New Earths right around the corner?

[Space Toker]

If a planet is close enough to its star, it keeps the same side facing its sun all the time, therefore tidally locked. I think I got that right! But I also thought I heard that if it had a moon, that could prevent this. So how do they know it doesn't? Anyway, I think Kepler already discovered an earth-like planet or maybe several, they are just getting all the facts straight and making sure their careers receive the biggest possible boost before releasing the data. Just a hunch, could be wrong. And we can get to nearby stars (and this is very nearby by galactic standards), we just have to get off our collective butts and develop one of several proposed technologies that could do the trick.

Edit: I heard there is supposed to be some news from the Kepler team on Monday. Hopefully this is going to be some big annoucement with some major results. Not just more of what we already know, that there are over 1200 candidates and some are earth-sized and many more Neptune sized, but most of them too hot to be habitable.

 

[Space Toker]

well, they announced another 1000 or so candidates, and a super earth or Neptune size world in its stars habitable zone. They weren't too specific on the size, 2.4 times Earth's radius I believe, that's all I saw. At the exoplanet website I list below, they list it as .25 the radius of Jupiter! As far as Gliese 581 g, this website only lists it as unconfirmed/controversial, so I guess its existence depends on who you ask or who you know?!

http://www.exoplanet.eu/catalog-all.php?&munit=&runit=&punit=&mode=-7&more=

 

[Space Toker]

new earths? not yet
earth size yes, they announce today
quit holding out on us, we know you are not giving us all you know!

 

[MagicChef]

ALMOST every species on EARTH depends on the killing and eating of a lower ranking species on the food pole. Forget sending msg's out calling for interaction with aliens. I dont want to be the lower guy.

I guess Im still bitter about Pluto getting the axe as a "planet"

 

[Space Toker]

Well I still think the Pluto thing was a mistake, but it is all a fine line too. I am all for more accurate classification, but the implication that a dwarf planet is not a real planet is where I think they made their mistake. I think a universal classification system that fits all planets including alien ones needs to be developed. Of course we do not know every type out there yet, so the classification would have to be adjusted.

A sensible classification to me would take into account not just size but temp and composition too. In our solar system, there would be sub dwarf planets (asteroids and other non-spherical bodies that orbit the sun and not another body), dwarf planets (like Pluto, they would be small but real planets), moons, gas giants, and ice giants.
In other systems, you have carbon planets made of diamond, super-Earths, hot Jupiters and larger, hot Neptunes, water worlds, and probably many other ones we haven't thought of yet.

Messages? I have mixed feelings about that but if they want to, they will find us eventually through other means whether we seek it or not.

 

[Space Toker]

http://news.yahoo.com/earth-sized-planet-found-just-outside-solar-system-214232222.html

Exciting news! A planet around the nearest star... sweet! No not another Earth, just a planet of very similar mass but too hot to support life. But it is the implications that are tantalizing, that there may be another Earth further out. Right next door astronomically!
I admit the article at first deceived me into thinking they found a rogue Earth just outside our solar system or such a planet in the Oort Cloud, but even though it was a bad title it was an interesting article.

 

[igrowone]

saw that myself, very damn interesting
there appear to be a shit load of planets out there, not really a surprise, but now we have data
it makes the numbers for life having arisen in other places higher and higher
it makes the Fermi paradox all the more interesting, if planets are so common, which implies life should be quite common, where the hell is everybody?
should be a a radio party going on if nothing else

 

[dbuzz]

 

[mr.brunch]

the distances involved are just too huge to expect us to travel to these worlds in our lifetimes

 

[vonforne]

Before time began, there was the Cube. We know not where it comes from, only that it holds the power to create worlds and fill them with life. That is how our race was born. For a time, we lived in harmony. But like all great power, some wanted it for good, others for evil. And so began the war. A war that ravaged our planet until it was consumed by death, and the Cube was lost to the far reaches of space. We scattered across the galaxy, hoping to find it and rebuild our home. Searching every star, every world. And just when all hope seemed lost, message of a new discovery drew us to an unknown planet called... Earth.
[the All Spark falls to Earth]
Optimus Prime: But we were already too late..

 

[Holdin']

saw that myself, very damn interesting
there appear to be a shit load of planets out there, not really a surprise, but now we have data
it makes the numbers for life having arisen in other places higher and higher
it makes the Fermi paradox all the more interesting, if planets are so common, which implies life should be quite common, where the hell is everybody?
should be a a radio party going on if nothing else

Look how quickly we went from the invention of radio, to now everything converting to digital. About a century or so? That's not even a fraction of a "blink of an eye" in cosmological time. In a digital world, we are silent. Our first radio waves has only traveled passed a handful of stars, and who's to say "they" (theoretical intelligent life within that distance) haven't long moved on from radio, or may have skipped radio technology all together. And on another note.... think about how endless the opportunities are.... any intelligent life out there may have technologically advanced to a point which is beyond human comprehension. In fact, any other form of LIFE may be beyond human comprehension. I personally find the Fermi Paradox to be rather pessimistic and a very naive assumption. Our universe is VAST, as well as time itself. Billions of habitable planets, advanced civilizations, primitive life or civilizations may have came and went, and there could have been billions of other minds contemplating the same thought. And just think about how the "force" of natural selection is causing nature to constantly be improving itself... and humans have only been around for a VERY short period of time. It is no doubt that life is a very special thing, let alone conscious life, and think about what has spanned between single celled organisms and the human brain... In a relatively short period of time. Consciousness may be only the beginning for what may be possible in nature, and by Nature I mean the Universe. Its an astounding thought.

