I think that there is other life out there, I mean, why not, I think it's possible. I think that these articles are very interesting. Especially when there is new findings. Keep up the good work.

I think we will explore new worlds and occupy them regardless if the habitable or not. I'm sure we will have that kind of technology before we ever find one suitable to live and breathed on.

I think this is great! I look forward to more results. There is no doubt in my mind you will find many "earth like" planets. I just wish I could be a part of this.

Hi, Mark! Thank You from these fascinating news! Is there life in outerspace? Life- Yes, but intelligens as humans establish it: no. I write these news in Finnish here in Finland. The world of Science is full of wonders just waiting to be seen. You, Mark, are the one who helps us to look deeper.
BestRegards!

It's only a matter of time until we have the technology to find millions of earth like planets. The universe is teeming with life. I think that idea bothers some people because of human natures tendancy to think we are different or somehow special. That we are somehow "Chosen" to be the only life in the universe.

170 extra-solar planets discovered so far... Impressive. Is the new gravitational lensing technique going to eclipse all other methods for detecting such objects - the casual (but interested) reader wants to know more about previous techniques for detecting such objects. In other words, what did the new "lensing" technique replace? Will it be significantly more successful? Can we expect more extra-solar plaentary objects to be discovered as a result of this technique?

Fascinating article - just a few uneducated questions from a novice who stops here frequently (the Nature site not the new extra-solar planet).

who found this planet?Andrzej Udalski (Warsaw University) and Bohdan Paczyński (Princetown University ) from Poland

From what you say about the planet in your article, calling this one an Earth-like planet is a stretch. With all that has to happen for there to be a planet like earth,,, well, good luck finding one.

I find it difficult to believe that in all the universe with billions of stars and probably trillions of planets we are the only lifeforms in existence. Surely there are more! KEEP up the great work, friends.

Dear Sir ,

THIS IS POLISH DISCOVER!!

That's interesting that in this article nobody mentioned Poland, where actualy OGLE project has originated from, although authorities from other countires are being extensively cited.

Congratulations on your findings.It,s great to find other,s world,s.But there is only one Earth, Our,s.God put it there for us.But if you will take a second to think,It,s there life out there ,somewhere in our universe ,In some distance Planet.I don,t think so.We are the only Human,s here in our World.and Universe.But let me tell you something,Spiritualy we are everywhere,including those planets previously Found.That,s why this Massived Universe exsist only for us .The Human Race.

Would be notice to mention these polish astonomers' names, wouldn't be?

Sure we're not alone but the question is: is there live as intellegent as humans or is it micronism life. On this new planet the temperature is more as 200 below zero so we couldn't survive there but is a great step forward for the science.

WELL,for once it could be nice to hear you mention where does the whole method, OGLE and the main sientiststs in charge do comme from ? In case you forgot i`d like to remind you that they come from POLAND ! Do your homework please and don`t mess around with a million other information like who was a secretary ...

http://www.astrouw.edu.pl/~ogle OGLE Homepage in Warsaw, Poland

They should name this planet Krypton.

I've just been reading about this discovery in Poland's biggest daily 'Wyborcza'.

The text claims that two Polish scientist are chiefly to be credited for the discovery, Prof. A. Udalski of Warsaw University and Prof. B.Paczyński of
Princeton University. And the observatory in Chile, where a lot of the crucial data was gathered, is referred to as a 'Polish' observatory.

Is the Polish daily playing up the country's contribution, is Nature plaing it down?

It's really selfish to think that we are the only living species in the whole neverending galaxy(s). If there is life on this new planet? Who will say.. its -220 degrees there if they have it correct but hey.. that is where we have evolution for dont we.

If a similar size/mass world were discovered around a more viable star, allowing it to sustain liquid oceans, could a human comfortably reside there? With 5 or so times the mass of earth, would a human visitor experience a corresponding rise in gravity? If so, would I therefore weigh just over 500kg if I were to go?

nice photo, where does it say artist's rendition?

we are looking at an artists rendition are we not?

Who says that there is no life overthere, because it is -200 C? Perhaps have the critures who live in these cirumstances addpeted.

I think that there is more life not just on earth, as you see how big the universe is than the change that we are the only living creatures is very low.

This is exiting news. I have a few questions.

Between witch distances to a star like oars is life on a planet possible?

