For some reason, ever since we left the idea that the world was flat and had large domes overhead that rotated (I say that loosely, as some people still have that belief), we've fantasized over heading into the "Final Frontier". Everywhere from the popular shows Star Wars and Star Trek, to the hundreds of thousands of books that wish to bring the reader from boring ol' Terra out into the wilderness that is space. We look at the sky with rose tinted telescopes, hoping for the best whenever we see something.
So, what do I mean when I say "Skeleton Men of Jupiter"? Popular "Science Opera" writer Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote a large amount of science fiction, one of the most popular being "John Carter of Mars". But he wrote a large selection of books, including SKOJ. So why am I describing it as a trap? Because it is. Before we had powerful enough telescopes, it was theorized by the main body of astrologically inclined minds that it could be somewhat like earth. The idea caught on, and it got a large following from the sci-fi community. It's a shame that Jupiter was soon found out to be a gas planet.
We've gone over these types of things several times. We've had to deal with enthusiasm misplaced in the past, so some people are perfectly justified in the doubt that we haven't actually found a new habitable planet. Unfortunately, we've got a much wider Sci-Fi community, and most of them come up with the new planets, so we won't be able to have a Sci-Fi novels for every planet we've seen.
Want to see the article from the group that discovered it? Here you go!
Want to read about the station that found it, and take a virtual tour of it? Here you go!
That's Adventure Van, spacing out. Huh?
