Oldest Stone Spear Tips Found: Came About 200,000 Years Earlier Than Previously Thought

New evidence from a recently-published scientific study indicates that humans started crafting stone-tipped weapons 200,000 years earlier than previously believed.

A team of scientists that included researchers from Arizona State University, the University of Toronto, and the University of Cape Town have uncovered signs of hafting, or the art of attaching a stone tip to a spear, at an archaeological site in South Africa called Kathu Pan 1. Hafting was a significant advancement in human weaponry and hunting since it made spears more lethal and durable.

"There is a reason that modern bow-hunters tip their arrows with razor-sharp edges. These cutting tips are extremely lethal when compared to the effects from a sharpened stick. Early humans learned this fact earlier than previously thought," said co-author of the study Benjamin Schoville, who is affiliated with the Institute of Human Origins, a research center of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University.

Hafting was previously attributed to Homo sapiens and Neanderthals around 300,000 years ago, but the new findings indicate that a shared ancestor between the two, Homo heidelbergensis, was practicing the craft 500,000 years ago.

"Rather than being invented twice, or by one group learning from the other, stone-tipped spear technology was in place much earlier," said Schoville. "Although both Neanderthals and humans used stone-tipped spears, this is the first evidence that this technology originated prior to or near the divergence of these two species."

The dating of the recovered spear points was done by Naomi Porat from the Geological Survey of Israel, and Rainer Grün from the Australian National University.

Source : latinospost.com

The Beginning of Veterans Day

World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” - officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”

Soldiers of the 353rd Infantry near a church at Stenay, Meuse in France, wait for the end of hostilities. This photo was taken at 10:58 a.m., on November 11, 1918, two minutes before the armistice ending World War I went into effect

In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words: "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…"


The original concept for the celebration was for a day observed with parades and public meetings and a brief suspension of business beginning at 11:00 a.m.

The United States Congress officially recognized the end of World War I when it passed a concurrent resolution on June 4, 1926, with these words:

Whereas the 11th of November 1918, marked the cessation of the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals and the resumption by the people of the United States of peaceful relations with other nations, which we hope may never again be severed, and

Whereas it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations; and

Whereas the legislatures of twenty-seven of our States have already declared November 11 to be a legal holiday: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), that the President of the United States is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on November 11 and inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.

An Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U. S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday—a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as "Armistice Day." Armistice Day was primarily a day set aside to honor veterans of World War I, but in 1954, after World War II had required the greatest mobilization of soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen in the Nation’s history; after American forces had fought aggression in Korea, the 83rd Congress, at the urging of the veterans service organizations, amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word "Armistice" and inserting in its place the word "Veterans." With the approval of this legislation (Public Law 380) on June 1, 1954, November 11th became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.

Later that same year, on October 8th, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the first "Veterans Day Proclamation" which stated: "In order to insure proper and widespread observance of this anniversary, all veterans, all veterans' organizations, and the entire citizenry will wish to join hands in the common purpose. Toward this end, I am designating the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs as Chairman of a Veterans Day National Committee, which shall include such other persons as the Chairman may select, and which will coordinate at the national level necessary planning for the observance. I am also requesting the heads of all departments and agencies of the Executive branch of the Government to assist the National Committee in every way possible."

On that same day, President Eisenhower sent a letter to the Honorable Harvey V. Higley, Administrator of Veterans' Affairs (VA), designating him as Chairman of the Veterans Day National Committee.

In 1958, the White House advised VA's General Counsel that the 1954 designation of the VA Administrator as Chairman of the Veterans Day National Committee applied to all subsequent VA Administrators. Since March 1989 when VA was elevated to a cabinet level department, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs has served as the committee's chairman.

The Uniform Holiday Bill (Public Law 90-363 (82 Stat. 250)) was signed on June 28, 1968, and was intended to ensure three-day weekends for Federal employees by celebrating four national holidays on Mondays: Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Columbus Day. It was thought that these extended weekends would encourage travel, recreational and cultural activities and stimulate greater industrial and commercial production. Many states did not agree with this decision and continued to celebrate the holidays on their original dates.

The first Veterans Day under the new law was observed with much confusion on October 25, 1971. It was quite apparent that the commemoration of this day was a matter of historic and patriotic significance to a great number of our citizens, and so on September 20th, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford signed Public Law 94-97 (89 Stat. 479), which returned the annual observance of Veterans Day to its original date of November 11, beginning in 1978. This action supported the desires of the overwhelming majority of state legislatures, all major veterans service organizations and the American people.

