Astronomers Find "Potentially Habitable" Planet

unozero

unozero

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Why aren't we talking about this?

http://www.voanews.com/english/news...d-Potentially-Habitable-Planet-104121519.html

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/09/30/planet.discovery/index.html?iref=allsearch


Astronomers have discovered a few hundred planets over the years, but Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution in Washington says the planet he helped discover is different. He and his team of astronomers say this planet, named Gliese 581G, could bear the closest resemblance to Earth of any planet ever discovered.

Butler says this planet is the right distance from the star it orbits in order to possibly support life.
Click to expand...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADFeSFkgwUI&feature=player_embedded


So who think the next Admin will make this planet part of their Agenda OR will we completely ignore it and let the Chinese claim it?
 
20 light years?

That's not too far. Maybe within 50, 70 years we might be able to reach it.

Hopefully, we'll discover warp tech before I die.



I just hope there aren't any hostile natives and there are loads of exploitable goodies.
 
Hmm, it's tidally locked. Maybe there's an epic circular band with life?

Note: apparently there's also like 6 other planets in that solar system.
 
Imagine, a part of the planet, FOREVER IN TWILIGHT. Though apparently the place would be completely red.
 
I would totally become a darksider, like a mole or sewer dwelling renegade (but with nightvision glasses) preying on any unfortunate who wandered too close to... the dark side.

And I would ride one of these

blackdogn.jpg
 
if there was ever an expedition there, and funds were tight, I'd donate lots of my money for us to get there. in all honesty, getting humans into space and spreading about should be at the top of our list of things to do in the next dozen/hundred years
 
The only way the space program will ever make any significant progress, is if it has commercial value. But the fact is, space is pretty useless. People stopped getting misty eyed about exploration about twenty movies ago.

Either they discover a planet composed entirely of chocolate or the human race isnt gonna give a crap.
 
An asteroid or comet needs to randomly take out a city of millions one of these days. That'll get people interested in investing in solar system-based infrastructure and technology at the very least. Why isn't there a global system of sky scanners set up? It's scary how often legitimate threats swoop by earth within our moon's orbit.
 
Jerry_111 said:
Why isn't there a global system of sky scanners set up? It's scary how often legitimate threats swoop by earth within our moon's orbit.
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I have LONG been of the opinion that we, as a species, aren't devoting nearly enough time and technology to that end. All of our squabbling over who's the most environmentally responsible or who has the best health care won't do us much good with a potentially fatal space object bearing down on us and no plan for that sort of event in sight.

And I don't think we can just send Bruce Willis up to take care of it either.
 
I doubt the space industry will go anywhere without commercial endorsement. It's just too risky and costly for the government to take on alone.
 
As long as people can carry on watching teenagers sing badly on saturday night TV, they are quite happy to watch the entire planet roll into a giant bucket of lava.
 
Warped said:
thats not entirely true: the Russians are going to build a Space Hotel in 2015 or 2016!
0a9_132.jpg
Click to expand...
I thought it was another space race involving Russia and the US. (I didn't read the article, only the headline).


hakojo said:
I have LONG been of the opinion that we, as a species, aren't devoting nearly enough time and technology to that end. All of our squabbling over who's the most environmentally responsible or who has the best health care won't do us much good with a potentially fatal space object bearing down on us and no plan for that sort of event in sight.

And I don't think we can just send Bruce Willis up to take care of it either.
Click to expand...

Obama has said he has devoted resources to detecting and [figuring out the best way to] deflect asteroids. I remember posting a thread on it.
 
Jerry_111 said:
An asteroid or comet needs to randomly take out a city of millions one of these days. That'll get people interested in investing in solar system-based infrastructure and technology at the very least. Why isn't there a global system of sky scanners set up? It's scary how often legitimate threats swoop by earth within our moon's orbit.
Click to expand...

Because all the money in those big countries has gone to the "national security" rather than going to tackle something that can take out the human race.
 
This is fantastic news! I want to see space colonies in action before I die.
 
just think of the lag though between planets, it would take so long to play a game of chess, probably like hundreds of years!
 
Warped said:
just think of the lag though between planets, it would take so long to play a game of chess, probably like hundreds of years!
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Real time communication between planets, using quantum entanglement.
 
KiplingsCat said:
This is ALWAYS an option.

Does it say anywhere in the article how the planet was detected? (I looked but I couldn't find anything)
Click to expand...