What is de maximum and minimum mass of a planet to make humanoid life possible?
The gravitation of a great planet is to much to even stand up, and from a small
planet you will float away.

I know that there are more questions to ask, before you can be certain that humanoid life is possible. But I think I can’t demand much more at the moment.
I look forward to the moment that a planet is found were we can walk around without breathing help.

I hope my English is not to bad.

Reading stuff like this always interesting.
I think there is life somewhere i can't believe that we are just the only one in something that never ends.

Hi all, your friendly reporter here. If you're interested in exactly who made the discovery, and where they live, the list is here:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v439/n7075/abs/nature04441.html

Thought I'd seen this article before.
This was recorded in NASA"s webpage at least three months ago!

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/newplanet-072905-images.html

Peace ~ V
aarbri

Please, visit http://en.naukawpolsce.pl/

There more about the OGLE project and the Polish impact.

Note, that the name of the planet is "OGLE ...".

Best wishes!

We have a great caracteristic in our human been. We can think, we can develop the ideias and change and share experiences. May be the most important to us are the atribute to learn. In fact, our days revail a new kind of disponibility in great part of word, the post-filosofical time, when the people justo not use your own honor inteligent atribute and put be aside the testimony of objects and the aim of our seachs, and many scientists put ahead your own ideia and precepts they have before the testimony. And easily we can change the right conclusion, because the choosen way are in your star wrong. I congratulations these work wherever the people dont explain what one or other think about just for opinion, but just show the world the discoveries and continues to learn each day. I understand, in our days the media age, make stress upon each scientists to have news, but with some colors of creative minds. And for this we need care... thank you...

No, thank you.

*How do you measure a 20,000 light year distance?
*It seems to me that there would be plenty to explore of any of our foreseeable future, a lot closer than 20K light years away.
*Even though , I am a Christian and truly believe in the creation of the cosmos be our all mighty God, I also bebieve that He made other places as ours, maybe not necessarily for beings as we know, but live beings just the same.
Take a real look at the vast different types of beings in this planet of ours. This planet has living beings of many different forms who live in an extreme array of different environments, very extremely different environments, from the super cold to the super hot, from the total wet to the totally dry, from the totally dark to the brightly lit and from the totally hostil atmosphere to the friendly atmosphere we humans are familiar with and the same which we as the supposedly most intelligeent of the species, are polluting with a most ferotious effort.
**For the benefit of our future generations , let us pray to our All Mighty God that he had the foresight to make other systems like ours. As we progress in our quest for continuous change , we will also continue to abuse our God given sustenance for life as we know it and if we continue like this, WE WILL NEED ANOTHER PLANET TO LIVE IN.
Thank you for your work, and please make an effort to give proper recognition to key people where applicable.
Sincerely Alberto Hernandez

I think there must be certain kind of creatures on the outside planet, despite the crude enviroment scientists cited , maybe those extrasolar creatures could have the super power which may rather noermal in their eyes to adapt to the impossibe suvival planet to us---human beings living on the earth.

This is not the first time that i read about OGLE and planet discovery in the Nature and all professors, phd and blabla are mentioned except prof. Udalski or Paczynski. Why because they are not british or americans????

Hi, boy reporter Peplow here again - have just finished writing today's story, about fuels made from plants (you can read that one on http://www.nature.com/news at 2pm EST), so thought I'd answer a couple of the questions asked above.

Firstly, one person wrote: >>Thought I'd seen this article before.
This was recorded in NASA"s webpage at least three months ago!

'Fraid not. NASA's story was about 2003 UB313. It's a planet, yes, but it's in our Solar System. That's about 28,000 light years away from the one I wrote about yesterday.

and secondly, someone asked:Between witch distances to a star like ours is life on a planet possible?

That range of optimum distances is called the 'Habitable Zone'. For an intro, have a look at: http://www.pbs.org/lifebeyondearth/alone/habitable.html

and as always its worth a cautious look at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitable_zone

This is oh so cool! :)
My fav shows as a child were related to outer space. I'll pass this on
to my friendlings.

I'm sorry, maybe I just havn't read the article carfully enough, but in what way is this planet similar to Earth? Hardly in terms of temperature or mass, right?

So many dumb people!

Anyway, this is more than likely a prelude to what will be many more discoveries and soon a planet similar in all phases to Earth. Also, what about life before its star went red? Could be! Some other civilization may be saying the same about earth one day.