Veterans Day continues to be observed on November 11, regardless of what day of the week on which it falls. The restoration of the observance of Veterans Day to November 11 not only preserves the historical significance of the date, but helps focus attention on the important purpose of Veterans Day: A celebration to honor America's veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.

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Bulgarian archaeologists find golden treasures in ancient Thracian tomb

Bulgarian archaeologists have discovered bracelets with snake heads, a tiara with animal motifs and a horse-head piece in a hoard of ancient golden artefacts unearthed during excavations at a Thracian tomb in the north of country.

The artefacts have been dated to the end of the fourth or the beginning of the third century BC. They were found in the biggest of 150 ancient tombs of the Getae people, a Thracian tribe that was in contact with the Hellenistic world. The hoard also yielded a golden ring, 44 female figure depictions and 100 golden buttons.

"These are amazing findings from the apogee of the rule of the Getae," said Diana Gergova, head of the archaeologist team and a researcher of Thracian culture with the Sofia-based National Archaeology Institute. "From what we see up to now, the tomb may be linked with the first known Getic ruler, Cothelas."

The site is at the ancient Getic burial complex near the village of Sveshtari, about 250 miles north-east of Sofia. One of the tombs there, the Tomb of Sveshtari, is included in the Unesco world heritage list for its unique architectural decor showing half-human, half-plant female figures and painted murals.

The Thracians, ruled by a powerful warrior aristocracy wealthy for their gold treasures, inhabited an area extending over modern Romania and Bulgaria, northern Greece and the European part of Turkey from 4000BC.

They lived on the fringes of the Greek and Roman civilisations, often intermingling and clashing with the more advanced cultures until they were absorbed, in about the year 45, into the Roman empire. Archaeologists have discovered a large number of artefacts in Bulgaria's Thracian tombs in recent decades, providing most of what is known of their culture as they had no written language and left no enduring records.


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Methane could be key to life on Mars

The tension as Curiosity rover scientists began their spiel during a news teleconference was palpable. For months of weekly news conferences, reporters had been asking about Curiosity's analyses of atmospheric methane on Mars.

If the rover was finding even one part per billion (ppb) or so of methane, there would be a chance that life -- life on Mars, today -- was producing it.
But no Martians turned up this time.

Christopher Webster of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., the instrument lead for the Tunable Laser Spectrometer, Curiosity's atmospheric analyzer, reported that after four analyses he could say only that, with 95 percent confidence, there is between 0 ppb and 5 ppb of martian methane.

That range of concentrations rules out one possible scenario to explain a methane gush astronomers detected in 2003, according to atmospheric modeler Malynda Chizek of New Mexico State University, Las Cruces. (One more whiff of methane was reported in 2006. Nothing since.)

The 2003 gush could have been a once-in-a-century release involving life . . . or not. Or methane on Mars may be down at the few-hundred-parts-per-trillion level, and neither life nor methane-belching volcanoes have anything to do with it.

Curiosity should still be able to settle everyone's questions about methane on Mars. Webster is hoping that concentrating the methane in future Curiosity samples will allow the detection of concentrations as low as 100 parts per trillion. It will just take time, he said, weeks or months of time. Patience.

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Study: Looking old may be a sign of heart risks

Want a clue to your risk of heart disease? Look in the mirror. People who look old — with receding hairlines, bald heads, creases near their ear lobes or bumpy deposits on their eyelids — have a greater chance of developing heart disease than younger-looking people the same age, new research suggests.

Doctors say the study involving 11,000 Danish people highlights the difference between biological and chronological age.

"Looking old for your age marks poor cardiovascular health," said Dr. Anne Tybjaerg-Hansen of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. She led the study and gave results Tuesday at an American Heart Association conference in Los Angeles.

A small consolation: Wrinkles elsewhere on the face and gray hair seemed just ordinary consequences of aging and did not correlate with heart risks.

The research began in 1976. At the start, researchers documented people's appearance, counting crow's feet, wrinkles and other signs of age.

In the next 35 years, 3,400 participants developed heart disease (clogged arteries), and 1,700 suffered a heart attack.

