lawyers were bad about ‘Didn’t you read the fine print?’
But, scientists?
So, I go to the University or Hawaii, and what do I read?
I CANNOT MAKE THIS STUFF UP ….
This week it was revealed that scientists have FOUND A SINGLE PLANET. Kepler-78b …. OH BUT IT GETS BETTER.
From Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA):
This planet is a complete mystery,” says astronomer David Latham of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). “We don’t know how it formed or how it got to where it is today. What we do know is that it’s not going to last forever.
And further,
“It couldn’t have formed in place because you can’t form a planet inside a star. It couldn’t have formed further out and migrated inward, because it would have migrated all the way into the star. This planet is an enigma,” explains [Dimitar] Sasselov.
So, what is Science really trying to tell us through all of the sensational claims?
One planet has been found that is a miracle (violates our Laws of Physics and cannot be explained). And that planet CANNOT support life. But, from that data, you and I are supposed to trust them and believe that one in five stars in our galaxy (and maybe the Universe) could support life ….
OK, I know there are UFO hunters, and there are a lot of people who LOVE conspiracy theories, but what happened to the separation between Science and Science Fiction?
Wayne
PS: From the observatory. Two days ago, “Scientists from University of California, Berkeley, and University of Hawaii, Manoa, have statistically determined that twenty percent of Sun-like stars in our galaxy have Earth-sized planets that could host life.”
But, only one week ago, the SAME observatory released this news report, “A team of astronomers has found the first Earth-sized planet outside the solar system that has a rocky composition like that of Earth. This exoplanet, known as Kepler-78b …. ”
PSS: Like I wrote, this is crazy. How can you predict 20% when you have not found one yet ….
luvsiesous 