29 replies to this topic

[deuterium]

Something interesting I found and wanted to share it. Here is the the link to the article: Potentially Habitable Planet Found.

[Mystic Kitsune]

The fact it's 120 trillion miles away doesn't help. They make it sound like such a short distance.

[Steel Samurai]

All we need now is to invent faster-than-light travel, and we'll be set.

[Chikara Nadir]

Hey, the point is that there's a planet other than our own that we know of out there that COULD sustain life. That's the first step...

Next to call the Men in Black, baby.

[Toan]

All we need now is to invent faster-than-light travel, and we'll be set.

Impossible. Nothing can travel faster than light.

Interesting news about this planet though... we're currently working on technology that can travel at .06 the speed of light... so we could have surveys of this planet by like... 2080.

[Meep]

There are ways around the laws of relativity Toan, maybe...But cool!

[Steel Samurai]

Impossible. Nothing can travel faster than light.

My point exactly.

[Ransom]

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.

That statement alone makes me doubt whether this planet will really be habitable or not.
Even if we do figure out a way of getting there in less than a couple centuries.

[Masamune]

Impossible. Nothing can travel faster than light.

Except perhaps for one things we humans have mastered -

Bad News, which travels faster than light ever will. We just have to find out how to harness it.

[Tekky]

Hmmm, thoughts like that would have grounded Zefram Cochrane Toan!

Isnt the planet massive though? So if it did support life, it would be highly adapted to a high gravity environment... WHich means they'd probably be ickle bugs!

[Chikara Nadir]

Hey, it could always just be...really, really flat sentient creatures. XD

Also, moving this over to the Science forum.

[Selena]

Didn't it say it was just under double Earth's gravity? I think you could still have fairly normal, non-flat life forms with that.

Interesting, but not surprising. I just want a whole interactive 3D map of discovered systems so far, actually. Some well done atlas of the stars, or something of the sort. Beyond simple Java ones of the ten closest stars.

Impossible. Nothing can travel faster than light.

They also said the speed of sound was a barrier that was impossible to cross. Flying contraptions in the sky? Nevar!

Science nerds saying something is 'impossible.' Now, now, that's not the right attitude to take at all. Science nerds should be trying to disprove stuff like that, or at least find loopholes around them, regardless of what theories may say. Especially since I have a feeling our dim little 21st century brains don't quite have all the answers yet. LAWS WERE MEANT TO BE BROKEN, BABY.

[Tekky]

The BBC Woman told me that... http://www.bbc.co.uk...p...wm=1&nbwm=1

She says the mass is five times that of the Earth, although I just did a back of the envelope calculation, based on the figures from the BBC Website which predicts a radius 1.5 times that of the Earth, and her claim that it's five times the mass of earth, giving us g on that planet to be roughly double our value...

What I want to know is, how the feck do they determine mass and radii for a planet that's 20 light years away?

[Steel Samurai]

Red Shift? Though it'd rather small in comparison with stars I s'pose.

[arunma]

Red Shift? Though it'd rather small in comparison with stars I s'pose.

Probably not. Redshift determines how far away an object is. And it usually only works for stars and other luminous bodies.

[Showsni]

Impossible. Nothing can travel faster than light.

Of course not. That's why scientists increased the speed of light in 2208.

[SOAP]

This is frakkin' awesome man. If it does turn out to be a habitible planet, they better rename it something better. GL-581 b isn't that good of a name for a planet that could potentionally be the next Earth.

[Keen]

Probably not. Redshift determines how far away an object is. And it usually only works for stars and other luminous bodies.

Redshift determines now quickly an object is moving away from you. From that and a few other observations, somebody eventually derived how far away the stars are from Earth.

[SteveT]

What I want to know is, how the feck do they determine mass and radii for a planet that's 20 light years away?

Radius I'm not sure about. Maybe you can get it from how much of its star it blots out.

Mass can be derived from its gravitational effect on the star it orbits. We already have methods for estimating the mass of the star, so things fall into place from there. Perturbations caused by gravity are how they typically find new planets to begin with.

So if it did support life, it would be highly adapted to a high gravity environment... WHich means they'd probably be ickle bugs!

There's life in the ocean depths that deal with massive external pressure that probably exceeds twice Earth's gravitational pull. I wouldn't rule out high gravity life. Honestly, humans would probably be able to adapt to it. People born there would come out looking like Neanderthals, but hey. That's the cost of space exploration.

[Sir Deimos]

My point exactly.

so, we'll have to move faster than the speed of physics... lol

anyhow, this is some very interesting news... I have the feeling though that long after we're all dead and the technology is there, this will be our "Backup Planet" if our race makes it that long

[Showsni]

If their sun's a red dwarf, aren't they more likely to evacuate here?

[Selena]

Speed of physics? Is that like godspeed?

[Keen]

Speed of physics? Is that like godspeed?

Nah, it's a category mistake. Physics can't move.

[Selena]

What if you put it on a little cart?

[Steel Samurai]

Then it depends on where the observer is. If the observer's in the cart it's still not moving.

[Keen]

Ah yeah. Accelerate the point of reference, and Newtonian physics falls apart. Suddenly, his laws just don't work.

[Alardonin]

There's life in the ocean depths that deal with massive external pressure that probably exceeds twice Earth's gravitational pull. I wouldn't rule out high gravity life. Honestly, humans would probably be able to adapt to it. People born there would come out looking like Neanderthals, but hey. That's the cost of space exploration.

It's probably possible, but for us to sustain such a weight not to mention other animals, we would have to require a bone build stronger then that of our own.

And life in the ocean is another thing altogether. The most heavy creature we have ever know to exist, is the Blue whale (Tho some controversy has arrived do to recent prehistoric discoveries) no skeleton build that we know at this point in time, that existed on earth, could sustain such a weight on dry land.

Anyway, this is awsome news.

[Keen]

Ironically, by the time an astronaut completed the trip to this planet, the time they spent in zero gravity would have had serious effects on their bone structures. There are at least a few exercises that can help counteract skeletal deterioration.

Well, as fit as an astronaut may be, it would probably be more reasonable to have robots doing the requisite physical labor in such an environment.

[SteveT]

It's probably possible, but for us to sustain such a weight not to mention other animals, we would have to require a bone build stronger then that of our own.

It would, but it's hard to tell whether a person would be able to adapt in a single lifetime. Low-G is probably easier to survive in, but I'd be interested to see what happens when a vertebrate is born in a high-G environment and grows up there.

As to whales, they didn't evolve in an environment where they had to support their own weight on legs. They'd don't even have legs. But what they DO have is rib cages that don't collapse due to the external pressure (although I'm not sure they dive deep enough that that becomes an issue).

All I was saying is that life can and does exist in harsh environments, contrary to popular belief.

Edited by SteveT, 11 May 2007 - 06:36 PM.

[Riva]

It sounds like there is still many "what ifs" flying around in the scientific. Maybe the technology to travel to that planet to be absolutely positive may come sooner then we think.