Potentially Habitable Extrasolar Planet Discovered

[JWUT 2]

Here's a link to the official story, courtesy of MyWay news and the Drudge Report:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070424/D8ON8OSG0.html

Interesting. A planet of about 1.6 times the mass of the Earth, orbiting a red dwarf star about 20 LY away, with a comparable surface temperature range to Earth's own!I suspect we will find many more of these. And hopefully it's only a matter of time before we develop superluminal-speed spacecraft that will allow us to reach them...
This is a major milestone in the history of astronomy. This planet bears the closest resemblance to Earth of any body yet discovered, including Mars (a bit colder and smaller) and Venus (much hotter and the same size as Earth).

Thoughts?

[Micah 16]

Ah man! I was just about to post this!

Yes, it's a very exciting story, indeed.

only a matter of time before we develop superluminal-speed spacecraftquote>

You'll probably have to wait a century until we reach that. With space shuttles (considered the most technological space-craft made so far), it would take over 400,000 years to get to the nearest star. The nearest star is only 4 light years away, and if we could get to just tenth the speed of light, we could get to Centauri in 40 years. This star that has this Earth-like planet is 50 light years away. So, it would take about 500 years to get to this star. The best way to get to Centauri is to go at a speed of 20,000 miles per second (Not hour). Voyager, one of the fastest spacecrafts so far, has only gone to about 23,000 miles per hour which is no where near 20,000 miles per second.

This is a major milestone in the history of astronomy.quote>

Very true! This will be sure to spark new theories and new technologies!

[simcitystar1167 0]

Wow, very cool.

[WackoJak 0]

and if we could get to just tenth the speed of light, we could get to Centauri in 40 years.quote>

railguns and multi-stage coilguns can accelerate tungsten projectiles to an eighth the speed of light I think...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/railgun          en.wikipedia.org/wiki/coilgun

[Easy Bakes 253]

Whooo.

Were not  alone

to bad this will not do much for our quest/need  to reach the stars.

the  way to space is still only through Govts and thier pretty much not intrested
except for the miltary aspects.

[Duke87 1,070]

Well, all that's well and good but... does it have a magnetic field? Because if it doesn't, the radiation from the stellar wind would be a big dampener to life on its surface...

Still, absent of any folding of space (which is theoretically possible), the absolute minimum time for traveling there is 20.5 years*. And once there, you could forget about keeping up on current events on Earth (or vice versa), since guess how long any communications signals would take to reach there from here? 20.5 years. And that's not even considering the fact that over that distance, the resulting interference from background noise would make any messages that reached there unreadable.

*at least from the perspective of someone on earth. Due to the effects of time dilation, the closer to speed of light you make the trip, the less time it actually takes for you.

t=T/sqrt(1-v^2/c^2), where t is time on earth, T is time on the ship, v is the ships velocity and c is the speed of light.

[defcon pilot 0]

with all the red dwarves in the galaxy, and their age, I wouldn't be surprised if the planet's home to some superadvanced starfaring civilization spanning the galaxy.

it'd be like Homeworld. and they're probably laughing their heads off about us.

[Silur 3,308]

Don't worry about this - we must live here

[Krio 626]

I'm from that planet!

If there is life, it could be highly advanced or then they are primitive cave men. Wouldn't it be cool, if humans were the most advanced race in the universum?

And Finnish news agency says, that planet goes around it's star very fast and it's very close to it's start. So maybe no life afterall.

[Silur 3,308]

Hi, Krio ...

Milk package from another planet - real COOL !!!!

But we are like monkeys .... 

(this is a joke - no more ...)

I remember about Moscow pictures - please give me some times .....

[coolotter88 2]

the habitable zone around a red dwarf should be close to the star....but then again, the radiation could be damaging.

[patriots_1228 51]

isnt a red dwarf star a dead star?? sorry i now nothing bout this stuff i had astronomy for like 2 months in sixth grade and thats it. anyway, if it was dead, i dont think radiation would be a problem.

but again, wut do i no?

also i dont think many people would volenteer to travel for 40 years. at least i wouldn't! that would be pretty boring and if there were a problem 20 years through, youd be screwed cuz it would take another 20 years to get back safely to earth.

[coolotter88 2]

it's not dead, it's just a very small star with low power output (and therefore last the longest, so we might associate red dwarfs with dead or dying stars because they're old)

[Barbarossa 51]

This is exciting news. Just as exciting (potentially), as the discovery of water on another planet that was announced about a week ago.

I am a firm believer that we are not alone in the universe. After all, the size of the universe dwarfs comprehension and to think we are the only form of life out there is very conceited.

Too bad none of us will live long enough to even see us make a colony on, say, Mars, for example. Even the moon, for that matter.

Barbarossa

[Goldfish4209 9]

Great, now let's send a probe there. And to make sure we can still hear the probe, send a few more signal amplifiers after it. This could be worth the expense, as a backup plan in case Earth dies on us. But by then we'd probably be on mars already...

[MrFingers 0]

I actually don't understand why you find this interesting They find these kinds of things all the time, and will go on finding them all the time. Even if it is the closest planet to us that is like ours, that doesn't matter until we want to travel to one.

[Micah 16]

Too bad none of us will live long enough to even see us make a colony on, say, Mars, for example. Even the moon, for that matter. quote>

Why do you say that?

