Planets that can potentially support life... - Page 16

On December 06 2011 15:37 Carson wrote:
The sad thing is, beyond speculation, we will likely never know in our lifetimes what there is or isn't beyond the Earth.

Cosmic time is so much more vast than 70-80 years that it's hard to think about. Mankind hasn't even existed as long as it would take to get to the nearest suspected habitable planet to us.

Something else to think about (although I'm sure it's been mentioned) we see these stars and the evidence of planets as they were hundreds or thousands of years ago. IF they did have life that was similar to what we recognize as life, it could have come and gone long since.

What i don't understand is what a planet has to have in order for it to be capable of "supporting life." I get the feeling that scientists take abstract ideas from our own planet and apply them to other planets when for all they know beings could exist that function on completely different standards than our own.

Something else to think about (although I'm sure it's been mentioned) we see these stars and the evidence of planets as they were hundreds or thousands of years ago. IF they did have life that was similar to what we recognize as life, it could have come and gone long since.

On December 06 2011 15:42 Nenyim wrote:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_life#Scientific_search

Liquid water, some "heavy" elements, and some kind of atmostphere so you don't have everything vanish into space.


They are basing it on what we can observe on earth (the living and every chemical reaction we can have.)

Carbon-based form of life (http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/980221b.html) because carbon is abundent compare to other elements and it's esay to creat complexe structure with it.

Liquid water : (can't find a good explanation) but water is amazing as a solvent and allow a lot of reactions which can only helps life to appeare.

On December 06 2011 15:42 ryanAnger wrote:

However, I'm inclined to think that sometime during my lifetime we'll have the technology necessary to at least travel a few lightyears in a realistic timeframe. I realize that's hopeful optimism though.

On December 06 2011 15:37 Carson wrote:
The sad thing is, beyond speculation, we will likely never know in our lifetimes what there is or isn't beyond the Earth.

Cosmic time is so much more vast than 70-80 years that it's hard to think about. Mankind hasn't even existed as long as it would take to get to the nearest suspected habitable planet to us.

Something else to think about (although I'm sure it's been mentioned) we see these stars and the evidence of planets as they were hundreds or thousands of years ago. IF they did have life that was similar to what we recognize as life, it could have come and gone long since.

On December 06 2011 16:31 FiWiFaKi wrote:
Just a perspective for you guys.

Since it takes 7 months for the Space Shuttle to reach a distance to the the sun, lets calculate how fast it travels. Now the distance from earth to the sun is 150,000,000km of travel. Lets approximate the Space Shuttle can therefore travel 250,000,000km in one year. Calculating the speed of light is about 9,460,000,000,000,km/year. It means with our current technology it takes 38,000 years to travel one light year, so this planet that is "only" 35 light years away will take us over one million years to travel to.

I keep wishing that somehow this stuff was possible in our lifetime, but the reality is it wont be ):

On December 06 2011 15:42 ryanAnger wrote:


Yeah, it's part of the reason why I think we should focus our resources toward investigating Titan. The surface of Titan is covered in lakes of Methane and Ethane, as well as water ice, so it's the most likely candidate for having life within our own Solar System. Obviously, it wouldn't be habitable for humans, but even the prospect of finding any form of life there should be enough motivation to spend the few billion dollars necessary to investigate further. And all of that is something that could be done in a span of ~10 years or so.

However, I'm inclined to think that sometime during my lifetime we'll have the technology necessary to at least travel a few lightyears in a realistic timeframe. I realize that's hopeful optimism though.

On December 06 2011 16:39 FrodoAndTheSlobStix wrote:
We should send the worst of the worst criminal men and women on long shuttle have them grow food and reproduce and travel for generations.

On December 06 2011 17:09 Psyonic_Reaver wrote:
Why send the worst? I would gladly volunteer to be a mechanic or something on the first voyage. It would be exciting. There is nothing left on Earth to discover anymore.

On December 06 2011 12:42 ryanAnger wrote:


The most realistic way that we currently know of to travel close to the speed of light would just be constant acceleration. Physically speaking, if we constantly accelerated at a slightly less than exponential rate, our bodies would easily be able to withstand the force, and it could be done completely with the technology that we have currently. The only thing missing would be an "infinite" fuel source, or at least one efficient enough to sustain constant acceleration over long periods of time.

I know it was semi-off topic to your post, but I thought it was slightly related.

On December 06 2011 17:13 nam nam wrote:

Saying that jokingly I wonder how long it would take to accelerate to near the speed of light while being survivable for humans. It would be quite hard to make pit stops along the way I'd assume if you don't want to waste a lot of time.

On December 06 2011 17:20 hypercube wrote:
The real news is not this specific planet: it's that Earth-like planets aren't extremely rare. The next move should be a systematic program to check all nearby stars for planets and then look at their atmospheres for signs of life.

If we found an Earth-like planet within 10 light-years a long term program to send a robotic mission wouldn't be completely unrealistic, even at our current (or slightly more advanced) technology.

On December 06 2011 17:37 GGTeMpLaR wrote:


That depends how you define rare =p

Given how much of the cosmos is actually vast empty space, any planet, hell any mass in space is extremely rare if you look at it compared to how much of space is just vacuum. And if anything about our current understanding of the accelerating expansion of the universe is true, then it's just getting rarer and rarer as the universe gets less and less dense.

On December 06 2011 17:23 Reborn8u wrote:
A lot of people here are pretty pessimistic. Try to realize what the world was like over a century ago. Automobiles, flight, communications (internet, television, cellphones), space travel, were all unimaginable dreams just a generation before they happened. I think it is foolish to rule out that mankind could have a major breakthrough in the next half century that will change life as we know it and our role in the universe. Ask your grandparents how many times over their world was revolutionized by technology. I'm not saying it's going to happen, but don't rule it out.

Who knows, maybe 20 years from now someone will discover a propulsion method to get much closer to light speed than we think is possible today. According to the theory of relativity, time slows as you approach light speed. So a trip that is 35 light years would pass as much less time if you were to move fast enough. Although, much more time would pass for us here on earth during the voyage.

I don't know what the future holds, but I like to hope, just maybe, someday in my life, even if I'm 100 years old, that someone will visit another world like earth or at least get a probe there and send back the pictures. Maybe by flying there, maybe mankind will master gravity and be able to bend space, distort time, who knows.....

I doubt that people will be willing to bear the financial burden of the vast resources it would take to get a human to another star system with no idea what is there. But maybe in our lives a probe will reach the nearest star, Look at this there are a lot of stars withing 16 light years. Some just 4 light years away. Is it crazy to think that 10 or 20 years from now that it's possible for anyone to develop a propulsion system that could get there in 50 years? Maybe in our lives we will get to see up close pictures of some of the planets orbiting these stars.

Maybe I'm just a dreamer, but if you went back 100 years and tried to convince anyone that a man would set foot on the moon, you'd be committed to an asylum. Perhaps we are only 1 epiphany away from the impossible becoming possible. A little more optimism please