Comments on: Strange New Worlds https://blog.speculist.com/space/strange-new-worlds.html Live to see it. Thu, 16 Dec 2021 08:21:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 By: stephentg https://blog.speculist.com/space/strange-new-worlds.html#comment-5368 stephentg Mon, 04 Oct 2010 09:05:47 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=2204#comment-5368 The best theories for star formation have assumed the existence of exoplanets for decades before the first one was discovered.

]]> By: Phil Bowermaster https://blog.speculist.com/space/strange-new-worlds.html#comment-5363 Phil Bowermaster Sun, 03 Oct 2010 13:02:17 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=2204#comment-5363 >>Before the 1990′s, shouldn’t logically consistent skeptics have classified exoplanets as woo-woo along with other extraordinary claims which lacked extraordinary evidence?

The existence of any particular exoplanet would require extraordinary evidence. But the then (unproved) hypothetical existence such planets in general was part of mainstream astronomy. Based on the evidence — the one star we knew about up close had planets — probability was thought to favor the existence of exoplanets.

]]> By: holyspiritdenier https://blog.speculist.com/space/strange-new-worlds.html#comment-5362 holyspiritdenier Sun, 03 Oct 2010 09:39:14 +0000 http://localhost/specblog/?p=2204#comment-5362 I find it odd that even professional skeptics assumed that exoplanets had to exist, rather like a faith position in religion, well before we had evidence of such things.

Before the 1990′s, shouldn’t logically consistent skeptics have classified exoplanets as woo-woo along with other extraordinary claims which lacked extraordinary evidence? The exoplanet idea certainly has disreputable associations, considering the claims about unobserved exoplanets made by woo-woo like Mormonism, Scientology and UFO cults.

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