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Thread: What has NASA found?

  1. #51
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    NASA has identified 3 planets which are similarly sized to Earth, and could potentially support life given their positioning around their sun.

    The only wrinkle is that they are 39 light years away. So in a 747, it would take you a cheeky 44 million years.

  2. #52
    Master Man of Kent's Avatar
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    Nothing that exciting then? There must be billions of earth size planets, even in the same orbit as ours?

  3. #53
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    Quote Originally Posted by Man of Kent View Post
    Nothing that exciting then? There must be billions of earth size planets, even in the same orbit as ours?
    Well, I guess it's interesting to an extent. I think it's the first time they've definitely identified Earth-sized planets orbiting in an 'inhabitable zone'.

    The realist in me prevents me from getting excited about this given the distances involved though.

  4. #54
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    Quote Originally Posted by Peck View Post
    NASA has identified 3 planets which are similarly sized to Earth, and could potentially support life given their positioning around their sun.

    The only wrinkle is that they are 39 light years away. So in a 747, it would take you a cheeky 44 million years.
    And 39 years before a message from Earth reached them & another 39 years before we received a reply. It'd be a slow conversation

  5. #55
    Master kungfugerbil's Avatar
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    Well, I thought that was ace. The presenter's voice annoyed me, but the enthusiasm of the scientists was infectious. Very interesting.

  6. #56
    Quote Originally Posted by trident-7 View Post
    And 39 years before a message from Earth reached them & another 39 years before we received a reply. It'd be a slow conversation
    Only if you are sending messages via light.
    It's just a matter of time...

  7. #57
    Master MakeColdplayHistory's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Omegamanic View Post
    Only if you are sending messages via light.
    Yes, we could pray to God and ask him to send a message to the other lot he created. Then they could pray back to him and he could send us a sign. That could save 70 odd years.

  8. #58
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    Quote Originally Posted by markrlondon View Post
    No, the universe has an edge. Beyond the edge there really is nothing, not even time.
    This is not a field in which I have any particular or significant knowledge, so I can but only admire the authoritative nature of your assertion.

    Quote Originally Posted by MakeColdplayHistory View Post
    Yes, we could pray to God and ask him to send a message to the other lot he created. Then they could pray back to him and he could send us a sign. That could save 70 odd years.
    Just wait till we've got all this Quantum malarkey properly sussed. Then we'll be rattling through the dark matter like it was a super highway on steroids. (As for the finer detail, see my disclaimer above.)

  9. #59
    Grand Master TheFlyingBanana's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Omegamanic View Post
    Only if you are sending messages via light.
    Or radio waves because they also travel at the speed of light of course.
    So clever my foot fell off.

  10. #60
    Craftsman Go Big's Avatar
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    Can't we just send a fax??

  11. #61
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    Quote Originally Posted by Omegamanic View Post
    Only if you are sending messages via light.
    OK, at least 39 years each way then. Unless you can think of a faster way?

  12. #62
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    Quote Originally Posted by Peck View Post

    The only wrinkle is that they are 39 light years away. So in a 747, it would take you a cheeky 44 million years.
    About the same as Ryanair to Dublin then!

  13. #63
    Master hhhh's Avatar
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    They should send the message encoded into a sales post for an under-priced sports Rolex. I guarantee they would receive a reply in nano seconds.

  14. #64
    Grand Master sundial's Avatar
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    Apart from being in a favourable orbit around the Sun, the main reason why life has evolved on our planet is that our solar system includes the giant planet Jupiter … so massive that its gravity attracts most of the asteroids and meteoroids which would otherwise collide with the Earth and other planets with devastating consequences. Some medium sized meteoroids have collided with Earth millions of years ago and allegedly exterminated dinosaurs. If other solar systems have allegedly suitable/possible life sustaining planets, they would also need their own massive 'guardian planet' … to attract meteoroids and asteroids and prevent devastation of its siblings and resultant extermination of their life forms.

    dunk
    "Well they would say that ... wouldn't they!"

  15. #65
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    Quote Originally Posted by sundial View Post
    Apart from being in a favourable orbit around the Sun, the main reason why life has evolved on our planet is that our solar system includes the giant planet Jupiter … so massive that its gravity attracts most of the asteroids and meteoroids which would otherwise collide with the Earth and other planets with devastating consequences. Some medium sized meteoroids have collided with Earth millions of years ago and allegedly exterminated dinosaurs. If other solar systems have allegedly suitable/possible life sustaining planets, they would also need their own massive 'guardian planet' … to attract meteoroids and asteroids and prevent devastation of its siblings and resultant extermination of their life forms.

    dunk
    Considering the small size of the system, perhaps the central star would act as the guardian.

