Waterworld Discovered

[Bromptonboy]

Cool news - nothing to do with Kevin Costner..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17117030

[davekill]

Nice, looks like they found another blue marble.

The thing that confuses me is they say;
"Mr Berta and his colleagues used the Hubble Space Telescope's wide-field camera to study the planet as it crossed in front of its star - a transit. During these transits, the star's light is filtered through the planet's atmosphere, giving clues to the mixture of gases present."

But;
"The exoplanet GJ 1214b, is just 40 light-years away"

Uh... they're not looking at this object in real time.
What is seen happened eons ago.
I'm thinking if this is water-world, then by now there could be a thriving space fairing civilization living there.
Or, buy now it could be a mud-world.

[turtlesrock]

thriving space fairing civilization? =D

[davekill]

Well, maybe not a thriving space fairing civilization due to the whole distance travel by light in one year thing.

But a lot could happen in 40 years eh?