Earth-like is only used so that the researchers can get more grant money. Funny that people can believe in aliens with 0 proof of their existance. Is that Santa Claus on the picture of the planet and what the heck is he doing to the Easter bunny?

I was reading her in Washingtin about this story in many media outlets. Read that thre French are claiming the success, but from what I understood that project was led by the Warsaw University team, with the Polish telescope based in Chile. Who actually played the lead role ?

I was reading her in Washingtin about this story in many media outlets. Read that thre French are claiming the success, but from what I understood that project was led by the Warsaw University team, with the Polish telescope based in Chile. Who actually played the lead role ?

If the star is close to the galactic centre (10 kpc) and its spectral type is K or M (M = 7-9) then its apparent magnitude would be 22-24, wouldnt it?

What kind of observations were made?
(Obviously lightcurves)

How were they interpreted?

What about error calculus?

Congratulations to all the people in the team that discovered this planet. At this rate of planet discoveries maybe I will be present to witness the discovery of a high-probability-of-life-inside planet.

Very interesting topic. If anyone has more information and links for an amateur astronomer like me I would be gratefull.

It seems to me that this article would be more credible, if it actually gave credit to those wo deserve it the most - Polish scientists maybe ?!
What is at stake here for not mentioning them - too much self-induced pride to swallow ? We are all humans and discovery of another, perhaps lifeless, planet should not invoke such low emotions. I subscribe to Nature for years now and have never felt that it can be so mischievous in his credit giving ability. Please, make it right.

Concerned Reader/Subscriber

It's great to see so many excited people interested in space exploration talking about the possibility of life on other worlds. I do feel however that it is only a possibility and that there may also not be life out there at all. From all that is known about life and the chemistry of life, the fact that it exists here is not proof that it exists any where else. I think that the idea, that we may indeed be truely alone, could help us respect the life on our own planet a little more. That being said I'm all for life out there. The possibility is riviting.

Some one post this earlier in this blog:

>>And the observatory in Chile, where a lot of the crucial data was gathered, is referred to as a 'Polish' observatory.>>

I can assure you that the observatory used in Chile is called the Danish 1.54 Telescope and is a Danish national facility. I am working just a few meters away from it right now.

Best Regards,
Ignacio Toledo

I strongly doubt that an earthlike planet is indeed found just outside our solarsystem. To find a simmilar earth-like planet requires a different aproach. Not the mass is the predominant condition to search an earth-like planet. Our solar system lies at the precise location within the centre point of gravity of our (there are numerous milky ways trhoughout the entire cosmos) milky-way. The inner central gravitational core of our milkyway slowly rotates clockwise (planets, stars etc. can rotate clockwise or counterclockwise depending upon their position in relation of their central gravety-pull from nearby star- or solarsystems)and pulls our own solarsystem very-very slowly towards this central core which exists out of an extremely slowly time-delaying imploding massive star which energyboost generates enough heat and energyradiation to bind every galactic body in the near vicinity of our milkyway in a spiral gravity pull. The closer to this central core, the slower time elapses. Within this central core there is a zero-time lapse because of the imploding gravity pull. This is not a black hole, it can be compared with nuclear fusion (nuclear implosion while the mass-energy- radius remains constant: the central core of our milkyway too remains constant, while pulling the surrounding matter and anti-matter towards this core increasing the density of our milkyway. This proces occurs with an extreme slow speed... hardly measurable) instead of nuclear splitting (when it explodes). Because of the position of this so-called earth-like planet closer to this core, time stretches on and in close vicinity of this planet. That in itself not necessarily excludes life-thriving conditions, but it does have its effect on these life-conditions. Just like when skin is stretched too much, time-stretching can cause breaches: living organisms are simply incompatible with the time-stretching cosmic law. Although they may exist, they are incapable of becoming alive. Existence and life complement eachother, but they need not coincide simultaneously. Then as far as the external and internal conditions to make life possible and to make a planet inhabitable for these living organisms are:
internal> atmosphere (nitrogen atmospheres make life impossible for instance),moisture (not necessarily H20), light/dark (necessary for biological clock: without light, life is impossible: light=energy), warmth (climatological conditions: not too hot, not too cold) which means a nearby star (expanding energysource) or a nearby sun (contracting energysource), and a few other conditions necessary for a livable planet. Mass and density are of minor importance for these conditions only determin the forms and species of life. Those lifeforms can adjust themselves to gravitational circumstances and pressure-conditions (other lifeforms then we know on earth that is).
external> position orbit around its star or sun (too close: danger of being pulled in by the gravitational rotation of this star/sun....too far off: not enough warmth and energy of this star/sun), timespeed (slow/delayed or fast/speeding up), hostile environment in which this 'habital' planet is situated: regular impact of nearby or visiting asteroids, clashes with other nearby planets or moons which deviate from their trajectory-orbit by cause of astrological events etc. etc.

