NASA basically announced there's no doubt life exist on other planets Kepler 452-b

Nobody from NASA, or any of the other agencies carrying out space research, has ever denied the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe.

Saying that there are places where it might be a possibility is not the same as "They will be here next Tuesday".

originally posted by: blacktie
they cant keep 'extraterrestrial life a secret' anymore, wonder why, what's coming our direction? something big going to make a big splash?
something big and earth shaking about to happen?

GOOD POINTS!!

Not only are there other Earth like planets out there and now they have found one that has been in it's habitable zone for around 6 billion years, there's other versions of you and other Hubble volumes that are exactly like ours.

There's a finite number of states matter can be in and the constants of nature seems to favor configurations that are earth like vs say Jupiter like.

So it's like a deck of cards and poker. There's 52 cards(microstates) and 2,598,960(macrostates) in 5 card poker that the 52 cards can be arranged in. What this basically means is these arrangements will repeat as space expands. This is why you see solar systems forming and planets forming around stars. This configurations will repeat themselves until a configuration just like our universe occurs again.



Again, there's no doubt that life exists on other planets unless life on Earth was specially created and the Creator didn't create any life anywhere else in the universe.

this is amazing news

originally posted by: havok
I have no issue with their speculation.

But that is all it is. Speculation.
We will never have the capability to travel there, or even see what actually takes place on that planet. We can guess, or formulate what we imagine things would be like, but this isn't proof of anything.

The sheer distance between Earth and Keplar is so massive, that any relative argument for life there is merely a hope.

Fun to dream about? I suppose.

No kidding! The OP is getting a bit excited over nothing really....I wonder if he shot his wad when a government agency said there is life out there in other times besides this one? WHAT???? LIFE OUT THERE???? YAY!!! Oh wait, no proof of anything....DOESN'T MATTER, YAY!!!! YAY!!!

I will get excited if there is actual PROOF of some life out there, not wild speculation and guessing...Oh well, I hope the OP has a fantastic day now that his excitement level is at an all-time high!

originally posted by: neoholographic
If you look at how solar systems form, it's just no doubt!

We will find microbial life throughout our solar system. It's really about how long a planet can hold it's water. When you look at Venus and Earth it will tell you a lot.

The only good news I read, is their statement as to how little we know about life. This is the greatest news of all ... as they have entered the stage, of admitting that life as we know it may not be as we think we know it.

Wether kepler holds life or not, is not really that important right now ... as it's too far away to really know for sure.

The truth about the Universe, is that it's probably ALL alive in a sense. The philosophical question, and perhaps a theological and practical as well. Is what purpose "we", THIS life we know, serves. Are we "parasites" or do we have a purpose?

originally posted by: B4dg3r
this is amazing news

Exactly!!

Some key points!

Earth like planets are "quite common" in our universe.
Kepler 452-b is around 6 billion years old and has remained in it's habitable zone longer than earth.
This is like finding a needle in a haystack based on our limited view as to how life forms.
There's NOTHING preventing life from forming on other planets unless life on earth has some special ingredient designed by a Creator that can't be duplicated anywhere else in the universe.

HUGE NEWS!!

Hello ATS, this is my first post despite being a reader of this forum for many years, and this news compelled me to finally make one.

It is big news, whatever people think. Keplar has discovered many thousands of planets since its inception, yet Nasa choose announce this ONE as a potential life harbouring outpost. That in itself must mean Nasa are pinning a lot of their credibility and hopes on this one, and it seems with good reason.

This admission, after all of these years of ifs, buts and maybes, says to me that this is the real deal.

To me that is extremely exciting, even if we never get to physically visit or even see it up close and personal through imaging. As one poster said, however, nothing is impossible and this could be the start of an exciting new era for space travel that leads to even more discoveries.

A landmark day.

Whole lot of excitement over nothing.

Get back to me when they take the "mights" and "coulds" and "possibles" out of their statements.

They already found a few around this sun, Kepler-186f is one they found last year that probably is a frozen ball (but similar earth size).

Seti did a listen around april of that year, but didn't hear anything. Seti@live that uses the allen array did find some "interesting" background noise but nothing conclusive.

Kepler 186 is in the cygnus constellation, its a main sequence red dwarf with 5 known planets. So its about half the size of our sun and less metallic.

@OP, they never said anything about knowing whether it has life or not, just that its in the perfect spot for water to be liquid and its so close to earth sized.

location in cygnus:

Too bad we need much, much faster propulsion we have today, or find way create and use wormholes. I calculated that it takes 25 million years to reach with spacecraft travelling at 60 000 km/h (~37 000 mi/h), which is close to fastest speeds we have now, or 30 millions years with speed of 50 000 km/h. But that isn't the only problem, it takes 1400 years to communicate at the end of journey. Now that's a latency!

Maybe the aliens from there are already travelling to here. The planet is much older, they could have far more advanced civilizations. And there is no way to know does that planet have life, even though we could find out it's atmospheres composition.

originally posted by: jonblade
Hello ATS, this is my first post despite being a reader of this forum for many years, and this news compelled me to finally make one.

It is big news, whatever people think. Keplar has discovered many thousands of planets since its inception, yet Nasa choose announce this ONE as a potential life harbouring outpost. That in itself must mean Nasa are pinning a lot of their credibility and hopes on this one, and it seems with good reason.

