Titaw Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 16 'super-Earths' found outside solar system It's not like aliens put up a welcome banner or anything, but scientists now have newly identified at least one planet that could potentially sustain life. The European Southern Observatory has just announced the discovery of more than 50 new exoplanets (planets outside our solar system), including 16 super-Earths (planets whose mass is between one and 10 times that of our own planet). More click HERE I think it's pretty cool. I just don't want this thread to turn into a God/Anti-God debate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elkabong82 Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PokerPacker Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 so 35 light years means it would take us how long to reach it with a probe and bring back data? ---------- Post added September-14th-2011 at 10:38 AM ---------- a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...... more like "a long time ago in this galaxy but still far, far away." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Botched Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 I'd orbit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corcaigh Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 It was only in the 1990s that the first exoplanet was discovered. Now we're up to more than 600 confirmed and another 1000+ candidates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EersSkins05 Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 so 35 light years means it would take us how long to reach it with a probe and bring back data? A light year is approximately 5,878,499,810,000 miles (5.878 trillion miles.) 35 light years would be 205,747,493,350,000 miles. The record for the fastest spacecraft ever recorded is by the twin Helios probes that were placed in orbit around the Sun. Both these vehicles reached top speeds of around 150,000 mph. (But top speeds leaving our solar system are only about 35k mph right now.) (Source for this stuff) So assuming you could hit the speeds of the fastest probe ever recorded and keep that maintained for thousands of years, our probe would take 156,581 years to just reach that planet, 313,162 years to bring it back at the same speed. So don't hold your breath. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PokerPacker Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 so I guess we'll be needing them warp engines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EersSkins05 Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 so I guess we'll be needing them warp engines. The amazing part is that cosmically speaking, 35 light years away is like being right across the street. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NavyDave Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 More than likely in 22012 a descendant of ND will be on ExtremeAndroidSkins talking about the hot or not status of CatGirl aliens who traveled to earth to have fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trippster Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 Trying to find life on another planet is like trying to find a man capable of giving birth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elkabong82 Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 Trying to find life on another planet is like trying to find a man capable of giving birth. Arnold did it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d0ublestr0ker0ll Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 Trying to find life on another planet is like trying to find a man capable of giving birth. Disagree. It's amazingly likely that there are planets that fall within stars' life belts. Wouldn't be the least bit surprised at there being millions, billions, maybe even trillions of life-harboring planets in the Universe. The main factor is that we don't have a spaceship that can get us to and from even the closest star, so we can't prove it, but the numbers are overwhelmingly in favor of there being extraterrestrial life. On the other hand, it seems like not too many men give birth, plenty of hard evidence for that. The bottom line is that one is a theory and one is a fact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DieselPwr44 Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 Uuuuuhhhhhhh,look here man..........O Qua Tanzien one!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistertim Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 Wouldn't be the least bit surprised at there being millions, billions, maybe even trillions of life-harboring planets in the Universe. The main factor is that we don't have a spaceship that can get us to and from even the closest star, so we can't prove it, but the numbers are overwhelmingly in favor of there being extraterrestrial life. I assume you're referring to the Drake equation when saying the numbers are overwhelmingly in favor of there being extraterrestrial life? If so, the Drake equation has been looked at dubiously for some time now, or at the very least that it needs some serious updating. Too many relative and arbitrary variables as well as missing other variables that we've come to understand since 1961 when he came up with that equation. The Fermi Paradox and lots of it's possible explanations is pretty interesting reading. Either way, my guess would be that if there are civilizations that have come to the point where they have the technology and understanding of the universe to travel between stars and/or galaxies (which would require superluminal speeds) they either wouldn't be terribly interested in us and wouldn't bother to talk to us (how often have you sat down next to an ant hill and spent days talking to them?) or we would simply be so vastly far apart technologically, evolutionarily, and/or purely biologically (or they aren't biological at all) that direct communication would be borderline futile anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d0ublestr0ker0ll Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 No, I'm basing it on common sense. We are one planet with how many species of animals living on it? It's amazing that our small little planet can be bustling with so much life - even after life on it was virtually reset at least once in its history. There are billions of galaxies, I refuse to ignore the probability that our planet is the only one that supports life. What, we just lucked out? None of the bright cluster galaxies that are 10 times bigger than ours happen to have a damn life form that can make a light bulb? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fullnelson9999 Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 Call this man...he'll know how to get us there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spjunkies Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 I wonder if Aliens are looking at this place through their super telescopes and wondering if there is life on this planet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistertim Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 I wonder if Aliens are looking at this place through their super telescopes and wondering if there is life on this planet. Life or intelligent life? The latter point can always be debated. :pfft: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spjunkies Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 Life or intelligent life? The latter point can always be debated. :pfft: Valid point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unforgiven Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 I wonder if Aliens are looking at this place through their super telescopes and wondering if there is life on this planet. The thing to remember is that when you look out at other planets you seem as they existed when the light that you are viewing left them. The closest spiral galaxy to ours is the Andromeda galaxy, which is about 2.5 million light years away. So if right this second an alien looked through his telescope at earth, he would see it as it existed 2.5 million years ago....the time it took the light to travel from earth to his telescope. Obviously humans know very little about the universe as a whole but relative to the age of the universe, the time human beings have existed on earth is so so tiny that it's very very very unlikely any intelligent life, if it exists out there, realizes we're here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spjunkies Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 The thing to remember is that when you look out at other planets you seem as they existed when the light that you are viewing left them. The closest spiral galaxy to ours is the Andromeda galaxy, which is about 2.5 million light years away. So if right this second an alien looked through his telescope at earth, he would see it as it existed 2.5 million years ago....the time it took the light to travel from earth to his telescope.Obviously humans know very little about the universe as a whole but relative to the age of the universe, the time human beings have existed on earth is so so tiny that it's very very very unlikely any intelligent life, if it exists out there, realizes we're here. Thanks for completely destroying my dream Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ancalagon the Black Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 Well, if an alien from one of these super-Earths looked through its telescope at Earth right now, it would see Pol Pot taking over Cambodia, the Concorde taking off, Jimmy Carter being elected President, and the Ramones and Sex Pistols putting out albums. Not sure how interested they'd be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PokerPacker Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 Thanks for completely destroying my dream that's only for aliens from another galaxy. If its from HD 85512b, then they'd be seeing about 35 years ago (not even far enough back to tell us who shot Kennedy!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GibbsFactor Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 Now the biggest question... How do we get here? What kind of cryosleep can we perform and how long does it last? I'd imagine it taking an unimaginable amount of time to get there. ---------- Post added September-14th-2011 at 09:32 PM ---------- A light year is approximately 5,878,499,810,000 miles (5.878 trillion miles.)35 light years would be 205,747,493,350,000 miles. The record for the fastest spacecraft ever recorded is by the twin Helios probes that were placed in orbit around the Sun. Both these vehicles reached top speeds of around 150,000 mph. (But top speeds leaving our solar system are only about 35k mph right now.) (Source for this stuff) So assuming you could hit the speeds of the fastest probe ever recorded and keep that maintained for thousands of years, our probe would take 156,581 years to just reach that planet, 313,162 years to bring it back at the same speed. So don't hold your breath. lol Nice! Can we be in cryosleep for that long? We'll increase speeds but it's got to get to around 5 years for it to be worth it for us to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unforgiven Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 that's only for aliens from another galaxy. If its from HD 85512b, then they'd be seeing about 35 years ago (not even far enough back to tell us who shot Kennedy!) Yup, that, but keep in mind that almost the entire universe exists outside our galaxy....so most likely almost all the life exists outside of our galaxy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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