According to its wiki article(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_581g), it was discovered via a technique called radial velocity:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppler_spectroscopy

Basically, when a planet orbits a star its gravity "drags" on the star, causing it to wobble. They calculated the orbit based on how much the star wobbled.

Because they can analyze how hot the star is based on its luminosity and all sorts of Electromagnetic spectra it gives off and since they know the planet's location, they can get a basic idea of what planetary conditions might be like.

I remember reading about some other planet detection methods astronomers use, including a "direct transit" method where they look at a star for years and record whenever it gets "blacked out". If a star is "blacked out" from our view on an exact and predictable basis over the years, that probably means there's something orbiting the star, eclipsing its sunlight every time it passes in between the star and our eyes on Earth.

And then there's direct imaging, and.. I can't remember. What an exciting and developing field of science!

Let's read more about exoplanets and other planets we've found so far:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exoplanets

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extrasolar_planets

Dudes, we've almost found 500 planets so far and rising!
 
Nothing has been confirmed yet anyway.
I'm saving my tinfoil hat.
 
VirusType2 said:
Obama has said he has devoted resources to detecting and [figuring out the best way to] deflect asteroids. I remember posting a thread on it.
Click to expand...

Seriously? I didn't think it was possible, but that actually improves my opinion of him somewhat. Still, he says so many things...

Source?
 
hakojo said:
Seriously? I didn't think it was possible, but that actually improves my opinion of him somewhat. Still, he says so many things...

Source?
Click to expand...

There are dozens of ways people have sugested deflecting asteroids on course for earth. Some of them are kind of ridiculous but the principle is fairly simple. If you spot it on a collision course with enough time you just basically 'nudge' it out of the way.

As for this planet. It's in the "Goldilocks zone" which doesn't mean a lot. It just means that it's possible for it to have liquid water. However it also depends on the composition and the atmospheric conditions of the planet. It could also just not have any water on it. It's somewhat of a mystery how Earth got all of its water to begin with. I like the discovery and since it's so close it makes me wonder how many stars amongst the billions in our galaxy have planets that fall in to this category. I mean there could be dozens of planets that have complex life forms in the Milky Way alone.

This is a great time for astronomy. New powerful telescopes going up all the time and discoveries seem to happen every month. We've probably found more individual objects in the past decade than we have in the entire history of astronomy.
 
I watched an episode of The Universe about this planet just yesterday. Apparently it's most likely 99% water, which means there is such a high pressure, and density that not far below the surface there would be warm ice, due to water molecules being packed so tightly together. So, being in its ocean would crush you. The most likely form of life is bacterial, which would be an amazing discovery in itself.
 
hakojo said:
Seriously? I didn't think it was possible, but that actually improves my opinion of him somewhat. Still, he says so many things...

Source?
Click to expand...
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...fai=CSgXkMIWlTIXpDZDezASoiailBQAAAKoEBU_QdhHU

http://www.space.com/news/obama-nasa-asteroid-mission-100416.html



Japan has a new experimental craft that is powered by solar radiation. That should be very important for space exploration. Just imagine, no on-board fuel required means it can travel anywhere within range of a star.

We need to send one of these out there to collect data on this newly discovered planet, if possible.

Each photon of light exerts 0.0002 pounds of pressure on the 3,000-square-foot sail, and one after another they succeeded in propelling the nearly 700-pound drone. Japanese scientists expect to be able to control IKAROS’s velocity by adjusting the angle at which incoming radiation strikes the sails.

Solar sail technology is important because it allows spacecraft to travel without fuel, which could allow them to penetrate ever deeper into space.
Click to expand...
http://inhabitat.com/2010/07/16/japans-ikaros-spacecraft-successfully-propelled-by-solar-sail/

Stigmata said:
Aliens. Quantum aliens.

I'm really not sure how serious I am about this assertion.
Click to expand...
This would shatter my world. I would probably forever doubt what is real and what is not, and never be the same. I like the comfort of believing what I see, and knowing what is real.

EDIT: what I mean is, that if this world as I know it isn't what I thought it was all along, I would FREAK OUT. Everyone would think I'm just insane, but I'd be right. Oh god, that's what it's like to be insane.
 
In a year it will be discovered that the planet has been obliterated by an asteroid.
 
Be optimistic! We'll be dead before we get that far and so we were born at the perfect time to make tv shows and video games where it happens for us!
 
You're right about one thing, we are lucky to have been born at the right time to witness the transition to a type 1 civilisation.
 
That's pretty cool, I look forward to moving there one day.
 
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