This admission, after all of these years of ifs, buts and maybes, says to me that this is the real deal.

To me that is extremely exciting, even if we never get to physically visit or even see it up close and personal through imaging. As one poster said, however, nothing is impossible and this could be the start of an exciting new era for space travel that leads to even more discoveries.

A landmark day.

Good points and it's great to think that my children's children children might explore some of these things if we don't blow ourselves up first.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: Thecakeisalie

That's fantastic news!

Now, thirty years late, can we please start ploughing more money into advanced propulsion research than we do into rocket propulsion methods used today? Pretty please?

It's not thirty years late, it's 1,400 light-years early!

a reply to: neoholographic

Thanks neoholographic

Very interesting news, but not mind-blowing just yet.

At the moment they have no idea if it is a gas planet or a rocky one. If it's gas, there's no multicellular life.

Its sun is also near the end of its life, and is already affecting its atmosphere and climate, so any life that is there has already left or is just turning out the lights before their water evaporates for good.

Interesting, but not mind-blowing.

a reply to: Thecakeisalie

Right you are matey!

The Rum ration will be Old Navy standard, cutlasses will be issued in the event of encountering a boarding action. Oh, and I hope no one minds serving on a ship flying a Jolly Roger!

In all seriousness though, historically speaking, nations gained most when they were actively ploughing resources of time, money, and manpower on pioneering exploration. On a global scale, we have yet to involve the whole world in an effort to move forward into space, but I believe that the world has much to gain from off world exploration, from both a scientific standpoint, which is what I would personally focus on, and the financial and economic possibilities presented by expansion into the visible universe.

Ok, now lets point SETI right at it and listen.

a reply to: neoholographic

Most scientists, including NASA astrobiologists, from what I can gather from the research I read, already think that life almost surely exists elsewhere, and I agree with that assertion. However, I don't think this information about Kepler 452-B necessarily changes anything. I think most scientists felt this way even prior to these new findings regarding Kepler 452-B.

I think that when solid evidence (even hard proof) of life elsewhere will be found, it will most likely be some other exoplanet (just because there are so many other exoplanets other than Kepler 452-B), or life will be found in our own solar system.

I'm just saying that I don't think Kepler 452-B necessarily changes anything when it comes to finding life elsewhere; however, it is certainly a good indicator that life may be found elsewhere.

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People
a reply to: neoholographic

Most scientists, including NASA astrobiologists, from what I can gather from the research I read, already think that life almost surely exists elsewhere, and I agree with that assertion. However, I don't think this information about Kepler 452-B necessarily changes anything. I think most scientists felt this way even prior to these new findings regarding Kepler 452-B.

I think that when solid evidence (even hard proof) of life elsewhere will be found, it will most likely be some other exoplanet (just because there are so many other exoplanets other than Kepler 452-B), or life will be found in our own solar system.

I'm just saying that I don't think Kepler 452-B necessarily changes anything when it comes to finding life elsewhere; however, it is certainly a good indicator that life may be found elsewhere.

YOU DON'T THINK IT CHANGES ANYTHING??

It changes everything. Again, the key points:

Earth like planets are "quite common" in our universe.
Kepler 452-b is around 6 billion years old and has remained in it's habitable zone longer than earth.
This is like finding a needle in a haystack based on our limited view as to how life forms.
There's NOTHING preventing life from forming on other planets unless life on earth has some special ingredient designed by a Creator that can't be duplicated anywhere else in the universe.
Kepler 452-b is around a G2 star like our sun.

Again, it changes everything. It's like finding a needle in a haystack and we're just starting. Like they said in the press conference, this is just the beginning. This is like going up 20-0 in the 1st inning of a 9 inning baseball game.

eventually one of these planets will be declared to not only seem ideal for life to exist, but to factually, actually, harbour life. i think we'll be discovering many more such planets over the coming years. cool!

originally posted by: neoholographic

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People
a reply to: neoholographic

Most scientists, including NASA astrobiologists, from what I can gather from the research I read, already think that life almost surely exists elsewhere, and I agree with that assertion. However, I don't think this information about Kepler 452-B necessarily changes anything. I think most scientists felt this way even prior to these new findings regarding Kepler 452-B.

I think that when solid evidence (even hard proof) of life elsewhere will be found, it will most likely be some other exoplanet (just because there are so many other exoplanets other than Kepler 452-B), or life will be found in our own solar system.

I'm just saying that I don't think Kepler 452-B necessarily changes anything when it comes to finding life elsewhere; however, it is certainly a good indicator that life may be found elsewhere.

YOU DON'T THINK IT CHANGES ANYTHING??

It changes everything. Again, the key points:

Earth like planets are "quite common" in our universe.
Kepler 452-b is around 6 billion years old and has remained in it's habitable zone longer than earth.
This is like finding a needle in a haystack based on our limited view as to how life forms.
There's NOTHING preventing life from forming on other planets unless life on earth has some special ingredient designed by a Creator that can't be duplicated anywhere else in the universe.
Kepler 452-b is around a G2 star like our sun.

Again, it changes everything. It's like finding a needle in a haystack and we're just starting. Like they said in the press conference, this is just the beginning. This is like going up 20-0 in the 1st inning of a 9 inning baseball game.

Are you new to Kepler? You sound like you've never heard of it before.