Earth-sized planet found around Alpha Centauri B

1)

Originally posted by inverslyproportional
I know more about science than you do.

Originally posted by inverslyproportional
reply to post by GrOuNd_ZeRo

 

We already have fusion rockets

I'm sorry dude, not trying to offend but this two posts together made me laugh.

2)

This is no more important than any other exoplanet found since they saw the first one, it is nothing special in an way.

We already shared why this is important FOR US and why it's important for Astronomers.

3)

"world changing"

That's something written for press shock, it has absolutely nothing to do with the Science work being done.
Completely irrelevant argument.


I really hate that "cynical" is the new "cool"....

Cheers.

reply to post by Sublimecraft


Hey dont be too dispointed!! Ive been keeping up with news abt this for a while now and from what i understand and the ESO, is that this "12th planet" the ancients mythesized about orbits a sun, which is our sun's binary twin. Our sun being much bigger which means that "solar system" is going to come through ours. This isn't the first time we've been lied to, so don't believe the estimates their giving, trillions of miles... XD

It is indeed a great find, if not the greatest in the history of mankind.

It is a divinely timely gift.

Although the planet that was discovered will not be capable of sustaining current life as we know it, it does mean that there may be other planets that may be hospitable to our human life in Alpha Centuri which is only around 4 light years away. May ESO succeed in finding

Travelling at light speed is not possible with our current science today, for at such speeds, only particles can move and not matter with mass.

However, if we mankind were to travel at a mere 30% the speed of light - 22, 000,000 mph, or est 1,500 the speed of sound, with improved engines and fuels such as nukes, plasma, etc, we would reach that specific star within 12 human years on a self sustaining starship, in less than one generation.

Once there, they can colonize the planet and set up life. As technology grows, that distance between the stars will be bridged, the way sea vessels once took over a year to reach from one side of earth to the other, to todays flight within even a few minutes over the same distance.

Furthermore, as our science advancement increases, we humankind can live longer. It will be of great use in new interplanetary migrations, as a solution to feed and grow mankind, to fulfill our destiny to the stars.

With this ESO find, may ALL humanity take pause, end their confusion and hatred for each other, drowning in our current economic, political and societal woes, and see the direction of the stars that lays in front of us, and start working as one race, sharing common human aspirations, and reach the stars.....

This really is awesome. Just because we know there's a good probability of other exoplanets doesn't mean diddly squat until it's proven. Not only do we now know there is definitely one in Alpha Centauri, we know it's damn close to the sun compared to our own innermost planet. Wasn't it once theorized that being this close was not possible, or am I misremembering a fact here? Now that it's been done, we can replicate the sensitivity and look for that little minute wobble associated with it in other systems. Heck no, an oven planet isn't of much use to us, but for the moment, it's what we can see there & that's one mother of a milestone. Thinking to the future and being practical, that's also called mapping. It seems useless to you now, but it's going to come in as handy as a nautical map down the road for us. Right now, that's the first marker on the first edition Alpha Centauri map. Tres bien

My personal opinion to those who find this not worthy of a mention-- the question isn't "Who cares?". It's who cares what you think about it? If this attitude is going to become more prevalent, the one of not giving a crap about any discoveries, advances or milestones big and small, then they should ramp up the research and get on building those galactic vehicles, pronto. That way, the rest of us who do understand the importance of little discoveries & confirmations, and welcome them, can moon you out the aft window on our way out of the solar system to the new colonies. All thanks to umpteen little discoveries, advances and milestones.
Ah why not, it's not any more childish than your drama queen eye rolls and foot stomping is.

Originally posted by OptimusSubprime
reply to post by Stari

 

this planet is not in the Goldilocks zone, as stated in the article. Did you read your own article before posting?

Oh yes I read it, I never said it was in the Goldilocks Zone, plus it is not my article. I just wanted to share it with my ATS friends who would realize how big a deal it really is. I bet though if they can spot this Earth sized planet, now they will be able to start finding more Earth sized planets. Let's just hope the next one is in the Goldilocks Zone.