The risk of these problems increased with each additional sign of aging present at the start of the study. This was true at all ages and among men and women, even after taking into account other factors such as family history of heart disease.

Those with three to four of these aging signs — receding hairline at the temples, baldness at the crown of the head, earlobe creases or yellowish fatty deposits around the eyelids — had a 57% greater risk for heart attack and a 39% greater risk for heart disease compared to people with none of these signs.

Having yellowish eyelid bumps, which could be signs of cholesterol buildup, conferred the most risk, researchers found. Baldness in men has been tied to heart risk before, possibly related to testosterone levels. They could only guess why earlobe creases might raise risk.

Dr. Kathy Magliato, a heart surgeon at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, said doctors need to pay more attention to signs literally staring them in the face.

"We're so rushed to put on a blood pressure cuff or put a stethoscope on the chest" that obvious, visible signs of risk are missed, she said.

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Remember, remember, the 5th of November: Folklore and History

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,the Gunpowder Treason and Plot,

I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot.Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent to blow up King and Parliament.

Three score barrels were laid below to prove old England’s overthrow;By God’s mercy he was catch’d with a dark lantern and lighted match.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring. Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

Hip hip hoorah!

This is a pretty well-known poem detailing the events of the Gunpowder Plot, and remembered every November 5th in England, on Guy Fawkes Day. (There is a second verse to this poem, not as popular these days, that goes into killing and mutilating the Pope. Music and poetry is full of so many forgotten verses like that.) Guy Fawkes day has become a time to have an excuse for some fireworks, a bonfire, and some fun.

But that's not how it all began.

The Gunpowder Plot was an attempt by a group of Catholics intent on unseating King James I from the English throne, so that his daughter, Elizabeth, could be put on in his place, and usher in a return to Catholic power in England.

Going back to King Henry VIII, there was a back and forth struggle on whether the state religion would be Anglican or Catholic. And after years of Anglicanism under Elizabeth I and James I, some catholic leaders were eager to revert back.

So, on the day of the State Opening of Parliament, in 1605, when the nobles and king all came to the House of Lords to have their bit of pomp, outside their lives of pomp, barrels of gunpowder were secreted under the parliament.

36 barrels were placed. It was enough to destroy the House of Lords, at least. So have theorized how much more of the area around would have been destroyed as well, and how many more would have died that day.

Guy Fawkes was the member of the conspiracy tasked to oversee the barrels under the streets. And when information was passed of the threat to parliament and king, a search was made, and Fawkes was caught, sitting on the evidence.

Fawkes was an English Catholic who had gone on to served Spain as a soldier in war. He returned to England eager to overthrow the government. His efforts led him to join this plot. And that led him to be hung, then drawn and quartered.

The focus on Fawkes seems to come from his being caught in the act, drug from beneath parliament. It must have caught the imagination. Others fled London, and died fighting. 7 others survived to be tried along with Fawkes, and suffered the same fate.

But Fawkes became the focus, with a holiday, a poem, and a level of praise and infamy that has lasted 4 centuries.


But the audacious plot he was involved in, a massive bomb to wipe out the monarchy and government of a major nation, seems to have gotten the historic blur.
It's like people talking about raping and pillaging. It sounds all old timey. But it means women were raped, people were murdered, homes were burned down, crops destroyed, and valuables and goods stolen. Their is nothing nice, fun, or funny in the term. But it's old timey, so...What the hell!

So consider Fawkes and King James.

Guy Fawkes was clearly a amazingly pious person. After his mother married a Catholic man, he converted to the faith. And he left the country to fight for the strongest of Catholic nations against Protestant ones. Then he embraced the idea that his homeland needed to be brought back into the True Faith by any mean. The result of this was his agreement to a plan in which the government, the king, the queen, the princes, their servants, and anyone within range would die. It was a holy duty, to kill the Protestant king, and anyone who got in his way.

That is horrific. Magnitude of the slaughter. Not hard to feel how people were stirred to rage at the very idea of this destruction. The assault on the state, to wipe it out, and install a new ruler and a new religion. Not hard to appreciate the horror at how close they were able to get to destroying one's state and leaders. This was a monstrous plan.

But what of James? King James is a piece of work. If you've heard of or read the King James Bible, you know a small bit about this man. He was a very pious and worried man. He faced repeated attempts on his life as king, not just the Gunpowder Plot. And before that, all that back and forth plotting in Scotland, lead to his mother, Mary, being exiled, and his father, Darnley, suffering a suspicious death. He was treated as a pawn, to be shaped to act as a King of Scotland. And then, he was made the English King.

