NASA: "3 Possibly Habitable Earth-Like Planets Found"
Discussion
Where do I queue for tickets?
http://www.space.com/20720-earth-like-alien-planet...
&
http://www.space.com/20726-kepler-earth-like-exopl...
Bit of a journey though...as they're 1,200 light years away
http://www.space.com/20720-earth-like-alien-planet...
&
http://www.space.com/20726-kepler-earth-like-exopl...
Bit of a journey though...as they're 1,200 light years away
Humans as we know today won't see inhabiting another planet I'm sure. But we're way too hooked up on "human survival" whereas we should really just focus on ensuring life continues when this planet burns up. Got to look long term. Fire off seeding bacteria that can survive space travel and colonise and evolve on these planets. With any luck they'll evolve enough to do the same at some stage. That's our best long term survival plan. I'm sure articles like this will fund it though.
interesting point.
the emergence of life on THIS particular planet was dependent upon so many chance occurences that there would be no way of knowing what effect sending "earth bacteria" to another planet would do to the bacteria or the destination planet.
the assumption that life on other planets would be far more evolved than us has always been a baffling assumption to me - life on other planets may have flourished and died, be where we are now or millions of years "behind" us. They may be in a steady state.
One thing Chaos theory tells us is that sensitivity to initial conditions is fundamental to how systems evolve and develop.
FWIW I think it s a great idea to send "life" to these places and see what happens. The physics and chemistry of the universe would suggest that life as we know should have as much chance of developing as it has on ours - if you give something enough chances of happening, it will happen, no matter how improbable.
It would be nice to think that inhabitants of other worlds are thinking the same thing and whilst not envying our world, are asking themselves the same questions we are....
/saganmodeoff
great thread
the emergence of life on THIS particular planet was dependent upon so many chance occurences that there would be no way of knowing what effect sending "earth bacteria" to another planet would do to the bacteria or the destination planet.
the assumption that life on other planets would be far more evolved than us has always been a baffling assumption to me - life on other planets may have flourished and died, be where we are now or millions of years "behind" us. They may be in a steady state.
One thing Chaos theory tells us is that sensitivity to initial conditions is fundamental to how systems evolve and develop.
FWIW I think it s a great idea to send "life" to these places and see what happens. The physics and chemistry of the universe would suggest that life as we know should have as much chance of developing as it has on ours - if you give something enough chances of happening, it will happen, no matter how improbable.
It would be nice to think that inhabitants of other worlds are thinking the same thing and whilst not envying our world, are asking themselves the same questions we are....
/saganmodeoff
great thread
There are simple organisms that have evolved to live in every diverse corner of this planet, thriving in many different and unique environments. Extreme heat, extreme cold, photosynthesising, living on sulphur vents etc. a good broad spectrum of these, collected, frozen and blasted off at the various planets that are most likely to sustain life might yield results.
Like the earth producing spores.
I really hope that somewhere, somone is working with this in mind. Some of the research on extreme climates on earth give me hope that it's happening.
Like the earth producing spores.
I really hope that somewhere, somone is working with this in mind. Some of the research on extreme climates on earth give me hope that it's happening.
no politics in a thread about the cosmos Terminator X said:
Can't read links on my phone - are they really saying that those planets can support human life? How on earth can they tell from 1200 light years away?
TX.
Maybe the boffins just spotted a 100W light bulb being switched on?TX.
So the planets would be about 1100 years more evolved than us.
(1200 years for the light to get to us, less 100 as they haven't got crappy dim energy saving bulbs yet!)
Edited by ctdctd on Wednesday 24th April 05:38
Terminator X said:
Can't read links on my phone - are they really saying that those planets can support human life? How on earth can they tell from 1200 light years away?
TX.
Not sure, doesn't it have something to do with emission (or absorption?) lines coming from the atmosphere allowing them to figure out the composition ? As well as measuring the orbital distance to see if its within á tolerable temperature range. TX.
Although I'm a little skeptical as I didn't realise it's possible to detect anything but massive planets at those distances.
ETA: Just read the article, 1.6 times the size of Earth, impressive.
Edited by scorp on Wednesday 24th April 06:18
They can determine the composition of the planet via the radiation as said above. Various dips in the radiation looked at on a piece of equipment can tell you the ratios, or existence of various elements due to absorbtion, (or something like that).
Edited by TheHeretic on Wednesday 24th April 07:47
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