Potentially Habitable Planet Found

[Pyrokenesis]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_581_c

Says that it's mass may be 5.03 Earths, with possibly a radius 50% larger than our own, meaning it's gravity is something like 1.6 times stronger. It has an orbit of 13 earth days (Man, that's a short year), and the surface temperature is estimated at something like −3 C–40 C. (Would someone convert that to Farenhiet? I can't recall the conversion right now...)

Some more interesting information,
"The planet may be tidally locked to its parent star, with one hemisphere always lit and the other always dark. The lit hemisphere might be extremely hot and the dark hemisphere extremely cold, while the narrow terminator or "twilight zone" between them might have a moderate climate more suitable for life similar to Earth's.

A theoretical model predicts that volatile compounds such as water and carbon dioxide might evaporate in the scorching heat of the sunward side, migrate to the cooler night side, and condense to form ice caps. Over time, the entire atmosphere could become frozen as ice caps on the night side of the planet. Alternatively, if it has an atmosphere large enough to be stable, it should circulate the heat more evenly, allowing for a wider habitable area on the surface."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To another article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070425/ap_on_sc/
habitable_planet

Always funny to see these visuals of the planet and the sun, like "here's how it looks like", with no disclaimer like "An artistic rendering". But I guess it sells and makes astronomy a bit less dull

10 lightyears is not really that far, considering that the closest star to our solar system is Alpha Centauri about 4,5 lightyears away.

If we invent some Anti-matter Ion Warp Drive System or some **** that enables us to go 1/10 of a light-speed it would take us 100 years to reach it...which is "feasible"
But I think 100 km/s is probably going to be the fastest we'll ever achieve in space within our lifetime...which is 0,000333% of the speed of light. It would take us over 30 thousand years to reach a planet 10 lightyears away at that speed.

[SyntheticTacos]

It's really interesting stuff. But it's amazing how something that's relatively "close" is really so ridiculously far away. @_@ Then again, who can predict what kind of big leaps and bounds in silence will be made in the next century?

[YHWH]

Why did they even make this news? Something so far away would never be attainable.

[TheMason]

Can we please send all the far leftists and rightists to this planet to screw it up? Please! Please! Please!

[AdamRice]

At 4/26/07 09:44 PM, YHWH wrote: Why did they even make this news? Something so far away would never be attainable.

Maybe because it's the best news of a new home planet in a long time. Remember, they think we might actually be able to live in the twilight region of this planet without any special enclosure. As in you could land and stand on the planet in a t-shirt and shorts. That's certainly a lot better then cold, dusty, thin atmosphered mars.

Don't discredit that it will be impossible to reach, we may be able travel at near the speed of light someday. In which case it would actually be feasible to reach this planet. If we assume you made the spaceship into an actual city with thousands of people on board, it would certainly be worth the trip.

[SyntheticTacos]

At 4/26/07 09:44 PM, TheMason wrote: Can we please send all the far leftists and rightists to this planet to screw it up? Please! Please! Please!

But then we may find an IGBM (Intergalactic Ballistic Missle) heading for Earth someday. :(

[Pyrokenesis]

Well, we have to find a place to inhabit soon. At the rate we are destroying the Earth, I predict we have less than 100-200 years before even Earth is uninhabitable with the Greenhouse effect and whatnot.

After the polar icecaps melt, the water level rises and leaves less land for us to live. With the population growing so rapidly, this would make Earth over-crowded and whatnot, so we'll need to find another planet to wreck @_@

My opinion anyway.

[troubles1]

At 4/26/07 10:47 PM, Pyrokenesis wrote: Well, we have to find a place to inhabit soon. At the rate we are destroying the Earth, I predict we have less than 100-200 years before even Earth is uninhabitable with the Greenhouse effect and whatnot.

Please tell me you are joking, granted the earth will not last forever, scientist's reason if every thing was in good condition it would take 5 billion years before the sun burned out, in case you do not know that means a long long time.

then there is the possibility of a meteor , witch it is said one crashes into the Earth every 200.000 years , one big enough to do catastrophic damage's anyway, again LONG TIME.
;
OK polar ice we are currently in the beginning stages of figuring out what the effects are there are 300 people currently working on it the best theory is at worst the earth without that polar ice could heats up 17 degrees in summer and get 30 degrees colder in winter, but if that happened what does that mean for us? WE DO NOT KNOW. but life finds a way we adapt , seriously to think we have less than 200 years is very pessimistic and pretty idiotic.

[Rinogas]

Well they didn't think well pass the sound barrier but there were wrong.Who says tha we cant go the fast as light any time soon???

[Rinogas]

Ohh yeah also they said that it would take 20 years to get there if you were going the fast as light.

[fahrenheit]

At 4/27/07 01:04 AM, Rinogas wrote: Who says tha we cant go the fast as light any time soon???

logic

[Rinogas]

At 4/27/07 01:30 AM, BlackHumor wrote:

At 4/27/07 01:04 AM, Rinogas wrote: Who says tha we cant go the fast as light any time soon???

