First potentially habitable Earth-sized planet confirmed: It may have liquid water.
83 replies, posted
[QUOTE=ZyreHD;44572448]Can't it be done in pieces? then assemble it in orbit, kind of like we did with the ISS.[/QUOTE]
That could work. Only thing that bothers me is how many individual rocket launches that must take. And they aren't cheap.
[QUOTE=OvB;44572507]Never mind the negative mass.[/QUOTE]
Just a minor oversight
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;44572132]Seems literally impossible at our technological level.[/QUOTE]
Not impossible, just extremely slow. Even at 0.99c it would obviously still take 500 years. If you built a massive 'ark' spaceship, it would make the difference between survival and extinction of humans after Earth is gone, even though it'd take five hundred years.
[QUOTE=uberKAOS;44571902]Your avatar fits
[editline]17th April 2014[/editline]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/cXEdmQu.png[/IMG][/QUOTE]
Finally a place all the people who don't want to live on this planet anymore can escape to.
Alright so how can we get there without it taking extremely long?
Is there some sort of super warp drive that can be developed that goes past the speed of light?
[QUOTE=seano12;44572643]Alright so how can we get there without it taking extremely long?
Is there some sort of super warp drive that can be developed that goes past the speed of light?[/QUOTE]
Scientist are already working on building a Warp Engine.
I was born too late to leave earth behind and colonize a new planet.
Maybe in another life...
[QUOTE=Ekalektik_1;44572110]I'm still convinced we'll find a planet perfectly suited for us, get there, and find out it's already taken.[/QUOTE]
I'm loving the idea that, as we get to around the half way point on the trip there, we see another ship coming our way. Turns out they'd just discovered us too, and decided they wanted to check the planet out.
[QUOTE=seano12;44572643]Alright so how can we get there without it taking extremely long?
Is there some sort of super warp drive that can be developed that goes past the speed of light?[/QUOTE]
I think the only theory that was every taken seriously was the [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive]Alcubierre Drive[/URL], which not only could theoretically travel at speeds way beyond the speed of light (from a fixed observation point independent to the drive) but it could also be used for backwards time travel. Unfortunately it's unlikely quantum physics will allow it to work, and besides we'll need the energy equivalent of something like the mass of jupiter. All things considered, that isn't actually that much, but at a single point in time it is.
[QUOTE=Rebi;44572489][url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive]I always liked this idea.[/url] Since it gets you places within the lifetime. Though it is currently rather infeasible, and there's probably a multitude of errors other than the fact it'd require shitloads of energy. A boy can dream.[/QUOTE]
I remember there was an article a couple years back about new calculations showing it doesn't need more energy than the universe has to work. It only needs about the mass of Jupiter. [I]Only.[/I]
Oh, it was much less. From jupiter's mass to the mass of the Voyager 1, it's included in the wiki.
[QUOTE=hexpunK;44572685]I'm loving the idea that, as we get to around the half way point on the trip there, we see another ship coming our way. Turns out they'd just discovered us too, and decided they wanted to check the planet out.[/QUOTE]
intergalactic houseswap
[QUOTE=Orkel;44572716]I remember there was an article a couple years back about new calculations showing it doesn't need more energy than the universe has to work. It only needs about the mass of Jupiter. [I]Only.[/I][/QUOTE]
[del]The US uses roughly that amount of energy in an average year iirc. It's huge but tangible. I think the problem is managing to gather and control that amount of energy at one time without everything turning to dust[/del]
Just did some research, in an average year the whole Earth's population combined only consumes half the energy required to launch an Alcubierre drive. If it's any consolation, it's roughly half the amount of energy released in a Supernova explosion, which is 493 quadrillion BTU's, or 5.2x10^20 Joules. The energy equivalent of Jupiter's mass is roughly 1.83x10^44 Joules.
It seems like a lot of energy but if you could capture every bit of energy that hit the earth every day from The Sun, you could reach that energy quota in two days.
[QUOTE=geogzm;44572719]intergalactic houseswap[/QUOTE]
Will there be camera crews and annoying narration waiting at either end? If not the deals off, no planet swap today spacefreaks.
[QUOTE=Cabbage;44572611]Not impossible, just extremely slow. Even at 0.99c it would obviously still take 500 years. If you built a massive 'ark' spaceship, it would make the difference between survival and extinction of humans after Earth is gone, even though it'd take five hundred years.[/QUOTE]
At 0.99c you'd have a pretty significant gamma-factor, though. It wouldn't feel that long (ehh, 10-20 years or something, but yeah) for the occupants (though obviously all their friends back on earth would be dead and gone).
