[Tanada]

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/could-g ... or-life-2/

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')emperatures can be as hot as 160 degrees or as frigid as 25 degrees below zero, but in between — in the land of constant sunrise — it would be “shirt-sleeve weather,” said co-discoverer Steven Vogt of the University of California at Santa Cruz.

It’s unknown whether water actually exists on the planet, and what kind of atmosphere it has. But because conditions are ideal for liquid water, and because there always seems to be life on Earth where there is water, Vogt believes “that chances for life on this planet are 100 percent.”

The astronomers’ findings are being published in Astrophysical Journal and were announced by the National Science Foundation on Wednesday.

The planet circles a star called Gliese 581. It’s about 120 trillion miles away, so it would take several generations for a spaceship to get there. It may seem like a long distance, but in the scheme of the vast universe, this planet is “like right in our face, right next door to us,” Vogt said in an interview.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')img]http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/29/article-0-0B675EFC000005DC-221_634x452.jpg[/img]
This artist's conception shows the inner four planets of the Gliese 581 system and their host star, a red dwarf star only 20 light years away from Earth. The four tiny planets in the background are the planets that have already been discovered. The closer, blue and green planet is 581G, the most Earth-like planet ever discovered
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1316243/Is-GLIESE-581-g-new-Earth-Planet-20-light-years-away-support-life.html

[Rod_Cloutier]

This is amazing news, the first Earth sized exoplanet in the habitable zone around a star has been announced:

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010 ... liese.html

They should name it 'Pandora' after James Cameron's epic film Avatar last year.

[Tanada]

Time dilation is very low until you exceed 75% or 80% of light speed IIRC, the trip would take 40 years at half and would seem to the crew as if it took something like 38. The effect is logarithmic and grows increasingly important as you approach unity i.e. light speed.

The virus/bacteria argument is valid for any inhabitable environment we will ever encounter.

From the article I got the impression the planet is not tidally locked by is tidally synchronized like Mercury is to our sun, it rotates three times with respect to the universe for every two orbits around the star. That makes the days very long, but not eternal day/night.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Repent', '[')b]They should name it 'Pandora' after James Cameron's epic film Avatar last year.

[careinke]

This is awesome news. I have always hoped we would discover extraterrestrial life in my lifetime. This brings us a lot closer to that goal.

[Poordogabone]

I've read that it is three times the mass of earth, I don't think that we would be able to tolerate 3 Gs for an extended period of time. Creatures living there would most likely have to be tiny to fight that kind of gravity, maybe the size of a squirrel. Also if we could build a space ship capable of whooshing at one million miles per hour, according to my calculation it would take us 13420 years to get there. That's quite a few generations.

[anador]

Just because the mass is three times larger is no indication of surface gravity by itself.

The physical size of the planet also contributes to the estimation of surface gravity. according to Wikipedia the gravity is between 1.2 and 1.7 gee, relatively comfortable for a person.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('anador', 'a')ccording to Wikipedia the gravity is between 1.2 and 1.7 gee, relatively comfortable for a person.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Poordogabone', '.')..according to my calculation it would take us 13420 years to get there. That's quite a few generations.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Poordogabone', 'I')'ve read that it is three times the mass of earth, I don't think that we would be able to tolerate 3 Gs for an extended period of time. Creatures living there would most likely have to be tiny to fight that kind of gravity, maybe the size of a squirrel. Also if we could build a space ship capable of whooshing at one million miles per hour, according to my calculation it would take us 13420 years to get there. That's quite a few generations.

[Pops]

I understand the part about finding the invisible object by measuring the "wobble" of the star but how do they measure the rotation?

[highlander]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'I') understand the part about finding the invisible object by measuring the "wobble" of the star but how do they measure the rotation?

[efarmer]

I believe they infer from the relative masses of the star and planet and their distances, that the planet would be tidally locked to the star, like our moon is to earth. I.E. the gravity of the adjacent objects causes the smaller one to sync it's orbit to the larger, which is why we always see the same side of the moon as it rotates around us and rotates on it's own axis.

How they know it is actually rotating and is at 1:1 tidal lock and not a resonance is beyond me.
That is why I am going back to work on assembly language software and bludgeoning registers
now.

[Poordogabone]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')e were discussing flight at speeds of half of light speed or above, that is to say 93,000 miles per second aka 5,580,000 miles per minute aka 334,800,000 miles per hour, not a measly million or so.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Poordogabone', 'S')o you already used all of the energy harvested on the earth for the last 1000 years including all fossil fuels, nuclear, sun + all that remains in the ground, just to push your ship to that velocity, now how are you going to decelerate to orbit your destination planet? No problem, scotty always has a trick up his sleeve.

[Ludi]

"Space: you can't get there from here" by Neil de Grasse Tyson

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... _21084303/

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '&')quot;Space: you can't get there from here" by Neil de Grasse Tyson

[Ludi]

And people wonder why the Space Age is over for the US.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'A')nd people wonder why the Space Age is over for the US.