EINSTEIN LOLZ

Hey, guess what, Einstein > you. And Einstein has a Nobel Prize, I wouldn't doubt him.

Is this a good thing or bad??

[Rinogas]

At 4/27/07 01:29 AM, fahrenheit wrote:

At 4/27/07 01:04 AM, Rinogas wrote: Who says tha we cant go the fast as light any time soon???

logic

What I mean by soon is like idk 60-70 years.Tecnoligy is growning purty fast and DAMMET my grammer sucks....

[fahrenheit]

At 4/27/07 01:41 AM, Rinogas wrote: What I mean by soon is like idk 60-70 years.Tecnoligy is growning purty fast and DAMMET my grammer sucks....

from what we know attempting to reach the speed of light is impossible.

not to mention it would be hundreds of years to even get halfway there from where we are now.

[Rinogas]

At 4/27/07 02:03 AM, fahrenheit wrote:

At 4/27/07 01:41 AM, Rinogas wrote: What I mean by soon is like idk 60-70 years.Tecnoligy is growning purty fast and DAMMET my grammer sucks....

from what we know attempting to reach the speed of light is impossible.

not to mention it would be hundreds of years to even get halfway there from where we are now.

Come on people think outside the box.I get out side the box smash it,Put Like 50 C4's On it. Take 2 Ak-47's one in each hand shoot it and detinate and reapet doing this untill it returns to nothing-ness.

[fahrenheit]

At 4/27/07 02:09 AM, Rinogas wrote: Come on people think outside the box.I get out side the box smash it,Put Like 50 C4's On it. Take 2 Ak-47's one in each hand shoot it and detinate and reapet doing this untill it returns to nothing-ness.

science wasnt you best subject was it?

[EndGameOmega]

At 4/27/07 01:41 AM, Rinogas wrote:

At 4/27/07 01:29 AM, fahrenheit wrote:

At 4/27/07 01:04 AM, Rinogas wrote: Who says tha we cant go the fast as light any time soon???

logic

What I mean by soon is like idk 60-70 years.Tecnoligy is growning purty fast and DAMMET my grammer sucks....

But the problem isn't just one of technology. Physics it self is against FTL, in any virtually all cases. The Lorenz transformation (%gamma=1/(1-(v^2)/(c^2))) prevents anything from crossing the light barrier. You see the fast you go the more distorted your spacetime becomes, as you approach light speed relative to a “stationary” observer your time frame becomes dilated, and time progress more slowly for you then it dose for the observe. This produces the effects of increasing mass, and the “squishing” effect.

If you where able to go faster then light the whole concept of causality goes out the window. As time is no longer a fluid line, but can become disjointed. Now there are some “exceptions” to this but it becomes very over barring for someone not well versed in science.

But what the hell, The most well know phenomenon which seams to violate relativity is quantum entanglement. In quantum entanglement you have to particles which have some how interacted whit each other, and now there wave functions are conjoined in such a way that once you know the state of one particle you instantly know the state of the other. Because of the nature of quantum particles there wave function exist in multiple states simultaneously, and “collapse” only when observed. This simultaneous collapse of both particles happens at an effectively infinity velocity. However, since this collapse doesn't transmit any information between the two (or possibly more) objects we aren't actually violating relativity.

As a final note, there are cretin “loop holes” in spacetime that could allow for FTL, namely non “flat” spacetime. But exploiting this posses some serious problems, and may not even be exploitable. Even if it was it would require us to have visited our destination prior to actually using FTL, and as such still limits our ability to get out there.

[DeathDementor]

yeh that is all we need a source or way to get there and be able to search it then that would be like the collest thing ever.... i mean isnt this the first time we have well i think found like another galaxy i mean koz there is a planet roating around another sun kinda

[EndGameOmega]

At 4/27/07 07:56 AM, DeathDementor wrote: yeh that is all we need a source or way to get there and be able to search it then that would be like the collest thing ever....

We could search it from earth space if we ever manage to launch JWST (it's dates been pushed forward how many times now, 5?). We would be able to make out atmospheric details and given the close proximity (~20 LY), possibly even continents (if they exist).

i mean isnt this the first time we have well i think found like another galaxy i mean koz there is a planet roating around another sun kinda

Er... I think your confusing a star with a galaxy. We've yet to find any extragalactic plants of any size in any of our neighboring galaxies. We've found is about 225 extra solar planets (nearly all of them gas giants). However This is the first time we have found a relatively small planet with in the habitable zone of a star, and there is a small though rather nice spectra data set which gives evidence for there to be high concentrations of water within the planets orbital path.

There are some potential problems though. One is that the planet is so close to the sun that it's probably phased locked with it, like the moon is with earth, or mercury is with our sun. Life would likely only survive in the twilight regions of the planet.

[Rinogas]

But the problem isn't just one of technology. Physics it self is against FTL, in any virtually all cases. The Lorenz transformation (%gamma=1/(1-(v^2)/(c^2))) prevents anything from crossing the light barrier. You see the fast you go the more distorted your spacetime becomes, as you approach light speed relative to a “stationary” observer your time frame becomes dilated, and time progress more slowly for you then it dose for the observe. This produces the effects of increasing mass, and the “squishing” effect.