Great, now let's send a probe there. And to make sure we can still hear the probe, send a few more signal amplifiers after it. This could be worth the expense, as a backup plan in case Earth dies on us. But by then we'd probably be on mars already... quote>

Using the current technology, it would take over 900,000 years to get there.

They find these kinds of things all the timequote>

Huh? We've never found a planet in the Goldilocks Zone. Mars is too far and Venus is too close, but Earth is just right. This planet, on the other hand, is just like Earth and is one of several being looked at.

[Barbarossa 51]

Why do you say that? quote>

A mixture of politics and pessimism. When was the last time we sent anyone to the moon? We can plan and plan all we want, but we are a long way off from establishing a true colony. Don't misunderstand me. We have the potential to do it, and we could do it if we really, really tried. But these things take time, and they take a lot of money that most, if not all, governments are loathe to commit. IMO, we should already be on the moon. Sadly, we went there in the spirit of competition, and as soon as we win, we move on. Unfortunately, we did not move in the right direction. It took 40 more years just for the US to say "Hey, let's do it again!", and how far have we gotten since then? More and more budget cuts for NASA. That is all I mean.

Barbarossa

[MrFingers 0]

I'm doing relativity at the moment at uni, and we could get there almost instantly, from the perspective of the traveller, if we could travel near the speed of light.

[octaves 4]

Sweet.  Something tells me it'll be a while until any earth humans can live there...unless they want to spend hundreds of years in a space ship...Haha!  I just read that a 150 pound person would feel like a 240 pound person!  Imagine the anorexics over there..."I'm SOOO fat!"  Lol!

[Barbarossa 51]

if we could travel near the speed of light.quote>

Yeah, and we're really close to that, aren't we? Let me just whip out my trusty and rusty warp drive...

=P

Barbarossa

[quert 10]

Originally posted by: Barbarossa

if we could travel near the speed of light.quote>

Yeah, and we're really close to that, aren't we? Let me just whip out my trusty and rusty warp drive...

=P

Barbarossaquote>

well, according to star trek history, in the year 2064, some guy will make the first warp flight

[Emissarc 0]

You're cofusing a red dwarf with a black dwarf, patriots_1228.

Cool fact: Our sun will become a black dwarf when it dies. It won't explode and turn into a black hole but rather slowly die off. If it were more massive (it's a relatively standard star) it would become a black hole and suck all 9 or 8 planets into it.

[Micah 16]

A mixture of politics and pessimism. When was the last time we sent anyone to the moon? We can plan and plan all we want, but we are a long way off from establishing a true colony. Don't misunderstand me. We have the potential to do it, and we could do it if we really, really tried. But these things take time, and they take a lot of money that most, if not all, governments are loathe to commit. IMO, we should already be on the moon. Sadly, we went there in the spirit of competition, and as soon as we win, we move on. Unfortunately, we did not move in the right direction. It took 40 more years just for the US to say "Hey, let's do it again!", and how far have we gotten since then? More and more budget cuts for NASA. That is all I mean. quote>

Actually, NASA has been cutting its budget in other areas just to make the Moon-colony mission work. It's dedicating almost all of it's money for Orion (check Wikipedia) which will replace the space shuttle which was for the ISS. I think we are truly underway towards going to the moon in 2020 especially with the Vision for Space Exploration (check Wikipedia), but that's just opinion, not fact.

Yeah, and we're really close to that, aren't we? Let me just whip out my trusty and rusty warp drive... quote>

LOL! Yeah.

You're cofusing a red dwarf with a black dwarf, patriots_1228.quote>

Indeed. Since this star is so small and the planet is so close to its sun, the planet's year is equal to our 13 days! Woah! Could you imagine all four seasons in 13 days?

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Wonderful!  Now we need some colonists.  How about the members of PETA?

[1dera3 29]

They might die on the way... 25 million years? A bit further than your daily commute.

Besides, you could just change the meaning of PETA to "People Eating Tasty Animals" and "join."

[Easy Bakes 253]

Originally posted by: N_O_Body Wonderful!  Now we need some colonists.  How about the members of PETA?quote>

 

What and have  a whole planet of them?

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Originally posted by: N_O_Body Wonderful!  Now we need some colonists.  How about the members of PETA?quote>

And the tasty animals would have to go along on this giant asteroid converted into a space ship.  Life-ships like this are the only way we are going to drop our overpopulation unless we come up with a viable FTL drive soon.

Maybe the Chinese could send of their Falun Gong, and save all that space in their prisons.  Since many adherents of Islam in the middle east these days want to live in the middle ages, why not send them along as well?  When a new source of energy comes along (soon, I hope), they will find that petroleum doesn't turn out to be very nourishing.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Originally posted by: N_O_Body

Originally posted by: N_O_Body ?quote>

 Life-ships like this are the only way we are going to drop our overpopulation unless we come up with a viable FTL drive soon.

quote>

 

I assume you mean like huge  ships  miles in size that hold 100's of thousands  of people?

That would definatly not do much for population pressure. even if you got a couple Million

on one that wouldnt make a dent in the population. It makes a good  lost colony sci fie story

but realisticly it will never happen that way.

FTL is about the only way we will ever get anywere.

[MrFingers 0]

Peta? dead? on the way to a distant planet for good?

My GOD!!! What is this dream!?!!!?!