  16. #66
    Grand Master Seamaster73's Avatar
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    NASA worried about their funding by any chance?

  17. #67
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    I bet it won't be as exciting as we want it to be!


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  18. #68
    A stash of reasonably priced ETA 2824-2s?

    Extra-terrestrial life would be a safer bet!

  19. #69
    Grand Master Mr Curta's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sundial View Post
    Apart from being in a favourable orbit around the Sun, the main reason why life has evolved on our planet is that our solar system includes the giant planet Jupiter … so massive that its gravity attracts most of the asteroids and meteoroids which would otherwise collide with the Earth and other planets with devastating consequences. Some medium sized meteoroids have collided with Earth millions of years ago and allegedly exterminated dinosaurs. If other solar systems have allegedly suitable/possible life sustaining planets, they would also need their own massive 'guardian planet' … to attract meteoroids and asteroids and prevent devastation of its siblings and resultant extermination of their life forms.

    dunk
    The mesosphere plays a far greater part in protecting the earth from meteors, meteorites and asteroids than Jupiter, just look at the impact craters on the moon. The gas giant does slingshot some comets out of the solar system but also prods some in our direction.

  20. #70
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    Quote Originally Posted by MakeColdplayHistory View Post
    Yes, we could pray to God and ask him to send a message to the other lot he created. Then they could pray back to him and he could send us a sign. That could save 70 odd years.
    Lol -quote of the day/month/year.

  21. #71
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    I thought it was a great report, at least seven earth-sized planets orbiting the same star, all are temperate so could have liquid water, three of which are in the habitable zone of the star.
    It is thought this gives a much higher chance of life on another planet.

    http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/22/wo...asa/index.html

    The planets all are within a space five times smaller than the distance from Mercury to the Sun.

    Here they are compared to Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.





  22. #72
    Grand Master VDG's Avatar
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    Any one else is wondering how exowomen look like?
    Fas est ab hoste doceri

  23. #73
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    Quote Originally Posted by VDG View Post
    Any one else is wondering how exowomen look like?

    Dunno

    But you can practically guarantee as they age they will end up looking like their exomothers. Its a universal curse.

  24. #74
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    Anyone read up about the James Webb Space telescope that is due to launch Oct-2018. It's astonishingly complex and also capable of imaging exoplanets. It will sit at L2 at about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. It's a one-shot chance to find L2 and deploy the massive mirror.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_...pace_Telescope

  25. #75
    Grand Master markrlondon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bobbee View Post
    I thought it was a great report, at least seven earth-sized planets orbiting the same star, all are temperate so could have liquid water, three of which are in the habitable zone of the star.
    It is thought this gives a much higher chance of life on another planet.

    http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/22/wo...asa/index.html

    The planets all are within a space five times smaller than the distance from Mercury to the Sun.

    Here they are compared to Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
    Agreed. It was extremely exciting news.

    These aren't the first Earth-like planets in a habitable zone but the numbers of planets discovered is very significant. No doubt these planets will be prime targets for spectroscopic and other imaging in due course.

  26. #76
    Grand Master markrlondon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by petethegeek View Post
    This is not a field in which I have any particular or significant knowledge, so I can but only admire the authoritative nature of your assertion.
    Hah. :-) For the avoidance of doubt, the message to which you refer was not an assertion (although in isolation it was phrased as one); instead it was merely a summary statement of my understanding of current scientific orthodoxy on the point of the extent of this universe. Maybe it's right, maybe it's wrong, maybe space and time don't mean anything. It's just how I currently understand it.

  27. #77
    Grand Master snowman's Avatar
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    Told you!

