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Potentially Habitable Planet Found
Posted:
Wed Apr 25, 2007 9:14 amby Cyber Bishop
From
Aol newsWASHINGTON (April 25) - For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for "life in the universe."
The planet is just the right size, might have water in liquid form, and in galactic terms is relatively nearby at 120 trillion miles away. But the star it closely orbits, known as a "red dwarf ," is much smaller, dimmer and cooler than our sun.
There's still a lot that is unknown about the new planet, which could be deemed inhospitable to life once more is known about it. And it's worth noting that scientists' requirements for habitability count Mars in that category: a size relatively similar to Earth's with temperatures that would permit liquid water. However, this is the first outside our solar system that meets those standards.
"It's a significant step on the way to finding possible life in the universe," said University of Geneva astronomer Michel Mayor, one of 11 European scientists on the team that found the planet. "It's a nice discovery. We still have a lot of questions."
Read more in the link posted above.
Posted:
Wed Apr 25, 2007 9:16 amby Brakethrough
Galactic Conquest, HOOOOOOO!
Posted:
Wed Apr 25, 2007 9:17 amby Leonardo
Break out the greetings cards. Let's hope they don't find some sort of deadly bacteria.
Posted:
Wed Apr 25, 2007 9:47 amby Spoon
Why people always assume a planet needs to have water and the exact same tempature as earth for there to be life is beyond me.
interesting find nontheless
Posted:
Wed Apr 25, 2007 10:08 amby Loki120
Spoon wrote:Why people always assume a planet needs to have water and the exact same tempature as earth for there to be life is beyond me.
interesting find nontheless
Because it's the best bet. Life on an Earth-like planet is pretty easy to create. They're not saying that other life isn't possible, it would be just harder to find. At least with an Earth-like planet we know what we're looking for.
Posted:
Wed Apr 25, 2007 10:10 amby Brakethrough
Spoon wrote:Why people always assume a planet needs to have water and the exact same tempature as earth for there to be life is beyond me.
interesting find nontheless
Because that's the only type of conditions that are important to us.
Posted:
Wed Apr 25, 2007 10:43 amby GetterDragun
Everybody expects crazy looking aliens on these planets if life exists. Look how many rodents look similar, it would probably be close to earth with rats running all over the place and goose crap everywhere.
Posted:
Wed Apr 25, 2007 12:12 pmby Senor Hugo
Brakethrough wrote:Galactic Conquest, HOOOOOOO!
Dibs! -gets a flag-
Posted:
Wed Apr 25, 2007 1:52 pmby Dr. Caelus
Loki120 wrote:Spoon wrote:Why people always assume a planet needs to have water and the exact same tempature as earth for there to be life is beyond me.
interesting find nontheless
Because it's the best bet. Life on an Earth-like planet is pretty easy to create. They're not saying that other life isn't possible, it would be just harder to find. At least with an Earth-like planet we know what we're looking for.
Well put. Plus, though i'm all for the idea that bizarre forms of life could exist, we have hard evidence that carbon-based water-drinking CO2/O2-burning life exists, whereas everything else is mostly theoretical.
Plus, from our perspective, if we're going to go look for life elsewhere, it would be nice if there were comfortable conditions at the end of the trip.
The part of this that fascinates me is the sun - it's red and a dwarf, so it can't be as hot as our medium sized yellow sun. This suggests to me that such a habitable planet must be much closer to the sun both for heat and gravitational purposes. .: The noon sky would be really different. Additionally, even if life exists there, and is similar to earth-life, there are some pretty fundamental differences inherent in such an ecosystem - I refer specifically to the plants (if any) which would have to photosenthisize red sunlight.
Posted:
Wed Apr 25, 2007 5:03 pmby Halo
Senor Hugo wrote:Brakethrough wrote:Galactic Conquest, HOOOOOOO!
Dibs! -gets a flag-
Over my dead body. That's
MY planet.
Posted:
Wed Apr 25, 2007 5:05 pmby Spoon
Loki120 wrote:Spoon wrote:Why people always assume a planet needs to have water and the exact same tempature as earth for there to be life is beyond me.
interesting find nontheless
Because it's the best bet. Life on an Earth-like planet is pretty easy to create. They're not saying that other life isn't possible, it would be just harder to find. At least with an Earth-like planet we know what we're looking for.
Yeah I suppose that makes sense.
Posted:
Wed Apr 25, 2007 5:25 pmby Dr. Caelus
I wanted to add:
Distance light travels in one Earth year: 9,460,730,472,580.8 km = 1 lightyear.
Distance to the planet:
120 trillion miles = 120,000,000,000,000 miles.
120,000,000,000,000 miles = 193,121,280,000,000 km
193,121,280,000,000 km = 1.61 lightyears.
IF I did that right, that planet really is close, and furthermore, we're seeing it as of less than two years ago, so little or no concern of it not actually being there anymore.
Posted:
Wed Apr 25, 2007 5:44 pmby Just Negare
If all going well technology wise, we now at least have a possible back up, if global warming really is true...
