Star found with seven possible earth-like planets

Brian G Turner

Brian G Turner

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NASA announces that it has discovered a star with no less than 7 earth-like planets in orbit around it:

Star's seven Earth-sized worlds set record - BBC News

There's got to be a SF story there about what might happen if all seven had developed their own intelligent life, then discovered one another...
 
I'm very excited about this discovery. I hope scientists find evidence of life elsewhere within my lifetime. (y)
 
Thing is, are we stuck in a paradigm where we only consider a Goldilocks zone that is suitable for life that is the same or similar to us?

What if bacterial lifeforms could think, communicate, organise, migrate, or even act with malevolence? What if their Goldilocks zone was far out in the asteroid belt, or on the dark side of a tidally locked moon or planet?

What if they had an ulterior motive, regularly bombarding us with viruses every winter; slowly testing our defences until their final solution was realised?

"Space Flu Monsters From Phobos"

I can see it in lights... :)

Seriously though, it's a mind-blowing discovery. Star Trek had Vulcan and Romulus. Throw in another five planets and it'd be a fair old party.
 
GCJ said:
Thing is, are we stuck in a paradigm where we only consider a Goldilocks zone that is suitable for life that is the same or similar to us?

What if bacterial lifeforms could think, communicate, organise, migrate, or even act with malevolence? What if their Goldilocks zone was far out in the asteroid belt, or on the dark side of a tidally locked moon or planet?

What if they had an ulterior motive, regularly bombarding us with viruses every winter; slowly testing our defences until their final solution was realised?

"Space Flu Monsters From Phobos"

I can see it in lights... :)

Seriously though, it's a mind-blowing discovery. Star Trek had Vulcan and Romulus. Throw in another five planets and it'd be a fair old party.
Click to expand...
This isn't far off of the plot of one of Ken MacLeod's books.

I think the attraction of the Goldilocks zone is that it makes it more likely for the existence of life that we can interact and exchange information with. It may be common for life to exist on the surface of neutron stars, but that won't matter if we have nothing to talk about or exchange.
 
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This is a mind blower. One star, 7 planets in the "habitable zone?" Looks to me like a game changer in the search for life.
 
RX-79G said:
This isn't far off of the plot of one of Ken MacLeod's books.

I think the attraction of the Goldilocks zone is that it makes it more likely for the existence of life that we can interact and exchange information with. It may be common for life to exist on the surface of neutron stars, but that won't matter if we have nothing to talk about or exchange.
Click to expand...

I agree. We can't even figure out dolphin language never mind the musings of a sentient bacteria.

Can you remember the name of that book? I wouldn't mind a read at it if it's decent.
 
GCJ said:
I agree. We can't even figure out dolphin language never mind the musings of a sentient bacteria.

Can you remember the name of that book? I wouldn't mind a read at it if it's decent.
Click to expand...
The asteroid beings are somewhere in the Engines of Light series, which is a follow on to his original Fall Revolution series:
Authors : MacLeod, Ken : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia

I would highly recommend MacLeod. He is a little more subtle than some authors, but there are more similarities to his friend Iain Banks then differences. Very interesting, thoughtful reading.
 
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Before you know it, The real-estate developers will move in and carve up all these worlds into luxury developments. :whistle:
 
RX-79G said:
I think the attraction of the Goldilocks zone is that it makes it more likely for the existence of life that we can interact and exchange information with. It may be common for life to exist on the surface of neutron stars, but that won't matter if we have nothing to talk about or exchange.
Click to expand...

Robert L. Forward wrote a great book on that last with Dragon's Egg.

Parson said:
This is a mind blower. One star, 7 planets in the "habitable zone?" Looks to me like a game changer in the search for life.
Click to expand...

Seven of the planets are considered "earth-like" but "only" three of those are in the "habitable zone" (which really should be renamed to the "potential solar water zone" as it's really just a temperature region that varies on a number of factors and those regions can occur multiple places (moons of giants may be in a "habitable zone") and life may be stranger than we suppose and exist outside the "habitable zone" and, of course, just because it's in the zone doesn't mean it has water, much less life - all kinds of factors can make a "habitable zone" uninhabitable).

This is incredibly interesting and exciting but the planets are likely tidally locked and we don't know if planets can even maintain an atmosphere or water in that state as the sun-side boils and the night-side freezes and, without a good temperature distribution mechanism, that could be disastrous. Not to mention that, with such a weird star and such close orbits there may be fatal magnetic/radiation fields and so on.

I mean, I'm all ready to pack my bags and go :) but just because it's neat and more interesting and promising than most things so far - not because it's a guarantee of habitability or life, though.
 
RX-79G said:
The asteroid beings are somewhere in the Engines of Light series, which is a follow on to his original Fall Revolution series:
Authors : MacLeod, Ken : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia

I would highly recommend MacLeod. He is a little more subtle than some authors, but there are more similarities to his friend Iain Banks then differences. Very interesting, thoughtful reading.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. I'll have a squint in the morning.
 
Wow. Timely. This 1,009-word story is a little lacking in the dramatic/fictional department but it's a superb evocation of the possibilities and tackles some of my concerns. I doubt the system is really like this but - and this is why I love SF - it could be!

"The Terminator" by Laurence Suhner (nature.com)
 
Hm... me being me had a look at the orbital periods of said planets. I'm no expert, but it looks like:
  • planet g has a 3 to 4 orbital resonance with planet f
  • planet f has a 2 to 3 orbital resonance with planet e
  • planet e has a 2 to 3 orbital resonance with planet d
  • planet d has a 5 to 6 orbital resonance with planet c
  • planet c has a 5 to 6 orbital resonance with planet b
With all these resonances knocking around, the planets are likely to have the same face facing the Sun all the time.

This makes the Nature Futures short story referred to by J-Sun above all the accurate as these planets would have Terminators.
 
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Serendipity said:
Hm... me being me had a look at the orbital periods of said planets. I'm no expert, but it looks like:
  • planet g has a 3 to 4 orbital resonance with planet f
  • planet f has a 2 to 3 orbital resonance with planet e
  • planet e has a 2 to 3 orbital resonance with planet d
  • planet d has a 5 to 6 orbital resonance with planet c
  • planet c has a 5 to 6 orbital resonance with planet b
With all these resonances knocking around, the planets are likely to have the same face facing the Sun all the time.

This makes the Nature Futures short story referred to by J-Sun above all the accurate as these planets would have Terminators.
Click to expand...

I just read that short story. Writing in the present tense is a skill I struggle with. To me, it's an entirely different art. It naturally draws one into a situation by its very rudeness. Reading it, I was consumed by everything the author tried to convey.

Tidally locked worlds offer a very different evolutionary situation. The band of life is narrowed from thousands of miles to only a few.

Thought provoking.
 
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