Nearly 500 Extrasolar Planets Found!

I hope so. I have no idea why the UFOs are monitoring us and what are really mortal beings and what are really spiritual beings who took physical form. With the former, it could be maybe they want to see if they can communicate with us or maybe they are scared of us - if we had nuclear energy and would invade them. Most of the time I read those UFO books and magazines at the newsstand or bookstore and did not buy them, because many of the authors were either complete sceptics or someone who just wanted to his name put into lights so it is nice to see about a book that is authentic. It would be nice to read about UFOs from someone other then a religious aspect, except of course regarding the UFOS who are demons in disguise, but I am sure that they would of course do magic tricks and wonders while the ones with actual mortal beings in them would just do ordinary flying and landing. \

Space.com is a good site and I also like Astronomy Picture of the Day because they are very informative. Did you see recently the book that came out,"UFO's: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record"? Pretty cool book as these guys are very reputable and are generals! They have said - on the record - that unexplained events occurred at our nuclear sites during the 60's all the way up to the present times. They say UFO's are monitoring our nuclear sites; for what reason, they have no idea. Scary.

Oh there is that quote about, "Life exists on other planets or it doesn't. Either one is scary to think about." I think that is very true in that either way, life is very mysterious. But maybe that is more so to us because we are alone for now. But if we were ever visited by them, some of that mystery would be unveiled.

Hi Rebecca, I was also something like that. I used to think I will get into a space ship, stock a lot of food and lots of story books, and travel across the space. :) No studies, no getting up early. ha ha.

That is great that you were so interested as a kid in astronomy! There is no reason not to pick it back up and there has never been a better time to do so than the present! Data is literally pouring in from scientists and the best part is that unlike when you were a child and had to actually BUY books to learn, the internet is essentially free and awash in data that hasn't even been printed in books yet! I suggest checking out astronomy pic of the day (a NASA site), space.com and universetoday.com to learn some more about the newest discoveries. You really don't have to be a scientist or nerd to appreciate the information either. All you have to be is curious!

You are correct in saying this is not science fiction but rather fact! I'm just amazed that how close the two are becoming to tell apart! The newest discoveries coming in these days simply blow me away. When I was in high school, we didn't have an astronomy class or club to attend; and there weren't any other planets yet discovered. Now I'm all grown up and feel like a kid again learning about so many wondrous discoveries! I wish I could go back and study to become a real astronomer. Oh well, I'll just have to be content with being an amateur. Thanks for commenting!

You wish! its been almost 40 years since I graduated and there were no girls in the "slide ruler" clubs. Ya know, I was reading a Heinlein book recently and was jarred when he had his teen hero pull out a slide ruler, OBVIOUSLY didn't foresee those electronic calculators coming, huh?

I am not amazed at the fact of the planets existing, only that we are finding them at such a fast rate as compared with the past few years. It is going to be a while before we can actually "see" the surface of an extrasolar planet but it will occur sometime for sure. For that to happen, an extrasolar planet will need to pass directly in front of its parent star in order for us to observe it using its natural light. When that day comes, astronomy will have taken a huge step!

Yes who really knows but there surely must be other lifeforms out there somewhere. My favorite scientist to watch on video is Michio Kaku and he says that if the aliens were say a thousand to a million years older than us as a society, they would probably view us a we do ants. We would probably be of little interest to them but who knows? Maybe they're just watching us out of curiosity or maybe they have yet to visit us at all. But I think for sure that they are out there somewhere.

Surely life does in fact exist on other planets since we are but one planet amongst countless others. Those 500 planets, after all, are only being found because they are the closest ones to us. If we could only see better and farther than current technology allows us to, we would undoubtedly see more than we could ever count or document. Even though scientists think that the universe isn't actually infinite, it might has well be because we are so small on the grand scheme of things that we could never reach the limits of space or visit every planet. So in effect, the universe is infinite! By that same logic, there might as well be an infinite number of possible planets with life on them because we could never greet them all. The real question is how many exist in our galaxy because those are the ones that we could at least hope to meet at least at some point in the future.

Thanks for the link! I will definitely check it out. It is nice to see other people so excited (like me) about space news! I think the mainstream public, for the most part, has gotten so bombarded with amazing news about discoveries these days, that many take for granted the things that are reshaping our way of seeing the universe around us.

You're quite welcome! And I also appreciate knowing other folks into astronomy and space like we are! It really is hard to keep up on all the developments and news in this field these days since there such an overwhelming number of ongoing observations, experiments, data analysis, etc. It's and exciting age to be alive! :-)