
NASA to Unveil New Exoplanet Discovery Tomorrow - DonnyV
http://www.space.com/35779-nasa-exoplanet-findings-announcement.html
======
sctb
We've buried this post so that we can discuss the real thing tomorrow.

------
nneonneo
NASA press release about the upcoming press conference:
[https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-host-news-
confere...](https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-host-news-conference-
on-discovery-beyond-our-solar-system)

I find it surprising that the details are embargoed by the journal Nature
until tomorrow. I haven't heard of such an embargo before - anyone know why
this might be? Maybe it's related to Nature publication timing, or waiting
until Nature's own press release is ready?

~~~
ellisv
It's not uncommon for research to be embargoed (there is a whole wikipedia
page on it), that said it's not super common either.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embargo_(academic_publishing)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embargo_\(academic_publishing\))

~~~
nneonneo
Hmm, that page refers to an embargo on the entire paper, not to the
publication or dissemination of crucial findings. I'm not sure it completely
applies.

------
binalpatel
It still blows my mind that we can detect planets orbiting an entirely
different stars. And more so - that these tiny pixels that we can just barely
detect, are full-fledged planets that may have atmospheres, water cycles, and
who knows what else.

~~~
amha
Yeah!!!

The way in which we detect them is so incredible: either by noticing the
periodic slight decrease in light as the exoplanet orbits its star, or by
noticing the periodic slight wobble of the star around it and its expolanet's
joint center of mass. When you think of what a tiny difference we're
measuring, of something so dim and so far away, and the fact that we're able
to actually resolve those things––it's just staggering.

~~~
DanBC
Imagine there's an alien civilisation (very similar to our levels of tech) on
that exoplanet, looking back at us.

Would they be able to detect Earth? How about Jupiter?

~~~
semaphoreP
If they have a 10 meter telescope in space, they may very well have the
technology to see Earth.

------
colordrops
This could be something very interesting. There have already been big
exoplanet discoveries, such as planets in the habitable zone, and those with
water and oxygen, so this announcement should be beyond that. Looking forward
to it.

~~~
jfoutz
Oxygen i think is the missing piece. If that's the announcement, that's
freaking huge. Oxygen is reactive, it does not exist in any sort of quantity
without something regularly replenishing it. It wouldn't be unquestionable
proof, but very very strong evidence for photosynthesis, so, you know. Life.

~~~
colordrops
I believe expolanets with oxygen have already been discovered:

[https://phys.org/news/2016-08-venus-like-exoplanet-oxygen-
at...](https://phys.org/news/2016-08-venus-like-exoplanet-oxygen-atmosphere-
life.html)

~~~
jfoutz
You're right, and they've discovered the replenishment mechanism, "the planet
is flooded with ultraviolet or UV light. UV light breaks apart water molecules
into hydrogen and oxygen" \- so no evidence of life.

 _edit_

Not exactly replenishment, water gets broken up into H and O, some of the H
streams off into space, leaving stray Os floating around. In that case
everything is just slowly boiling away into space.

~~~
greeneggs
My understanding of that article (and the associated preprint [1]) is that
they have _not_ detected oxygen, but are setting up theoretical models and
simulations to account for oxygen that might be detectable in the future.

[1] [https://arxiv.org/abs/1607.03906](https://arxiv.org/abs/1607.03906)

------
bjd2385
This is really cool. One day I'm going to build my own observatory and observe
star light curves and survey for supernovae.

~~~
ianai
I hope that you do exactly that.

~~~
bjd2385
Definitely planning on it!

------
partisan
That website brings my MBP to a crawl. I was sure I would have to do a hard
reboot after Chrome stopped responding for several seconds. For some reason,
they want to know my location, they have popups that don't close, and more ads
than content.

Oh and there was nothing to be learned beyond the headline.

------
ianai
They've discovered fossil fuels on another planet. Oil companies have already
launched oil drilling probes.

~~~
simonh
Because oil tanker starships with crews in cold sleep passing near uninhabited
planets worked out so well in fiction, we just have to try it in practice.

------
eof
An announcement of an announcement. Do we have any examples of announcement of
announcement of announcement?

~~~
maxpblum
The linked news story is exactly that.

~~~
lanewinfield
And in fact, this very post is an announcement of an announcement of an
announcement of an announcement.

------
drzaiusapelord
Wonderful news. Probably more exoplanets being discovered, perhaps more closer
to Earth or Earth-like, and some solid and innovative space science. Cue the
"lame not aliens" crowd who really diminish NASA's amazing achievements for
reasons I can't fathom.