Through his study of his Protestant faith he was drawn to become increasingly concerned of the threat of the Devil, and witches. He became convinced witches were acting to murder him, and was at one trial of a woman accused of such an attempt. He also personally oversaw the torture of women believed to be witches. In this time he wrote a book on witches for people to use, Daemonologie. It explained witches and advised on the hunting of them. These ideas also made it into his version of the bible, with a change to one passage to say, "Thou shall not suffer a witch."

As King of England, James was interested in fully joining his Scotland and England. He also wanted to bring peace to England and Spain. Though he still maintained a religious and legal hostility to Catholicism. Still, in 1604, the war between the 2 nations ended. Then the plot came in the following year.

James can be a troubling figure, in how he was drawn into fear and paranoia of witches. His engaging personally in the torture of women is disturbing. His work has gone on to be used to bring a lot of suffering.

But in the end what Guy Fawkes was doing was not to free England, it was a Mission from God, it was for the sake of God's Will, and that of the Church.

November 5th celebrates an almost successful mass murder and regicide by a group of religious fanatics.

Source: jadedskeptic.blogspot.com

Daylight Saving Time 2012: Turn your clocks back and gain an extra hour tonight

This is the end of Daylight Saving time tonight. It's Mitt Romney's favorite time of the year because he gets to turn the clock back,” 6 for livestreaming coverage of Election 2012. Our Election Day show kicks off at noon, and the Election Night

But first, you need to know that the U.S. is pretty much out of step with the rest of the world on this thing called daylight saving time – or as we call it in Michigan, daylight savings time, as if it were a crinkled certificate of deposit we could

But once again, don't forget to set the clocks back before you go to bed on Saturday night, November, 3, 2012, when daylight saving time comes to an end. Remember to turn your clocks back tonight, Saturday, November 3, 2012, before you go to bed,

Daylight Saving Time is here again and in the early morning hours of Sunday the majority of the clocks in the U.S. need to “fall back.” While Daylight Saving Time has it purpose as an energy saving strategy, it also comes with a downside, according to

It's the longest weekend of the year, as we turn our clocks back one hour for the end of Daylight Saving Time.

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Dinosaurs Looking for Love Grew Alluring Feathers

Dinosaurs may have wooed potential mates with flashy feathers, peacock style. Researchers have discovered lengthy wisps on a sexually mature adult, but absent in the toddler specimen of the same dinosaur species.

These findings shed light on the origin of wings and feathered flight, scientists added.

Birds are the last living lineage of dinosaurs. Their predatory dinosaur ancestors and relatives apparently were covered in feathers as well. These downy coats probably helped to keep them warm at first.

It remains hotly debated how the ancestors of birds evolved key traits that allowed them to fly, such as long, strong feathers. To answer this mystery, researchers investigated fossils of a dinosaur called Ornithomimus edmontonicus. These included a turkey-size juvenile about a year old and about 5 feet (1.5 meters) long, and two ostrich-size adults about 10 years old and about 12 feet (4 m) long.


“The most recent ideas about Ornithomimus was that it was herbivorous,” said researcher Darla Zelenitsky, a paleontologist at the University of Calgary. “They superficially resembled ostriches, with a toothless beak, large eyes, long legs, long tail, and now we know they had feathers, but these animals were not closely related to ostriches.”

Downy dinosaurs

The 71-million-year-old bones were excavated from the badlands of Alberta, Canada.
“The climate in the area 71 million years ago was warm and wet, subtropical, very much like that seen today in Florida, Georgia and Louisiana. There would have been swamps and lots of water-loving conifers,” said researcher François Therrien, a paleontologist at theRoyal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Canada.

Famous dinosaurs in that area included predatory tyrannosaurs, the duck-billed hadrosaurs, heavily armored ankylosaurs, and horned dinosaurs known as ceratopsians. Crocodiles and turtles were also common.

Ornithomimus edmontonicus in “death pose”, Royal Tyrrell Museum. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

All three Ornithomimus specimens were apparently covered in stringy down — filamentlike feathers up to 2 inches (5 centimeters) long.
“These are the first feathered dinosaur specimens from the Western Hemisphere,” Zelenitsky said. “They’ve never been found in North or South America before — before this, they were previously almost exclusively found in northern China.”