If you where able to go faster then light the whole concept of causality goes out the window. As time is no longer a fluid line, but can become disjointed. Now there are some “exceptions” to this but it becomes very over barring for someone not well versed in science.

But what the hell, The most well know phenomenon which seams to violate relativity is quantum entanglement. In quantum entanglement you have to particles which have some how interacted whit each other, and now there wave functions are conjoined in such a way that once you know the state of one particle you instantly know the state of the other. Because of the nature of quantum particles there wave function exist in multiple states simultaneously, and “collapse” only when observed. This simultaneous collapse of both particles happens at an effectively infinity velocity. However, since this collapse doesn't transmit any information between the two (or possibly more) objects we aren't actually violating relativity.

As a final note, there are cretin “loop holes” in spacetime that could allow for FTL, namely non “flat” spacetime. But exploiting this posses some serious problems, and may not even be exploitable. Even if it was it would require us to have visited our destination prior to actually using FTL, and as such still limits our ability to get out there.

OW! that hurted my brain.Well I think that we could go as fast as light.They said that we would explode if we go as faster then the sound barrier.Well there were wrong.okay what else to say im trying to make myself smart here so maby from space twisters or(note:this might get a little fictonal)what ever its called we can us it to go the fast as light.Some how pertect us from being smashed into a million diffrent peices we can get a big sheild of some sort to cover the space ship or what ever.to make a black hole maby we can use some kind of explosive that does so much damege to make a hole.My grammer sucks by the way.....

[Rinogas]

At 4/27/07 02:15 AM, fahrenheit wrote:

At 4/27/07 02:09 AM, Rinogas wrote: Come on people think outside the box.I get out side the box smash it,Put Like 50 C4's On it. Take 2 Ak-47's one in each hand shoot it and detinate and reapet doing this untill it returns to nothing-ness.

science wasnt you best subject was it?

None of my subjects was a best subject..Did I say that right???

[Tony-DarkGrave]

At 4/27/07 11:08 PM, Rinogas wrote:

At 4/27/07 02:15 AM, fahrenheit wrote:

At 4/27/07 02:09 AM, Rinogas wrote: Come on people think outside the box.I get out side the box smash it,Put Like 50 C4's On it. Take 2 Ak-47's one in each hand shoot it and detinate and reapet doing this untill it returns to nothing-ness.

science wasnt you best subject was it?

None of my subjects was a best subject..Did I say that right???

stfu N00B stop trying to hijack the the thread.

yes it would be intresting on going there also Cryogenic Freezing would also help help the travel there

[Rinogas]

stfu N00B stop trying to hijack the the thread.

Fuck You,You Gay Fuck.I Ain't Hijacking shit.

[Llama0wn3d]

At 4/28/07 05:06 PM, Rinogas wrote:

stfu N00B stop trying to hijack the the thread.

Fuck You,You Gay Fuck.I Ain't Hijacking shit.

<RANT> Well, that was certainly mature of you, wasn't it? I think we all respect you more for your Spelling ability than the actual CONTENT of your last couple of posts. Do us all a favour, leave the scientific posting to those who know. By the way, I do not include myself in said category, as I possess only a rudimentary knowledge of science, (physics in particular), but I DO recognise bulls**t, inane posturing and A*se-covering when I see it. Does anyone else find the idea of a "Ban Rinogas Petition" attractive right now? Oh, and FYI I'm British, so don't bother to flame me for spelling certain words differently to the way you may be accustomed to seeing them. </RANT>

[dELtaluca]

At 4/27/07 08:21 AM, EndGameOmega wrote: or mercury is with our sun [tidal locked]

actually, mercury is not tidal locked to our sun, it revolves 3 times around its own axis for ever 2 revolutions around the sun

[D2Kvirus]

I move that we send all Daily Mail readers and journalists (to use the term lightly) there as a scouting party.

If they all die during the mission or if the atmosphere wasn't what it was cracked up to be, leave it alone. If they make it and start a new life there, leave it - and prepare the warheads in case they start to breed and colonise the galaxy.

[timmysblood]

40 celceus thats really hot

[Rinogas]

At 4/28/07 09:41 PM, Llama0wn3d wrote:

At 4/28/07 05:06 PM, Rinogas wrote:

stfu N00B stop trying to hijack the the thread.

Fuck You,You Gay Fuck.I Ain't Hijacking shit.

Well, that was certainly mature of you, wasn't it?

When were Newgrounders mature?

[AmishGangster]

This would probally give people more of a motive to create faster ways of travel.

[WRB852]

This doesn't matter...

One, The mass is 5x of Earth's, that means if you weighed 100 pounds, it would feel like lifting 500 pounds everytime you stood up.

Two, it's 20 light years away, that would take 20 years to get there at the possible least.

Three, we don't even know if it has the neccesities for life, oxygen, water. The air may be toxic.