Posted:
Wed Apr 25, 2007 5:55 pmby DesalationReborn
If we can't find a way to bend space, boost life spans, or create cryogenics, it's unlikely we'll ever get there in the foreseeble future.
Posted:
Wed Apr 25, 2007 6:11 pmby Just Negare
The Avatar of Man wrote:If we can't find a way to bend space, boost life spans, or create cryogenics, it's unlikely we'll ever get there in the foreseeble future.
Well, you never know...
Of course, I'm still pissed about not having robot teachers. I saw a doco promising that by 2000 we'd have robot slaves!!
Posted:
Wed Apr 25, 2007 6:12 pmby Cyber Bishop
Poohy Ol' Negare wrote:The Avatar of Man wrote:If we can't find a way to bend space, boost life spans, or create cryogenics, it's unlikely we'll ever get there in the foreseeble future.
Well, you never know...
Of course, I'm still pissed about not having robot teachers. I saw a doco promising that by 2000 we'd have robot slaves!!
Nice seeing you again!
Posted:
Wed Apr 25, 2007 6:14 pmby Dr. Caelus
The Avatar of Man wrote:If we can't find a way to bend space, boost life spans, or create cryogenics, it's unlikely we'll ever get there in the foreseeble future.
Well (assuming I did my math right), even travelling at half the speed of light and not breaking the traditional laws of physics you could hypothetically get there in 3.2 years. At 1/10 lightspeed you could get there in 16 years, still not unreasonable. None of that would require space-bending or wormholes, just massive quantities of raw power.
It seems too good to be true though, so pleeeease,
someone check my math?
Posted:
Wed Apr 25, 2007 6:35 pmby DesalationReborn
Caelus wrote:The Avatar of Man wrote:If we can't find a way to bend space, boost life spans, or create cryogenics, it's unlikely we'll ever get there in the foreseeble future.
Well (assuming I did my math right), even travelling at half the speed of light and not breaking the traditional laws of physics you could hypothetically get there in 3.2 years. At 1/10 lightspeed you could get there in 16 years, still not unreasonable. None of that would require space-bending or wormholes, just massive quantities of raw power.
It seems too good to be true though, so pleeeease,
someone check my math?
You're right-- it's just the likely hood of something going wrong at those speeds,
anything, is severely great, and the potential to destroy a great chunk of existence as we know it (antimatter, the general concieved speed o' ling fuel=one big boom). In which case, any hope of that is way far off, and we may as well die off as a race before such advancement occurs.
As well, I may note the measurement of "the speed of light" is the
definition of the speed of light-- it can be speed up and slowed down in a vacuum, but acts at such speed in regular instances, as well as being is so fast that computing it into general physics is nonsensical at this point.
Posted:
Wed Apr 25, 2007 11:45 pmby Dr. Caelus
Anyone else think it is ironic that a potentially habitable planet is found orbiting a red sun around roughly the same time that scientists discover pseudo-kryptonite?
Posted:
Thu Apr 26, 2007 2:28 amby Leonardo
Caelus wrote:Anyone else think it is ironic that a potentially habitable planet is found orbiting a red sun around roughly the same time that scientists discover pseudo-kryptonite?
Things are going to change...
Posted:
Thu Apr 26, 2007 4:44 amby Tweezy
LOOK... UP IN THE SKY...IT'S A BIRD... NO...IT'S A PLANE...NO.. IT'S... Work-Experience Boy?
Thats a good discovery.....
Posted:
Thu Apr 26, 2007 6:52 amby Mighty Scorponok
But nonetheless with our technology (or lack of it) we average people will not even see that planet on our own eyes, unless Earth was exploding or deteriorating in fast way, that would make saving humanity priority to build space ships, to go to that planet to start living a new.
Posted:
Fri Apr 27, 2007 12:27 amby Dr Buffalo
Leonardo wrote:Caelus wrote:Anyone else think it is ironic that a potentially habitable planet is found orbiting a red sun around roughly the same time that scientists discover pseudo-kryptonite?
Things are going to change...
I can see that conversation now...
Superman-2 (bangs on door): Dammit Superboy Prime! Are punching the wall to reality again?
Superboy Prime (grunting): No! But don't come in yet!
How weird would it be if this planet was inhabited with aliens that just dicovered a similar planet to theirs orbiting a yellow sun?
Posted:
Fri Apr 27, 2007 12:29 amby Senor Hugo
Halo wrote:Senor Hugo wrote:Brakethrough wrote:Galactic Conquest, HOOOOOOO!
Dibs! -gets a flag-
Over my dead body. That's
MY planet.
I already called dibs. Plus, I have a flag.
Posted:
Fri Apr 27, 2007 3:00 amby Leonardo
Senor Hugo wrote:Halo wrote:Senor Hugo wrote:Brakethrough wrote:Galactic Conquest, HOOOOOOO!
Dibs! -gets a flag-
Over my dead body. That's
MY planet.
I already called dibs. Plus, I have a flag.
You would do well in the company of Eddie Izzard.
I hope there isn't alien life on the planet. America might bomb it.