In addition, one adult also had markings on its winglike forelimbs that suggest it bore longer feathers, ones that apparently possessed stiff shafts down the middle much like the feathers found on the wings of flying birds today.

“We don’t know how long the shafted feathers were on the adult ‘wings,’” Therrien said. “But, based on the size of the markings, we think the ‘wing feathers’ would have been much longer than the filamentous feathers.”

Flashing feathers

Many of the feathered dinosaurs found in China are older than Ornithomimus. However,Ornithomimus comes from a lineage of dinosaurs that arose earlier than some of those unearthed in China. As such, one can consider the “wings” seen in Ornithomimus ”the most primitive occurrence of winglike structures in the dinosaurs leading to birds,” Zelenitsky said.

Since the younger dinosaur apparently did not possess long feathers on its forelimbs, the investigators suggest these plumes were not used for flight — otherwise, younger, lighter dinosaurs that were more capable of flight might have possessed them. Instead, the fact these feathers were seen only on sexually mature adults hints they may have used them for reproductive activities such as courtship or brooding, much as peacocks use their outrageously large feathers to woo females. Over time, the ancestors of birds may have adapted these long feathers for flight.

Intriguingly, these new fossils were discovered in ancient river deposits, as opposed to the ancient lake deposits where feathered dinosaurs are often found in China.

“River deposits are much more common than lake deposits,” Zelenitsky said. “I think it’s quite possible that people have not really focused on finding feathered dinosaurs in river deposits because they were expecting to be preserved in the quiet water and muddy conditions seen in lake deposits. This might open up possibilities to find feathered dinosaurs in lots of places where people were not expecting.”

Funny Dinosaur King is Biggest in the World (Photo credit: epSos.de)

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Video: Donald Trump to give $5m to charity if Obama releases records

DONALD Trump offered to pay $5m to the charity of President Barack Obama's choice if Obama releases his college and passport records, the property and television personality has said.

"Frankly, it's a check that I very much want to write," Trump said in a YouTube video released via his Twitter and Facebook pages.

Trump has questioned whether Obama's birth certificate issued by the state of Hawaii is legitimate, suggesting Obama was not born in the United States, which could have made him ineligible for the White House. The White House released the long-form copy of Obama's birth certificate in 2011.

Trump did not say what he expected the college and passports records to reveal but was specific in saying he wanted to see all of Obama's college applications and records and his passport applications and records.

"President Obama is the least transparent president in the history of this country," Trump said in the video.

"If he releases these records it will end the question and indeed the anger of many Americans."

Trump, who had toyed with the idea of running for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, said the deadline for the release of the documents was October 31.

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Company that paid Lance Armstrong bonuses wants money back

A Texas promotional company that paid millions of dollars to Lance Armstrong for winning the Tour de France said on Monday it was considering legal action to get the money back after the American cyclist was stripped of his Tour titles.

Armstrong had his seven Tour de France victories nullified and was banned for life on Monday after the International Cycling Union (UCI) ratified the United States Anti-Doping Agency's (USADA) sanctions against him.

Dallas-based SCA Promotions paid Armstrong USD 7.5 million for winning his sixth Tour title in 2004 - USD 5 million as a performance bonus and USD 2.5 million in interest and attorney fees - as part of a 2006 legal settlement. Armstrong had sued SCA when it withheld the payment after doping allegations against him surfaced.

Tailwind Sports, the owner of Armstrong's US Postal team, had promised the cyclist a USD 5 million bonus if he won a sixth Tour title and it took out insurance coverage with SCA.

In all, SCA Promotions paid Armstrong some USD 12 million, the company's lawyer Jeffrey Dorough said.

It was unclear exactly how much SCA may seek to recover.

"Mr. Armstrong is no longer the official winner of any Tour de France races, and as a result it is inappropriate and improper for him to retain any bonus payments made by SCA," Dorough said in a statement.

He said SCA Promotions was "digesting the UCI's decision" and that the company was taking into consideration the possibility that Armstrong or the World Anti-Doping Agency could appeal.

Earlier this month, USADA published a report on Armstrong that said the now-retired rider had been involved in the "most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."

"I was sickened by what I read in the USADA report," UCI President Pat McQuaid said on Monday.