Fingers Crossed here!

reply to post by SeekerofTruth101


I don't think going to another Solar System and taking over their planets would be a very good idea. There is probably all kinds of life out in the Solar System, and I mean life not like ours.

Humans would have no right to involve ourselves in their right to live their lives the way they want to.

reply to post by Stari


You have a belief system, but then, so do others. Billion others.

We, as one race, had proven our superiority over others species, even microbes. What we lack in general and in massive quantities are our capacity for empathy, not only for our own race, but other species as well. It is this quality that had been, and is hindering our evolution.

We mankind as a race has yet to master our fullest potential, but we do have the capacity to acknowledge our errors, correct them and progress to evolve.

That time has come, as our science and tech knowledge takes great leaps - the signs of how much potential we humanity do have if we can get our act together.

For example, look at China. It is an industrious nation of extremely hard working and resiliant people, and yet, they had to depend on 'copied' tech to progress. The issue lays with their stifling political doctrine that cuts down the tallest intelligent poppies so that the stupid corrupt can thrive with no threats to their power.

Compare to USA, Europe and Free democracies, they had each taken to the stars within less than even one generation, with leaps and bounds in tech and science unhindered and ethically done, unlike their previous monarchial and tyranically rule ancestors for centuries,

Mankind has a destiny to fulfill.....We were not created as robots, but managers of worlds, to spread far and wide in the ever expanding Universe. Today's ESO announcement is only a confirmation of the fact, a mere tip of the iceburg of what is to come for mankind, IF we do not kill one another first.....

I am of the camp of awesome discovery

I can't remember reading 'World changing' i believe they said 'Remarkable Exoplanet'

All those that say its still too far away to worry about it .... Its as close as your ever gonna get in space so it is something to aim for in interstellar travel.

Time to send the robots!!!! FAST!!! they can withstand traveling conditions of those at the moment hypothetical speeds much better than any human occupied vehicle.. ion drives, warp speed .. whatever... just plow lots of cash into it and lets get started....

Ion drives are available, Plasma engines are available too, providing the energy is one part of the problem and with Ion Drives the impulse generated with current generation engines isn't enough for fast speeds.

VASIMR is one of those Plasma rockets but it seems even less efficient than ion drives even though the tests look impressive.

That for now leaves Fusion and I imagine it would require substantional radiation shielding for it's occupants.

Im curious if its close enough to actually observe rather than infer info from it.

Can someone work out how long it would take unmanned craft to get there?

My maths is terrible...

thanks

This is huge and I disagree greatly that "this isn't world changing"... it absolutely is. Do naysayers have no grasp of science what so ever? Funding needs to be justified, when something like discovering a planet 4 light years away, when all the exoplanet hunting has shown time and again that stars like our sun tend to have multiple planets orbiting them... that justifies funding to the nth degree. Everyone wants their name attached to finding life out there, this will drive funding to develop new technologies both for observation and maybe even propulsion if greater observation yields anything promising.

We are still benefiting to this day and for years still to come, from the race to the moon. This could and hopefully will spark a whole new space race. Jobs and new technologies woohoo!

reply to post by Xcathdra


No,it would be nice though. According to what I read today they are hoping when the stars move farther apart over the next few years they might catch a transit. If there is intelligent life in that star system, maybe they recently saw Venus cross our star.



www.dailymail.co.uk...

Originally posted by inverslyproportional
reply to post by Saint Exupery

 

Yourself and Drakus make a good point, however they said" world shaking disclosure" ( or whatever the exact wording was).

That's cute..because ESO did not use the wording "disclosure". This word (which starts to actually annoy me) was brought in by the one making the thread and speculating about a "disclosure" in a typical ATS manner - about what in reality is "merely" a scientific discovery.

And i don't think it's the fault of scientists if UFO buffs take any finding and basically twist words and fantasize about UFO disclosure. Seriously people...