[QUOTE=hexpunK;44572685]I'm loving the idea that, as we get to around the half way point on the trip there, we see another ship coming our way. Turns out they'd just discovered us too, and decided they wanted to check the planet out.[/QUOTE]
Then we work out a time share?
[QUOTE=Cabbage;44572714]I think the only theory that was every taken seriously was the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive"]Alcubierre Drive[/URL], which not only could theoretically travel at speeds way beyond the speed of light (from a fixed observation point independent to the drive) but it could also be used for backwards time travel. Unfortunately it's unlikely quantum physics will allow it to work, and besides we'll need the energy equivalent of something like the mass of jupiter. All things considered, that isn't actually that much, but at a single point in time it is.[/QUOTE]
Is there any way we could harness such a huge amount of energy? Are there any closer earth planets to colonize?
[QUOTE=seano12;44572803]Is there any way we could harness such a huge amount of energy? Are there any closer earth planets to colonize?[/QUOTE]
Not feasibly. Like I said, we produce similar amounts of energy every couple of years pretty easily, it's getting it all at one point that's difficult. But it looks like our only way of getting anywhere with speed.
-snip-
I honestly hope its a class M planet, are there any larger planets in the system that could protect this planet from asteroids?
[QUOTE=LoneWolf_Recon;44573049]I honestly hope its a class M planet, are there any larger planets in the system that could protect this planet from asteroids?[/QUOTE]
From the article it doesn't sound like it. They mention having found a few smaller planets in closer orbits, but nothing about any bigger ones. If they have spotted, or more like inferred, the smaller ones, they should have seen any bigger ones earlier
Colonization, hooooo!
[QUOTE=kidwithsword;44572345][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_ship]It's not necessarily impossible to get human beings that far away from Earth[/url]. The trip would last far more than a single human lifetime, that much is for sure.[/QUOTE]
Nope, time dilation theorically allows traveling thousands of light years in a single lifetime, if you are traveling close enough to the speed of light.
Relativity is the shit
[QUOTE=Cosa8888;44573317]Nope, time dilation theorically allows traveling thousands of light years in a single lifetime, if you are traveling close enough to the speed of light.
Relativity is the shit[/QUOTE]
But for all intents and purposes you will have lost everything you know that was 500 years ago.
IF you look at it like that, you are time traveling.
only 500ly away! if we leave now, we may get there before christmas
of the year 3000!
[QUOTE=kidwithsword;44572345][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_ship]It's not necessarily impossible to get human beings that far away from Earth[/url]. The trip would last far more than a single human lifetime, that much is for sure.[/QUOTE]
How fun would it be to find out once you're old enough that you have to learn to be an astrophysicist, botanist, doctor or rocket scientist?
Folks, Mars is in the habitable zone of the solar system and is completely inhospitable. It's cool that this was discovered and all but don't get your hopes up.
[QUOTE=Cabbage;44572727][del]The US uses roughly that amount of energy in an average year iirc. It's huge but tangible. I think the problem is managing to gather and control that amount of energy at one time without everything turning to dust[/del]
Just did some research, in an average year the whole Earth's population combined only consumes half the energy required to launch an Alcubierre drive. If it's any consolation, it's roughly half the amount of energy released in a Supernova explosion, which is 493 quadrillion BTU's, or 5.2x10^20 Joules. The energy equivalent of Jupiter's mass is roughly 1.83x10^44 Joules.
It seems like a lot of energy but if you could capture every bit of energy that hit the earth every day from The Sun, you could reach that energy quota in two days.[/QUOTE]
I don't think any amount of energy can make an Alcubierre drive work.
Edit:
In fact it requires less than any amount of energy to work.
[QUOTE=Falubii;44573495]I don't think any amount of energy can make an Alcubierre drive work.
Edit:
In fact it requires less than any amount of energy to work.[/QUOTE]
According to what? you can't pretend we've fully researched that field well enough to make that sort of absolute claim
[QUOTE=SIRIUS;44573529]According to what? you can't pretend we've fully researched that field well enough to make that sort of absolute claim[/QUOTE]
According to the theory behind the idea. It would require a negative energy density (which doesn't exist) and it would wreck causality. Also I don't think the word "think" is by any means an absolute claim. I don't [I]think[/I] it will work.
Ah yes when confronted with facts just rate dumb okay.
There is gonna be a species killing disease on there i guarantee it.
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