Armstrong, 41, who has denied doping, had previously elected not to contest the USADA charges, prompting USADA to propose his punishment pending confirmation from cycling's world governing body.

Armstrong, widely considered one of the greatest cyclists of all time, says he has never failed a doping test.

He said he had stopped contesting the charges after years of probes and rumors because "there comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, 'Enough is enough.'"


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New planet found outside solar system

European astronomers say that just outside our solar system they’ve found a planet that’s the closest you can get to Earth in location and size.

It is the type of planet they’ve been searching for across the Milky Way galaxy and they found it circling a star right next door — 25 trillion miles (40 trillion kilometres) away. But the Earth-like planet is so hot its surface may be like molten lava. Life cannot survive the 2,200 degree heat of the planet, so close to its star that it circles it every few days.

The astronomers who found it say it’s likely there are other planets circling the same star, a little farther away where it may be cool enough for water and life. And those planets might fit the not-too-hot, not-too-cold description sometimes call the Goldilocks Zone.

That means that in the star system Alpha Centauri B, a just-right planet could be closer than astronomers had once imagined.

It’s so close that from some southern places on Earth, you can see Alpha Centauri B in the night sky without a telescope. But it’s still so far that a trip there using current technology would take tens of thousands of years.

But the wow factor of finding such a planet so close has some astronomers already talking about how to speed up a 25 trillion-mile (40 trillion-kilometre) rocket trip there. Scientists have already started pressuring NASA and the European Space Agency to come up with missions to send something out that way to get a look at least.

The research was released online Tuesday in the journal Nature. There has been a European-U.S. competition to find the nearest and most Earthlike exoplanets — planets outside our solar system. So far scientists have found 842 of them, but think they number in the billions.

While the newly discovered planet circles Alpha Centauri B, it’s part of a system of three stars: Alpha Centauri A, B and the slightly more distant Proxima Centauri. Systems with two or more stars are more common than single stars like our sun, astronomers say.

This planet has the smallest mass — a measurement of weight that doesn’t include gravity — that has been found outside our solar system so far. With a mass of about 1.1 times the size of Earth, it is strikingly similar in size.

Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory, who heads the European planet-hunting team, said this means “there’s a very good prospect of detecting a planet in the habitable zone that is very close to us.”

And one of the European team’s main competitors, Geoff Marcy of the University of California Berkeley, gushed even more about the scientific significance.

“This is an historic discovery,” he wrote in an email. “There could well be an Earth-size planet in that Goldilocks sweet spot, not too cold and not too hot, making Alpha Centauri a compelling target to search for intelligent life.”

Harvard planet-hunter David Charbonneau and others used the same word to describe the discovery: “Wow.”

Charbonneau said when it comes to looking for interesting exoplanets “the single most important consideration is the distance from us to the star” and this one is as close as you can get. He said astronomers usually impress the public by talking about how far away things are, but this is not, at least in cosmic terms.

Alpha Centauri was the first place the private Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence program looked in its decade-long hunt for radio signals that signify alien intelligent life. Nothing was found, but that doesn’t mean nothing is there, said SETI Institute astronomer Seth Shostak.

The European team spent four years using the European Southern Observatory in Chile to look for planets at Alpha Centauri B and its sister stars Alpha Centauri A and Proxima Centauri. They used a technique that finds other worlds by looking for subtle changes in a star’s speed as it races through the galaxy.

Part of the problem is that the star is so close and so bright — though not as bright as the sun — that it made it harder to look for planets, said study lead author Xavier Dumusque of the Geneva Observatory.

One astronomer who wasn’t part of the research team, wondered in a companion article in Nature if the team had enough evidence to back such an extraordinary claim. But other astronomers said they had no doubt and Udry said the team calculated that there was only a 1-in-1,000 chance that they were wrong about the planet and that something else was causing the signal they saw.

Finding such a planet close by required a significant stroke of good luck, said University of California Santa Cruz astronomer Greg Laughlin.

Dumusque described what it might be like on this odd and still unnamed hot planet. Its closest star is so near that it would always hang huge in the sky. And whichever side of the planet faced the star would be broiling hot, with the other side icy cold.

Because of the mass of the planet, it’s likely a rocky surface like Earth, Dumusque said. But the rocks would be “more like lava, like a lava planet.”

“If there are any inhabitants there, they’re made of asbestos,” joked Shostak.

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