Gosh I am friggin' baked.

It's going to be an exciting couple next decades when it comes to planet hunting.... this technology has only just begun. I have a feeling some truly amazing discoveries will be made in this century! And we should all feel lucky to be able to watch it all unfold...

 

[igrowone]

Fermi's thoughts are a little dated, it's certainly not the gold standard for current thinking on exo biology
still, the basic idea is tough to ignore, if other intelligent technological beings have been around a long time(and the odds certainly favor that), then some evidence ought to be apparent
but as you say, that could be much different from what we're expecting, so the jury is still very much out
a rather interesting(and unpleasant) story by Greg Bear - The Forge of God - has an alternative to Fermi's thoughts
and that is if you broadcast your presence in your 'radio neighborhood', you will attract unwanted attention, i.e. few radio transmitting civilizations because you don't survive long when you do that

 

[Holdin']

Fermi's thoughts are a little dated, it's certainly not the gold standard for current thinking on exo biology
still, the basic idea is tough to ignore, if other intelligent technological beings have been around a long time(and the odds certainly favor that), then some evidence ought to be apparent
but as you say, that could be much different from what we're expecting, so the jury is still very much out
a rather interesting(and unpleasant) story by Greg Bear - The Forge of God - has an alternative to Fermi's thoughts
and that is if you broadcast your presence in your 'radio neighborhood', you will attract unwanted attention, i.e. few radio transmitting civilizations because you don't survive long when you do that

Not to mention the other possibility that civilizations may come and go within the blink of an eye due to self destruction (which i believe will be our demise), or habitability of planets may not remain stable very long due to asteroids, cosmic rays, supernovae, etc..... and life may be fairly "common" from a cosmic standpoint, but for intelligent life to evolve under the right conditions, and advance to the point of which have the ability to explore/study the cosmos, likely is to be considered very rare within our stellar neighborhood.

And then to think about like you said, broadcasting may be a deathwish, but at the same time I can see it being biologically instinctive to want to explore....

 

[Space Toker]

Yeah maybe they just don't want to have contact with us and have progressed well beyond needing radio broadcasts! And warp drive is more possible than ever, I heard some report that they can run it on a lot less power than thought. If things keep progressing this way, warp drive is totally possible within 20 years. Not that this will happen, but it eventually will and a lot sooner than most think. Alpha Centauri trips will be child's play then but a nice place to start!

 

[Space Toker]

yeah you would expect some evidence like a crashed ship or something but that kind of evidence would be easy to hide if the govt got ahold of it.

 

[minds_I]

yeah you would expect some evidence like a crashed ship or something but that kind of evidence would be easy to hide if the govt got ahold of it.

Hello all,

You know it would be plausable for a powerfull government to cover up something such as a crashed alien ship.

But then you have to think about human nature and how hard it is to keep a secret this large for soo long.

The Roswell thing comes to mind and how there is all this speculation and yet no TANGIBLE info has been leaked. Especially is this age of communication.

As to life beyond this solar system....would be pretty arrogant to assume humans are the only intelligent life in the universe.

minds_I

 

[Space Toker]

Yes well it seems they threaten and shake people up enough to keep them silent, I have seen shows with admittedly low credibility making such a point and dong a decent job at it despite the credibility issues. I agree it is almost impossible that there is not more intelligent life out there than us, and highly likely a lot of it. I was leading to some great grand point and forgot but will be back to make it if I remember. peace

 

[Space Toker]

I just read recently some (several I think) headlines on space.com about "ancient life may have once existed on Mars" or something similar like it was brand new news from NASA. Am I the only one underwhelmed? Haven't we suspected this for what, 5 or 10 or more years now? So what, now we suspect it a little more strongly? And have they finally confirmed the Higgs Boson (now there's a cool username, NOT) or do they just strongly suspect that too?

 

[igrowone]

good to see you stirring up the thread, keeping it alive
the Mars 'news' does seem underwhelming, but often science is that, grunt work that lays foundations
from my understanding, what we 'knew' before has been much more corroborated with current results, i.e. Mars was wet for a substantial period of time
the Higgs stuff is pretty cool for those wannabe physicist's on here
again, a more conclusive set of evidence that matches the preliminary announcements, it's definitely at least a Higg like particle
but the sparse nature of the data, 1 in a trillion events shows a Higg event(?), means a lot more data must be had for further insight into whatever this particle really is

 

[Feyd]

so imagine you go to this planet and it's just like earth minus the humans? i think that's the closest we will ever find to a planet just like ours.

i've heard the darwinist claim that over 99% of every species earth has seen has gone extinct, including bacteria and viruses, which probably account for most of that, at least i would guess that. very random and fortunate incidents and circumstances led to our evolution. and based on an ever changing dna recipe that created the human brain, we have not had to worry about our own survival, not like feral or wild animals. we have culture and history and it seems so magical like THIS is what life is SUPPOSED to be like, but i think we're just an anomaly. right now i'm watching fucking televsion and using an ipad. there are wild animals that might eat their own young today, a lion taking over a pride somewhere, an insect born in the past 48 hours is already middle aged.

i very much doubt that on another planet, the massive predators that evolved to be self replicating rube goldberg calorie consumers have been wiped out, leaving a calm wake for a physically weaker yet mentally superior animal to begin large agricultural communities and develop cities and civilizations out of them
there isn't another planet with trick or treating, the academy awards, restaraunts, booze cruises and retirement homes.

i think the human experience is a totally unique occurence in the universe.