ASTRONOMERS FOUND WHERE TO STAND OUTSIDE SOLAR SYSTEM

ASTRONOMERS HAVE DISCOVERED AN EARTH-LIKE
ROCKY PLANET OUTSIDE THE SOLAR SYSTEM: COROT-7b.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Astronomers have finally found a place outside our solar system where there's a firm place to stand. As scientists search the skies for life elsewhere, they have found more than 300 planets outside our solar system. But they all have been gas balls or can't be proven to be solid. Now a team of European astronomers has confirmed the first rocky extrasolar planet. Scientists have long figured that if life begins on a planet, it needs a solid surface to rest on, so finding one elsewhere is a big deal. Four planets in our solar system are rocky: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

The planet is called Corot-7b. It is as close to Earth in size as any other planet found outside our solar system. "We basically live on a rock ourselves," said Artie Hatzes, director of the Thuringer observatory in Germany. "It's just a little too close to its sun", too toasty to sustain life. "It's hot; they're calling it the lava planet," Hatzes said. This is a major discovery in the field of trying to find life elsewhere in the universe, said expert Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution. Now that another rocky planet has been found so close to its own star, it gives scientists more confidence that they'll find more Earth-like planets farther away, where the conditions could be more favorable to life. "The evidence is becoming overwhelming that we live in a crowded universe," Boss said. The find is also being published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there is a great deal of information given about the Vaikuntha planetary systems which are beyond the material universe. Similarly, a great deal of inconceivable information is given in Caitanya-caritāmrita. ... The Vedas inform us that beyond this cosmic manifestation there are extensive planets and the spiritual sky. This material manifestation is regarded as only a small portion of the total creation. The material manifestation includes not only this universe but innumerable others as well, but all the material universes combined comprise only one fraction of the total creation. The majority of the creation is situated in the spiritual sky. In that sky innumerable planets float, and these are called Vaikunthalokas.

Srila A.C. BV Swami Prabhupada:
"The Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Introduction."