These internal (incomplete)and external conditions (incomplete) determine wether there is life possible on a certain planet. Knowing the conditions of this newly-found sisterlike 'earthplanet'I therefore strongly doubt that it could contain life. Only with the complete and harmoneously interacting internal and external conditions, life on other planets outside our own solarsystem is indeed possible. Somewhere in the vast pulsating cosmos these conditions could coincide just like on our homeplanet Earth. The cosmos is ever expanding and ever contracting. That is the cosmic pulse or heartbeat from out of which new stars are born, then become suns, end end as a solid planet or when the conditions are flawed, they implode and become super-nova's thus ending their lifespan but creating an entirely new-born galactic system.

The vastness and immensity of the entire cosmos is unmeasurable and awesome: we can wonder over its might, but can we comprehend its contents, or know its structure? I myself remain a wondering individual who seeks all the answers of the hidden secrets of our cosmos simply by exploring it.... my way.

Yo!Whatta find.Good work there,guys! :))

(I will write in Prtuguese.)

Parabens a todos os envolvidos neste projecto! As caracteristicas são iguais às do Planeta Terra, mas as temperaturas n permitem um desenvolvimento humano. Com esta tecnica de busca de novos planetas distantes pode ser que descubram um planeta com caracteristicas como o nosso e com as temperaturas semelhantes.

Keep the good work!!

Mário Costa Félix

[for those unfamiliar with the beautiful language of Portuguese, here is what Babelfish has to say on the subject Ed.]:

Parabens to all involved in this projecto! The caracteristicas are equal to the ones of the Planet Land, but temperatures n allow a human development. With this tecnica of search of new distant planets it can be that they discover a planet with caracteristicas as ours and with the similar temperatures.

[Glad we cleared that up. Ed. ]

In order to get the role of OGLE and the Polish astronomers sorted out: The OGLE team, led by Andrzej Udalski (Warsaw), detected microlensing by the planet's host star on 11 July 2005 and by means of their early-warning system informed the scientific community. This allowed other teams, including PLANET/RoboNet, to obtain data on this event, and the first indication of a planet resulted on 10 August from observations with the Danish 1.54m telescope at ESO LaSilla, forming part of PLANET's network. The news agency Reuters got confused about a wording in the NSF press release and by mistake stated that it was OGLE who first suspected a planet. I got them to correct this, but that news had already spread. However, it is important to note that PLANET/RoboNet would have never been able to detect the planet if OGLE had not previously found the microlensing event OGLE-2005-BLG-390. If you want to dig deeper into the science, you can find more details on http://planet.iap.fr/OB05390.news.html as well as on the OGLE homepage http://ogle.astrouw.edu.pl.

Dr Martin Dominik, University of St Andrews
(Co-leader of PLANET collaboration and member of discovery team)

Posted by: Jeni Shalloe | January 26, 2006 04:38 PM
"This is oh so cool! :)
My fav shows as a child were related to outer space. I'll pass this on
to my friendlings." : )
Posted by: Jeni Shalloe | January 26, 2006 04:38 PM
That is what I posted, not the one underneath my name! I'm telling you this because I typed in my name in aol searchbar and this is what popped up: web results enhanced by Google | page 1 of 1 Nature Newsblog: Found: one Earth-like planet
Posted by: Jeni Shalloe | January 26, 2006 04:38 PM. I'm sorry, maybe I just havn't read the article carfully enough, but in what way is this planet similar ...
http://blogs.nature.com/news/blog/2006/01/found_one_earthlike_planet.html

oh my gosh this is really cool if there is life on this planet i wonder what it is.
I mean if there is water on it there is sure to be some life i mean why cant there be life on it its not immpossible is it?
And it's great to see so many people interested if there is any life i mean it's not every day we find a new planet is it?

will be present to witness the discovery of a high-probability-of-life-inside planet.