Nothing that exciting then? There must be billions of earth size planets, even in the same orbit as ours?
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.
Nothing that exciting then? There must be billions of earth size planets, even in the same orbit as ours?
Well, I thought that was ace. The presenter's voice annoyed me, but the enthusiasm of the scientists was infectious. Very interesting.
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.
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.)
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.
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!"
NASA worried about their funding by any chance?
I bet it won't be as exciting as we want it to be!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
A stash of reasonably priced ETA 2824-2s?
Extra-terrestrial life would be a safer bet!
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.
Any one else is wondering how exowomen look like?
Fas est ab hoste doceri
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
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.
I agree and this is a good thing. The future of humanity is out there and the sooner we get there the better.
This raises some interesting possibilities about the nature of aliens reputedly visiting Earth.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
This is due to happen in 2018:
https://youtu.be/ya_D9IwB3-s
Just announced. This is pretty significent, to say the least:
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/13/us...rnd/index.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39592059
Last edited by TheFlyingBanana; 14th April 2017 at 00:18.
So clever my foot fell off.
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.
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.
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.