{"id":6239,"date":"2014-12-13T13:28:58","date_gmt":"2014-12-13T20:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/BigJimIndustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=6239"},"modified":"2014-12-28T13:32:00","modified_gmt":"2014-12-28T20:32:00","slug":"theyre-out-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2014\/12\/13\/theyre-out-there\/","title":{"rendered":"They’re Out There"},"content":{"rendered":"

from DISCOVERY<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Are Habitable Binary Planets Possible?<\/h1>\n

BY\u00a0<\/span>IAN O’NEILL<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As we seek out planets orbiting stars inside their habitable zones, astronomical techniques are becoming so sophisticated that, one day, we may be able to probe the atmosphere of a distant exo-Earth \u2014 i.e. a rocky exoplanet possessing liquid water on its surface with potential biosignatures in its atmosphere.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s take this idea one step further.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one thing we are beginning to realize with exoplanetary studies, it\u2019s that there is a huge variety of alien worlds out there and, of the billions of stars in our galaxy, just about every conceivable configuration of exoplanet size and orbit should be possible.<\/p>\n

PHOTOS: How Aliens Can Find Us (and Vice Versa)<\/a><\/p>\n

In a new study presented at the American Astronomical Society\u2019s Division for Planetary Sciences meeting in Tucson, Ariz., earlier this month, researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) discussed the possibility of habitable\u00a0binary<\/i>\u00a0planets; a configuration that, if the conditions are right, life could take root on both bodies orbiting inside the habitable zone of their star.<\/p>\n

Probably the most familiar example of what could be considered to be a binary planet is that of the Pluto-Charon system. Although Charon is officially recognized as the biggest moon of Pluto and\u00a0not<\/i>\u00a0a binary partner, in a recent Discovery News article\u00a0I argued the case for making dwarf planet Pluto and satellite Charon a binary planet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[ click to continue reading at DISCOVERY.com<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from DISCOVERY Are Habitable Binary Planets Possible? BY\u00a0IAN O’NEILL As we seek out planets orbiting stars inside their habitable zones, astronomical techniques are becoming so sophisticated that, one day, we may be able to probe the atmosphere of a distant exo-Earth \u2014 i.e. a rocky exoplanet possessing liquid water on its surface with potential biosignatures […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}