Saturday, April 5, 2014

The Launching Pad


26 comments:

  1. Hi Stephen .. it's amazing how much we've found out about our planetary system ... I hope they can fix Kepler ... cheers Hilary

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    1. Hilary, the fixed the Hubble Telescope, but NASA had the Space Shuttle to do that. Not sure what if anything they can do with Kepler.

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  2. So those ten planets exist in the Goldilocks zone?
    When you look at how many planets have been discovered and how few could sustain life, it really brings home what a miracle our earth really is.

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    1. Alex, when these planets were first discovered the experts predicted our universe had to be teaming with intelligent life. But that's not the case as only a few planets so far may be able to support life. So our planet is indeed a miracle,

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  3. I remember Professor Brunovsky, in a lecture many years ago, giving numerical possibilities of intelligent life on other planets and the figures to support this were astronomical so I have always figured that if the probability numbers were so high, there must be some life forms out there. But I still want to know what's outside the universe.

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  4. There really has to be someone out there. When will we hear from them.

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  5. The thing about finding these planets that still amazes me is the distances they are from us. I heard somewhere that the farthest star from Earth (that we can see) is like 13 billion light years away. By the time the light from that star reaches us, it probably dies billions of years ago. There could have been a great civilization living on one its planets (or all of them) that we will never know. Its kind of sad.

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    1. Lee, yours is a comment that could be broken down and expanded into a month's worth of posts. Thanks for stopping by!

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  6. I have been so excited about the planets they're finding. I only wish we were doing more to try to send probes there and/or figure out way to communicate with them. We should be directing radio signals right at them or something.

    Great blog!

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  7. It's wonderful they are finding all these planets, but I'm not sure what good they do us. They are all too far away for us to ever reach. At least not any time soon.

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    1. We just need to discover wormholes and how to keep them from collapsing on travelers and annihilating them into atoms.

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  8. Never heard the term "Goldilocks Zone" used. Our planet is, indeed, a miracle but the statistics seem to be more and more in favor of there being other habitable and inhabited - planets somewhere.

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  9. Sometimes I wonder how many earth-like planets there are, and whether we will ever find one besides ours.

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  10. Our universe is so big, which only serves to confirm my faith in God all the more. No magic or sudden boom could have created this much diversity, uniqueness and extraordinary life, in all its shapes, forms, species, etc. Only an omnipotent God could have pulled this off. All the while, we sit here spending countless hours trying to make sense of it all, and reason it all away without giving Him a second thought. Gotta give credit where it is due, and I give God the credit for this kind of wonderful, awesome and amazing phenomenons.

    MJ, A to Z Challenge Co-Host
    Writing Tips
    Effectively Human
    Lots of Crochet Stitches


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  11. I used the term Goldilocks Zone in a class of 8th graders once. They didn't believe me when I told them it was, in fact, a technical term.

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  12. You are pretty awesome, Stephen. It'd be fun to live inside you're brain for a day. :)

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  13. I never knew any of this, it really makes you feel small!

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  14. Just starting my A to Z visits. This post is fascinating. Thelma www.widowsphere.blogspot.com

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    1. Thanks Thelma for stopping by and great to meet you!

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  15. Pluto will always be a planet to me. Happy AtoZing!
    Barbara
    Life & Faith in Caneyhead

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  16. we are NOT alone! Thanks for co-hosting!

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  17. very cool!!! i am following you hope you will do the same mine is here http://ussminnow1964.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-z-blog-challenge-day-7-f.html

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    1. A reference to Gilligan's Island? Of course I'll follow back!

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  18. Sometimes information like this just goes right over my head. It seems too massive, too much to take in, to actually comprehend. Part of what makes it exciting yet scary at the same time. I wish I could live long enough to actually voyage into space myself and see these other planets...

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