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Planets abound in the galaxy. Over the past decade, scientists have discovered giant planets mostly by radial velocity techniques that detect the spectral shift in a star's light caused by the to and fro tug of an unseen planetary companion.This method has detected more than 200 planets, dominantly large close-in planets called 'hot Jupiters' that are inhospitable to life as we know it.
In the near future, with the launch of NASA's Kepler Mission in 2008, we'll have the tools to seek evidence of Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of distant stars.
Originally posted by u4ria
But who's to say they they don't know how to achieve FTL travel ?
I know that's a way out there response but the amount of tech that's withheld from the public we just don't know what they have sat there or that there currently working on.
Originally posted by iori_komei
NASA is not looking for planets to move to, simply do to the fact that
even if there is a hospitable planet in the nearest star system to our
own (Alpha Centauri), even traveling at near the speed of light it would
take a little over four years just to get there, and considering that it
would require either gargantuan amounts of energy, or a very long time
at more doable energies to even reach .9c.
However, if/when we develop FTL technology like space-warping drives,
wormholes or Hyper-drives it would take a considerably less amount of
time, though I do not expect that we will have those for at least 50 years.
[edit on 4/12/2007 by iori_komei]
Originally posted by fiftyfifty
So we could do it in 8 years at half the speed of light? I would be willing to give up 20 years of my life to get there, li ve there, research and hopefully comeback in one piece! Or if humanity depended on it.. would years and years of travel be so bad? All we need is the fuel.
EDIT: Ok maybe not 20 years. Thats a long time unless you took all your friends and family with you and a man has needs
[edit on 14-4-2007 by fiftyfifty]