Alpha Centauri B may have "superhabitable" worlds

I found this article while browsing Gizmag. Not sure how it got missed on ATS. It goes into great depth regarding the topic.

This is "only" 4.3 light years away and to date may hold the best promise of new places to live after we wear out The Earth. It seems the best hope mankind has of seeding the stars may very well rest in acquiring the ability to achieve FTL travel.

Since Earth is the only known inhabited planet and we happen to live here, it’s only natural to regard it as the ideal place for life to exist, and to assume that another life-bearing planet would be fairly similar. However, that is not the opinion of scientists René Heller and John Armstrong who contend that there might be a planet even more suitable for life than Earth 4.3 light years away orbiting the star Alpha Centauri B.

Link to GizMag Article

As long as we get there before Justin Beiber has children there is a hope for mankind.

reply to post by Mamatus


Great find

I believe there are many many more that are habitable for humans.... Cant prove ot of coure but i believe.

For other planet to sustain "life" however, many many many more as there is no certainty that other living organisms require the same as humans to survive...oll opinions but i think this is a strong possibility.

Whats sad is we will likely not be around to find out.... Maybe our kinds and/or grand kids will though!

reply to post by Mamatus


I'm sure there must be amazing worlds out there

Mamatus
It seems the best hope mankind has of seeding the stars may very well rest in acquiring the ability to achieve FTL travel.

Nope. Never happen. The best hope is artificial intelligence, which brings with it a kind of immortality. Turn of the machine until it arrives at its destination, then turn it back on again. All the time in the universe.

Mankind might spread to the rest of the solar system, but we just don't have the physical capability of going to other stars.

reply to post by Mamatus


Very fascinating. I like the notion of Earth not even being the most "habitable" of habitable planets. Whether or not such planets actually exist is another thing but I really like Heller and Armstrong's theory. I might have to make an attempt to read their paper.

Blue Shift
Mankind might spread to the rest of the solar system, but we just don't have the physical capability of going to other stars.

Willing to bet on it?
2nd.

peck420

Blue Shift
Mankind might spread to the rest of the solar system, but we just don't have the physical capability of going to other stars.

Willing to bet on it?
2nd.

I'll bet a dollar that we don't make it out of our own Solar System before we either give it all up to the androids or modify ourselves genetically to such an extent that we can no longer consider ourselves human. That gives us about 1,000 years, tops.

Have they considered the fact that Alpha Centauri B is in a binary system with Alpha Centauri A (which is bigger and hotter than the Sun)? During the pair's 79.91-year orbit about a common center, the distance between them varies from about that between Pluto and the Sun to that between Saturn and the Sun. en.wikipedia.org... That's very close, as far as stars are concerned.

As one of the comments to the article points out, "Any planet around either A or B is subject to wild perturbations of its orbit by the heavy presence of the other star. Orbits in such a system are so unstable as to be basically unpredictable. Heller and Armstrong are certain to know this; they're just having fun."

I'd imagine it would also be a very hot planet. Imagine a second Sun in place of Saturn... That can lead to all of the planet being in daylight, or one side receiving almost double the light and heat.

Blue Shift

Mamatus
It seems the best hope mankind has of seeding the stars may very well rest in acquiring the ability to achieve FTL travel.

Nope. Never happen. The best hope is artificial intelligence, which brings with it a kind of immortality. Turn of the machine until it arrives at its destination, then turn it back on again. All the time in the universe.

Mankind might spread to the rest of the solar system, but we just don't have the physical capability of going to other stars.

Send some seed with that machine - and we are all good. (Lead suitcase) Couple of farming bots, incubation chamber, training robots - successful colony. Send us a postcard when you can ...

I would wager that, in the secret backdoors, we already have near-light travel speeds or are getting close. Of course, I'm also of the opinion that many UFOs are experimental government craft. 4.3 light years is absolutely perfect for a first exploration into colonization, as you could go there and then come back within the lifetimes of those that sent you. You could even have multiple trips within 1 human lifetime.

AnIntellectualRedneck
I would wager that, in the secret backdoors, we already have near-light travel speeds or are getting close. Of course, I'm also of the opinion that many UFOs are experimental government craft. 4.3 light years is absolutely perfect for a first exploration into colonization, as you could go there and then come back within the lifetimes of those that sent you. You could even have multiple trips within 1 human lifetime.

Good luck surviving that acceleration (and deceleration).

Blue Shift
I'll bet a dollar that we don't make it out of our own Solar System before we either give it all up to the androids or modify ourselves genetically to such an extent that we can no longer consider ourselves human. That gives us about 1,000 years, tops.

Lol, done!

With one caveat, we reach another system, not just exit the extents of our own.

Here's to being alive long enough to find out who wins!

4.2 LY is nothing... As long as we can get up to Light Speed without pulling ourselves apart.

If we can accomplish that, then I am up for a 4.2 year journey.

Although there probably are cases like that, there are so many specifics that humans depend on, for instance the relatively small band of bearable temperature -10F to 110 F , surely there are planets which fit that goldi locks zone, then you not only have to have an oxygen rich atmosphere (maybe that means it needs to have vegetation/plant machines which continually renew it?) but one that also does not have an abundance of toxic chemicals, then it also has to have fresh water and most likely a rain cycle, it also needs to have proper soil and stuff so we can grow food (unless we are post growing food at the point of extra planetary traveling), and also maybe its gravity couldnt be too strong or it would crush us. But given the ultimate numbers game that is the universe, there are probably millions of planets that are perfect for us, which could also mean there is already human like humans living there.

Wouldn't creating pressurized "bubbles" within the vehicle potentially safegaurd our bodies against the pressures of the accelerations and deceleration?

Or putting ourselves into a cryo-state during travel?

I don't know. Just thoughts... but I do believe - if there is the will - we will find a way.

Not that I think we should be leaving our own solar system - with human nature being the way it is. but that's just me. I understand we will need to head to the stars eventually, as we plunder and destroy the home we have.

CdT

It's interesting they haven't made a better attempt to scout the Aplha Centuri system since it's our closest neighbour.

www.nytimes.com...

As Geoffrey W. Marcy, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley, said at the time, “This is close enough you can almost spit there.” Close enough, some astronomers said, to send a scientific probe that would get there in our lifetime.

Why not make it the biggest mission of exploration in the history of human kind. I realize the year long waits between communications, but isn't it worth it?

Any predictive modelling with actual empirical data being sent back after the probes arrival would basically advance astronomy years and years into the future. (However many years it takes us to finally task this mission.)

It would seem, based on Earth's history at least, that the atmospheric conditions that humans require are largely dependent on plants churning out oxygen for thousands of years. Its easy to imagine life out there somewhere where the atmosphere is very different but life still exists, like the early earth before plants took over, when fungi columns stood 30 feet tall in a C02 rich environment. I reckon if we decided to leave dying Earth for a new planet, we'd need to do some terraforming, which would make us the alien invaders destroying the natives.

Thats so cool! Maybe our grandkids will get to see this.

the only way to achieve light speed is to use Justin Bieber as a fuel source.
Of course this is a "once only" party trick so the downside is that we would have to clone many Justin Biebers to provide more fuel.
Once we get to Alpha centauri, we'll then have the problem of Greys trying to probe us. This is where Justin Bieber once again can be used as a decoy so the rest of us can slip by unmolested.

Accelerating to light speed would be slow, maybe taking a few months to reach full speed, it wont be a sudden acceleration like in Star Trek. Man has only reached controlled flight just over 100 years ago, give us a chance.

reply to post by conundrummer


Didn't they already find sulphur based life forms, all we know is carbon based, imagine the posibilities!!