The Harvard-Smithsonian center for astrophysics announced yesterday in a press release that, “Earth-like Planets Are Right Next Door”
This title like many press releases from
the exoplanet community, of which I am a part, is not only misleading but also
spiraled through various media outlets producing a black and white picture from
a vibrant image.
Here are just a few of the headlines
released from the reasonable, given the title of the press release, to the
absurd, making me think that they have not even gone and read what they have
written about. The depressing thing is the FOX News title is not the worst!
New Scientist - Closest Earth-like
planet may be 13 light years away
BBC
science - Exoplanets near red dwarfs suggest another Earth nearer
Huffington
Post - Earth-Like Planet In 'Our Backyard' Could Harbour Advanced Life
Universe
Today - Earthlike Exoplanets Are All Around Us
The Telegraph - Nearest Earth-like planet 'in our own back yard'
The LA Times - Earth-like planets — and aliens? — may be closer than we thought
Associated Press - Closest Earth-like planet 'stroll across park'
FOX News - 4.5 billion 'alien Earths' may populate
Milky Way
To get across the real meaning behind the
press release you have to go to the 8th statement
“Dressing identified 95 planetary candidates orbiting red dwarf stars. This implied that at least 60 percent of such stars have planets smaller than Neptune. However, most weren't quite the right size or temperature to be considered truly Earth-like. Three planetary candidates were both warm and approximately Earth-sized. Statistically, this means that six percent of all red dwarf stars should have an Earth-like planet.”
This sets the definition that they use for
Earth-like as both warm and Earth-sized. The term warm implies that the
temperature is in what we call the Goldilocks zone where liquid water can
condense at the surface of the planet. This definition of the habitable zone,
however, does not imply habitability; as we know from our own solar system both
Venus and Mars are on the edge of our suns habitable zone and whilst there is
still a margin, albeit a very fine one, for life on Mars, we know that Venus
certainly has none. The second term Earth-sized relates to the apparent radius
of the planet, which is measured relative to the known radius of the star. This
is generally accepted to be up to three times the radius of the Earth, as any
larger and it would be considered a Neptune or mini Neptune sized world.
Though as Courtney Dressing the author of
the paper and press release pointed out, ‘You don't need an Earth clone to have
life,’
This is an important point as some of these
worlds will be so close to their star they may be tidally locked, meaning that
one face is always towards the star and the opposite face is always encased in
darkness. This may seem like a truly alien world for life to evolve, but under
the right atmospheric conditions and planetary topography, temperature can be
efficiently redistributed and an Earth-like world can be born, where Earth-like
simply means is rocky and has things living on it.
It is important that we keep looking and keep discovering what weird and wonderful situations the universe can cook up but I fear for the day that we do find a world
that is truly habitable and that there will be no uproar, no discovery party,
and no wonderment, because as far as the public is concerned we would have already
found hundreds and known about their absolute existence for years.
The media deals in black and white, while science is amazing in all its technicolor.
What's next?
The press release from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center of Astrophysics can be found here http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2013/pr201305.html
and Courtney Dressing's paper here http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2013/dressing+charbonneau2013.pdf
IMAGES ARE FROM THE HARVARD-SMITHSONIAN PRESS RELEASE
