I visit PlanetQuest regularly. I just came across this simple article now and I have to say it's a fascinating piece:

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/news/houseOfHorrors.cfm

I thought it deserved its own thread.

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"Science is physics and astronomy." -Me
"There is absolutely no law in physics that prevents time travel." -Dr. Michio Kaku

Not all planets? Let's try to view this from a slightly different perspective. Shall we? We are living in a universe that is trying to kill us each and every day in more ways than you and I can possibly imagine.

Does that sound depressing? Well, it is. What can I say?

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“Out yonder there was this huge world, which exists independently of us human beings and which stands before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partially accessible to our inspection and thinking. The contemplation of this world beckoned like a liberation.” - Albert Einstein

My Astronomy Site
My Geology Site

Thanks for sharing, I like the windy planet that is "tidally locked." Sitting in the blazing heat which is causing an incredible wind.

My favorite is probably the last one. "All alone and very, very cold" implies lots of hidden treasure! Haha!

And you're very welcome. :-)

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"Science is physics and astronomy." -Me
"There is absolutely no law in physics that prevents time travel." -Dr. Michio Kaku

The whole exercise seems a bit superfluous when any of our neighbours in the Solar System would kill an unprotected human fast enough. How much deadlier than utterly can one need?

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Science is like sex. Sometimes something useful comes out, but that is not the reason we are doing it.
-- Richard Feynman

How about death by black hole?

Bah the Earth is a pretty sturdy cocoon that has helped us get to where we're at now, there's no use to go paranoid just because by evolutionary processes we now have brains capable of doing so

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The impossible often has a kind of integrity which the merely improbable lacks.

"Not All Planets Are As Friendly As Ours" -- is that supposed to be a surprising revelation?

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Fiction has to be plausible. Reality is under no such constraint.

"If anyone ever tries to kill you you try and kill them right back."

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"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

LOL! Would you guys stop commenting on the title already? It clearly wasn't chosen wisely, but that doesn't mean ignore the entire article and focus on the insignificant title. Or am I wrong?

P.S. I've been a PlanetQuest reader for over a year now and I can confidently say that the people responsible for writing articles there always seem to write their articles with the assumption that whoever will read them knows nothing about space and astronomy. Which, of course, is a good thing.

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"Science is physics and astronomy." -Me
"There is absolutely no law in physics that prevents time travel." -Dr. Michio Kaku

Its a good thing that there are litterally quadrillions of planets in the universe, some of them are bound to be as fortunate as us. Imagine that there may actually be some that are more stable and safer than earth. You have to figure that in a galaxy there are probably relatively few areas safe from supernovas, black holes, GRB's and such. Cooler stars may provide more stable homes than large ones. In anycase theres a lot of room out there.

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"A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again."

Alexander Pope, 1709

I'm not sure its possible to have a planet that is both more stable and suitable for us. It is the dynamic environment of Earth (plus moon) that maintains an environment suitable for us.

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"What you think you thought you saw you did not see." Agent J, MiB - Manhatten Bureau

You know, the best thing about us, humans, is the fact that we are survivors. We can adapt to environmental changes, no matter what. We have done it several times already. We always do.

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"Science is physics and astronomy." -Me
"There is absolutely no law in physics that prevents time travel." -Dr. Michio Kaku

It is just an Halloween article !

Well it turns out that my idea of cooler stars being a great place may be quite wrong.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...nt-aliens.html

Bigger stars are better perhaps?

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"A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again."

Alexander Pope, 1709

The planets in the solar system at least leave a pretty looking corpse to be recovered later.

Most of them, anyway.

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The last time I felt a warm fuzzy feeling, I was informed by my doctor that it was just gas.

Cooler stars are a great place to move to. More longevity.

Well that was precisely what I was driving at however the article points out that larger solar systems have a greater probability of having planets in the habitable zone. Although, how they can be sure of this based on the small sample of extra solar planets is tenuous at best it would seem. The problem is in reading this news release and not having the actual paper at disposal, as we all know how press releases tend to generalize and often leave out essential details to understand the authors conclusions.

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"A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again."

Alexander Pope, 1709