Originally posted by GrOuNd_ZeRo
Ion drives are available, Plasma engines are available too, providing the energy is one part of the problem and with Ion Drives the impulse generated with current generation engines isn't enough for fast speeds.

VASIMR is one of those Plasma rockets but it seems even less efficient than ion drives even though the tests look impressive.

Yep.
The Vasimr is pretty awesome as well.
It's freaky to know we live in a day where Ionic Drives are currently used by spacecraft, when I was a kid that seemed plausible but so far...
We'll get there, sooner or later, I have no doubt about it. The greatest challenge to science today is to make it possible while I'm still alive, damn it!

Originally posted by Xcathdra
Im curious if its close enough to actually observe rather than infer info from it.

You are correct in being curious.
AFAIK it's to small to be optically detected.
The signal was found in the doppler distortion of the parent star's light.
And it is truly amazing they were able to detect such a faint signal, which gives us high hopes for the next 5-15 years of extrasolar planet hunting
It is going to be a hell of a ride.
(the word "signal" in this context is used as a "positive detection")

Originally posted by grantbeed
Can someone work out how long it would take unmanned craft to get there?

My maths is terrible...

I'm not great either, but I'll try.
We are 4.39ly or 4.153×10^13 km (41530000000000 Km) away from A. centauri
If we manage to build a ship that can travel at least at 25% of c, about 74948 kilometers per second
/tries to remember how to use a calculator
It would take us a little over 17 years to get there.
Not much, considering we are talking about interstellar travel...

There's also the possibility that my calculations are NOT correct, in which case, I don't know and I need to go back to high school...

i really hope this is true as it would be a tremendously huge step towards understanding the universe. i have always found myself asking if this planet is such a vast distance away from earth by the time we traveled there evolution could have had a long time to create life, even if the planet is only in its early stages now.

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People

Originally posted by decepticonLaura
it does quite tickle me that on the one we have an admission of sorts; "okay, we were wrong, there are earth sized planets"
then immediately afterwards "definitely too hot for life though!"
baby steps. we'll get there eventually. keep those eyes open.

Well, to be fair, I don't think many (if any) planet-hunting astronomers ever said that there are no earth-sized planets.

Granted, when the first exoplanets were found back in the 1990s, they were all huge Jupiter-sized planets. Those early attempts at planet hunting showed the galaxy seemed to be teeming with Jupiter-sized planets, but those early astronomers could not find Earth sized ones...

...HOWEVER, the reason for that was quite simple -- the Huge Jupiter-sized ones are easier to find, so obviously during the infancy of planet hunting, those big ones were the only ones they COULD find (until the equipment/methods for finding exoplanets became more sophisticated. The Earth-sized planets are there, they are just harder to find.

edit on 10/17/2012 by Soylent Green Is People because: (no reason given)

yes, to be fair i did give that some serious consideration before i hit post
but i couldn't think of any way to word it that wouldn't have tripled my post length...
i would like to think we have enough intelligent discerning members here that most would take my point,
understanding i was not being literal.
thank you for mentioning it though! i do sometimes wonder if i am typing into a void, it is good to know that is not the case

This is great news in the field of exploration. Wonder when we will send a probe? Not till we get the propulsion dynamics down a little better me thinks. Current gen technology would get a probe there in what 1000 years or so? Bring on this Alcubierre drive sceme i say, because it looks like our only chance imho.

reply to post by flexy123


If you are implying that I said or implied anything to do with disclosure then you need to go back to page one and start reading again.

It is big news to me and I am very excited and I can not wait to hear what new planets Astronomers find.

Stari

reply to post by Stari


I think flexy123 is talking about this other thread (link below) which originally discussed the press conference by ESO a few days before the actual conference:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

The OP of that thread made some leaps in his speculation that something was going to be "disclosed". Other posters started other more wild speculation on that thread. Then when the news came out that the big announcement was about this Alpha Centauri planet, many people were disappointed (although they should not have been) because it did not match the wild speculation of that thread.