Exoplanet News

@Liljo
I would think that analogy would be even bigger than that, I think it would be more like a ping pong ball in Centerburg Ohio Vs the size of the US.

Total of confirmed exoplanets now sits at 5069.

There are currently 8833 NASA candidates to still go through confirmation.

Two more confirmed. New totals:

Confirmed: 5071
Candidates: 8870
Planetary systems: 3799


Breakdown:
1775 Neptune-like
1577 Super Earth
1526 Gas Giant (similar to Jupiter)
188 Terrestrial
5 Unknown

@Liljo
So out of 5000 sightings, about 200 are terrestrial sized, the next question is how many of those 200 are in the goldilocks zone, where liquid water can live? I wonder how many stars have been measured that have ZERO planets around them.
My guess is there would be way less of those than even terrestrial planets since the stars and planets form from a nebula cloud contracting under the force of gravity and it would take a special set of circumstances to have all the proto planets disappear leaving the star planetless. But the ratio of planets total V Terrestrial is clocking in better than 3% which would mean a BUNCH of terrestrial planets total, and of course I would guess 90% of those would be either fried by being too close or covered with dry ice or solid nitrogen if way out or like a Venus if too close.

And the idea of a terrestrial planet in the goldilocks zone has to also take into account, does it have an atmosphere and if so, what kind. Like Venus if it has a sulfuric acid atmosphere, it wouldn't be much of a draw if we ever go interstellar.

My first choice if we ever do get close to c, I would go to Alpha Centauri, three stars for the price of one and less than 5 light years away.

But even that, if we could only go 1/10th c, it would still take about 50 years just to get there and another 50 to get back, not a trip to even contemplate ATT.

So it will take ship going at least 0.5 c and even at that it would take 3.7 years or so for a one way journey.

And at 0.5 c, there would not much help for the travelers to get from the velocity to make the journey faster at least for the crew. At that speed the 4.3 light year distance to the Alpha Centauri triple system would take about 3.7 years or about 7.5 years instead of 8.6 years passing by on Earth. About a 15% savings in time for the travelers. You don't get serious reductions in perceived travel time till you get to say 0.95 c

An interesting article about just what the Webb should be able to resolve concerning exoplanets:

https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/news/1708/exoplanets-what-nasa-will-see-with-the-webb-telescope/

Official confirmed exoplanet count now stands at 5084.

That's 13 new discoveries over the last couple of weeks!

@Liljo
The scope has to wait till a planet crosses between us and its parent star which takes some time, but I guess Webb has optics that allow wide range views and watch a thousand at a time.

New totals:

Confirmed: 5090 (up 6 from last count)
NASA Candidates 8912
Planetary Systems 3816

https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/

Looks like a little inactivity on this thread, but I'm going to add these new, pretty phenomenal totals:

Confirmed: 5171

That is up 81 new exoplanets in just a couple of weeks.

@Liljo
Did you see the direct image of an exoplanet by Webb?

@sonhouse said
@Liljo
Did you see the direct image of an exoplanet by Webb?

Yes I did, 'House.

Humanity has come a L-O-N-G way. Sure would be nice if the entire world would come together like the astronomy community.

@Liljo
Now they are backtracking on the data given by Webb. Not fully calibrated it turns out, won't be for some months ahead, it happens with every huge scope, it's a baby yet.