    M

  28. #78
    Grand Master markrlondon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr.D View Post
    See the more we verify that there is a destination out there worth visiting the more likely it is that there will be a push towards getting there.
    I agree and this is a good thing. The future of humanity is out there and the sooner we get there the better.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mr.D View Post
    There are options other than slow big tin cans with smart meat passengers. In a thousand years we might well be able to store or copy conciousness and recreate functional bodies from base elements at the other end. Even if we can't get through the lightspeed barrier there are arguably solutions to interstellar travel within 100years if you take human mortality out of the picture. Sentient AI might be the first "people" who become interstellar travelers.
    This raises some interesting possibilities about the nature of aliens reputedly visiting Earth.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mr.D View Post
    If we actually discovered sentient life I strongly suspect it would be a new renaissance . I doubt we would go to all that effort just to have a punchup with the first new face across the street we meet. When two interstellar civilisations meet up I predict that within a few generations the cultures become so rapidly mixed with the hunger for informational exchange you end up with a single hybrid culture.

    The mutual value to both cultures would be irresistable , even large ideological and biological differences would be negotiated without much difficulty. War is about probably the only thing that wouldn't happen. It would be pointless from both a resource and cultural perspective.
    The above is an enlightened view: I agree that war is commonly suboptimal (although not always).

    However, if human history on Earth is anything to go by then (a) the most optimal solution is not always followed and wars happen even where they are detrimental to both sides, and (b) even without wars, a meeting between a higher technology race and a lower technology race rarely goes well for the lower technology race.

    This is why I say that it is critical that we develop as quickly as possible and get out there to find them, rather than letting them come here and find us. It's important for us that we are the higher technology species in any meeting with sentient aliens.

    The irony may be that they have in fact already come here and found us, and we just don't know it yet. There are all sorts of plausible scenarios where that could be true.

  29. #79
    Quote Originally Posted by bobbee View Post
    I thought it was a great report, at least seven earth-sized planets orbiting the same star, all are temperate so could have liquid water, three of which are in the habitable zone of the star.
    It is thought this gives a much higher chance of life on another planet.

    http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/22/wo...asa/index.html

    The planets all are within a space five times smaller than the distance from Mercury to the Sun.

    Here they are compared to Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
    Good link - one thing to also remember is this star is very cool/less bright. Therefore it is much easier to observe than bigger stars. And in the grand scheme of things 40 lights years isn't much - so whatever we observe is not 'that' old.

  30. #80
    Grand Master AlphaOmega's Avatar
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    Surely any reasonably advanced entities would see us as a backward, warring and virus-like abomination. Look what we've done to Earth. Chances are that at some point, there'll be another war that involves dropping buckets of instant sunshine on each other.

    I also think we've an inflated view of our knowledge and understanding. While some of the conversation on here is relatively well-informed, there is also a pack mentality - civilisation is a thin veneer.

    Looking on the bright side though, unless I missed the NASA press conference on it, anal probes are unlikely to be the preferred exobiological method of communication.

  31. #81
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    Quote Originally Posted by markrlondon View Post
    Agreed. It was extremely exciting news.

    These aren't the first Earth-like planets in a habitable zone but the numbers of planets discovered is very significant. No doubt these planets will be prime targets for spectroscopic and other imaging in due course.
    crazyp wrote:
    Good link - one thing to also remember is this star is very cool/less bright. Therefore it is much easier to observe than bigger stars. And in the grand scheme of things 40 lights years isn't much - so whatever we observe is not 'that' old.

    Absolutely Mark, and as crazyp posted the star is cooler and closer thus easier to "see". Also, to have such a large amount of "earthlike" planets in such close proximity to each other makes it easier to research too.

    As you say, hopefully expect more news from this system for years to come!





  32. #82
    Grand Master markrlondon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AlphaOmega View Post
    Looking on the bright side though, unless I missed the NASA press conference on it, anal probes are unlikely to be the preferred exobiological method of communication.
    The thing about alien abduction and that entire mythos is that it's almost wholly nothing to do with communication (at least in its modern form). If one chooses to take the view that it has any physical reality at all (highly questionable of course) then the phenomenon would seem to be entirely consistent with study, rather than communication. I.e. Exactly what humans do to other species.
    Last edited by markrlondon; 23rd February 2017 at 14:29.

  33. #83
    Grand Master hogthrob's Avatar
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    Is there any indication of how long life might have been viable on these planets?

  34. #84
    Quote Originally Posted by hogthrob View Post
    Is there any indication of how long life might have been viable on these planets?
    What is very interesting is that the star burns hydrogen so slowly that it will live for another 10 trillion years (more than 700 times longer than the age of the Universe now).

    So when the Sun burns out in a few billion years this will still be going, giving plenty of time for life to evolve if it hasn't already.

