World War III: 201 2 ? - Jack Van Impe Ministries

January–February 2011 | Perhaps Today | 21OTHER EARTHS?A NEW ESTIMATERAISES THE ODDS OFFINDING THEM.The Christian Science Monitorreports: “The prospects for findingEarth-sized planets around othersun-like stars in the Milky Wayappear to be improving.A new estimate predicts thatfor every four sun-like stars, oneshould host at least one planet withanywhere from one-half to twiceEarth’s mass.The estimate was amongthe results of a study by aninternational research teamcommissioned by NASA to identifypotential targets for as-yet unbuiltspace telescopes.The study, which will appearin the journal Science, doesn’tdirectly address the Holy Grail forplanet hunters — finding an Earthsizeplanet at a life-sustainingdistance from its host star. Theresearchers’ prediction involvesEarth-size objects in orbits thatwould fall well inside theorbit of Mercury,the inhospitablefirst rock fromthe sun. Theirestimate wasbased on carefulobservationsof stars from avolcano-basedtelescope inHawaii.But if Earthscaleplanetsare present atthe distancethe study’sresearcherspredict, it wouldimply a greater likelihood that suchobjects would be present in moredistantorbits as well — includingwithin a star’s so-called habitablezone, they say.At the least, such close-inobjects would be among the firstEarth-size planets NASA’s Keplermission is expected to detect. TheKepler spacecraft, which waslaunched in March 2009 and trailsEarth in its orbit around the sun,is designed to detect Earth-sizeplanets in ‘life-friendly orbits’around distant stars.If the international researchteam’s prediction holds up, Kepler,in addition to the planets it isalready looking for, would also findas many as 260 of the star-huggingEarths the researchers predict....”(“And great earthquakes shallbe in divers places, and famines,and pestilences; and fearfulsights and great signs shall there