  35. #85
    Grand Master TheFlyingBanana's Avatar
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    Another interesting discovery due to be announced imminently - this time related to our solar system:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entr...?utm_hp_ref=uk
    So clever my foot fell off.

  36. #86
    Grand Master markrlondon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheFlyingBanana View Post
    Another interesting discovery due to be announced imminently - this time related to our solar system:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entr...?utm_hp_ref=uk
    Should be very interesting indeed.


    Let's be careful about Europa, though. It may have jealous owners. ;-)

  37. #87
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    This is due to happen in 2018:

    https://youtu.be/ya_D9IwB3-s

  38. #88
    Grand Master TheFlyingBanana's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ArcofZen View Post
    This is due to happen in 2018:

    https://youtu.be/ya_D9IwB3-s

    Very good! I'll put that mission in the diary and check for updates.
    So clever my foot fell off.

  39. #89
    Quote Originally Posted by ArcofZen View Post
    This is due to happen in 2018:

    https://youtu.be/ya_D9IwB3-s
    It will be a terrible waste of time and money, ending in disappointment and possibly suicide of many fine engineers.

  40. #90
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    Quote Originally Posted by sestrel View Post
    It will be a terrible waste of time and money, ending in disappointment and possibly suicide of many fine engineers.

    Haha!

    Our thoughts go out to those brave enough to attempt such a reckless, foolhardy mission.

  41. #91
    Grand Master TheFlyingBanana's Avatar
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    Last edited by TheFlyingBanana; 14th April 2017 at 00:18.
    So clever my foot fell off.

  42. #92
    Quote Originally Posted by TheFlyingBanana View Post
    Interesting. I think (and I think it's accepted that) it's almost a certainty that simple life exists elsewhere in the universe. What's encouraging is that it's now hopefully possible for us to prove it. Europa has been the prime candidate for decades, but if Enceladus is also a potential home for life, it means we've got a couple realistic chances of testing this.

    It's still a very, very large leap to green men and space ships. I'm still of the opinion that complex, technologically advanced life must be very, very rare.

  43. #93
    Master pacifichrono's Avatar
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    If you have a garden or a lawn or a tree at home, just think of how many varieties of insects and microbes and tiny animals are inhabiting that space. Then look at the weather and geologic conditions around the "four corners" of our globe and realize that our planet is teaming with life everywhere you look. Almost no condition on earth is too harsh for some type of life to thrive.

    Of the trillions of planets out there, millions must contain conditions such as ours that are not only "conducive" to life, but absolutely revel in life! I'm sure they've got ants and flies and frogs and what have you...maybe even Klingons!

  44. #94
    Quote Originally Posted by pacifichrono View Post
    If you have a garden or a lawn or a tree at home, just think of how many varieties of insects and microbes and tiny animals are inhabiting that space. Then look at the weather and geologic conditions around the "four corners" of our globe and realize that our planet is teaming with life everywhere you look. Almost no condition on earth is too harsh for some type of life to thrive.

    Of the trillions of planets out there, millions must contain conditions such as ours that are not only "conducive" to life, but absolutely revel in life! I'm sure they've got ants and flies and frogs and what have you...maybe even Klingons!
    Although, the question isn't whether there are many, many planets that are conducive to life (i.e. liquid water and the requisite elements), but rather how often life spontaneously develops - after which it is likely to "thrive", in one way or another. Life would still then have to leap several major evolutionary hurdles to then get to complex multicellular life, but what is interesting is that if we find life on either of these moons, it shows that the first, simplest hurdle is relatively easy to leap.

  45. #95
    Master bobbee's Avatar
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    TFB, Excellent links thanks.
    A very exciting time, and the possibility of ET life on the moons of other planets (not just the two mentioned) will mean many more efforts at space exploration for the future.
    The possibility of life on Europa was written about by A.C. Clarke in "2010": Odyssey 2".
    Strangely enough, he also was the first to write about possible satellite comms systems in 1945, and GPS and satellite telly in 1956.

    http://gizmodo.com/5597169/arthur-c-...ite-tv-in-1956

    Sorry, sci-fi nut.

  46. #96
    Grand Master markrlondon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheFlyingBanana View Post
    Just announced. This is pretty significent, to say the least:
    Very exciting. Alien slime creatures are a real possibility.

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