Earth size planet found orbiting Alpha Centauri

[zippy]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19959531

Astronomers have found the nearest planet outside our Solar System, circling one of the stars of Alpha Centauri just four light-years away.

The planet has at minimum the same mass as Earth, but circles its star far closer than Mercury orbits our Sun.

It is therefore outside the "habitable zone" denoting the possibility of life, as the researchers report in Nature.

However, studies on exoplanets increasingly show that a star with one planet is likely to have several.

Be something if they even find a rocky planet further out as barren as Mars orbiting Alpha Centauri B

 

[LazyLion]

Yay, another place I'll never be able to afford to go to on holiday!

 

[killadoob]

Yay, another place I'll never be able to afford to go to on holiday!

Even if you have 100 billion dollars, you could not get there so money is not really the issue.

 

[Bizkit87]

Thats quite cool, if they are starting to detect earth-like sized planets, as far as I'm aware, they could up until recently only discover much bigger sized planets. Exciting stuff.

/tin-foil hat on

Do you guys think full-disclosure is close on other sentient beings? I mean, they are finding more and more 'habitual' places, interesting things are being discovered on Mars, Governments are releasing old UFO docs etc.

 

[zippy]

Thats quite cool, if they are starting to detect earth-like sized planets, as far as I'm aware, they could up until recently only discover much bigger sized planets. Exciting stuff.

/tin-foil hat on

Do you guys think full-disclosure is close on other sentient beings? I mean, they are finding more and more 'habitual' places, interesting things are being discovered on Mars, Governments are releasing old UFO docs etc.

Actually no other "Habitable" planet has been found. There are possibilities, but instruments arent yet sensitive enough to prove this. Most of them orbit too close to their stars and therefore way to hot.

As for disclosure about other sentient beings, I'm not convinced any alien civilisation can travel this far. And if they could, why would they even bother with us. If they had the technology to travel this far in a reasonable time, we would seem boring by comparison. How facinating do you find ants ?

Im sure there is life elsewhere in the universe. But whether we will ever find it or even recognise it is questionable. The distances involved are too great.

Its life, Jim, but not as we know it.

http://news.discovery.com/space/habitable-exoplanet-gliese-163c-life-120920.html

 

[TJ99]

Thats quite cool, if they are starting to detect earth-like sized planets, as far as I'm aware, they could up until recently only discover much bigger sized planets. Exciting stuff.

/tin-foil hat on

Do you guys think full-disclosure is close on other sentient beings? I mean, they are finding more and more 'habitual' places, interesting things are being discovered on Mars, Governments are releasing old UFO docs etc.

This definitely isn't earthlike, only earth-sized. Even planets in the "habitable zone" can be pretty damn uninhabitable, and this one is nowhere near it. Just look at Mars or Venus for example. They are discovering more and more planets yes, some in the habitable zones, but scientists have always thought (well not always, but for a long time) that most stars have a system of planets, it's just that our primitive equipment can't/couldn't detect them.

I have to agree that if aliens could travel across interstellar or even intergalactic space, they wouldn't bother with us. Why would they give a crap about a "civilisation" that spends so much of their time on the most ridiculous, inane, self-obsessed nonsense imaginable instead of trying to advance their species?

 

[Moosedrool]

As for disclosure about other sentient beings, I'm not convinced any alien civilisation can travel this far. And if they could, why would they even bother with us. If they had the technology to travel this far in a reasonable time, we would seem boring by comparison. How facinating do you find ants ?

It's far but not impossible, we are actually very new to this universe. If aliens invented fire 3 million years before humans did, you could talk about how our technologies would advance over the next 3 million years.

If ant's could be used in a productive way, food, slaves, resources etc... I would be interested.

BTW for any of you who is interested. The process in finding other planets is terrible and slow. Scientists actually detect the light coming off the star in if it dims just a little bit they start looking if a planet might have moved between us and the star's light.

 

[jboyx989]

Even though we are far more advanced than lets say ants, we would be EXTREMELY interested if we found ants on Mars for example.

So even if aliens were far more advanced than us, doesnt mean they would be disinterested in studying humans.

 

[thestaggy]

Of course another intelligent species would stop by and have a look at us if they passed our solar system, and for many reasons.

1 - If they are out this far they are here for a reason. Guys like Columbus & Diaz didn't just take off to go sailing. They went looking for something.
2 - Almost guaranteed that no other species would be even remotely similar to us, so that would perk their interest. They'd be inclined to build up a library of every living thing on every inhabited planet they come across.
3 - Who's to say "alien" life needs to be sentient and/or intelligent? They may have encountered dozens of inhabited planets, but they may have only been inhabited by simple organisms or non-intelligent beings. We'd certainly be an interesting specimen if that were the case.

 

[Creag]

I remember playing Alpha Centauri, the Sid Meier's RTS game. Cannot remember to much about it, Alpha Centauri was also the destination in the space race in at least one of the Civilization games. Nice

 

[WaxLyrical]

I have to agree that if aliens could travel across interstellar or even intergalactic space, they wouldn't bother with us. Why would they give a crap about a "civilisation" that spends so much of their time on the most ridiculous, inane, self-obsessed nonsense imaginable instead of trying to advance their species?

So you're saying they won't like our porn or uncapped offerings?

 

[TJ99]

So you're saying they won't like our porn or uncapped offerings?

Well they'd need a Telkom line for that, and I don't think the local loop goes into orbit. Besides I don't think they'd be as interested in alien bewbs as we humans seem to be.

 

[zippy]

Of course another intelligent species would stop by and have a look at us if they passed our solar system, and for many reasons.

1 - If they are out this far they are here for a reason. Guys like Columbus & Diaz didn't just take off to go sailing. They went looking for something.
2 - Almost guaranteed that no other species would be even remotely similar to us, so that would perk their interest. They'd be inclined to build up a library of every living thing on every inhabited planet they come across.
3 - Who's to say "alien" life needs to be sentient and/or intelligent? They may have encountered dozens of inhabited planets, but they may have only been inhabited by simple organisms or non-intelligent beings. We'd certainly be an interesting specimen if that were the case.

So where are they ?

Either they couldn't be bothered or as Einstein said, FTL travel is not possible therefore unless these aliens live for thousands of years, what is the point of setting out on a journey if you know, not only will you not live to return to a hero's welcome, but you will die before you even get to another solar system.

 

[Moosedrool]

as Einstein said, FTL travel is not possible therefore unless these aliens live for thousands of years, what is the point of setting out on a journey if you know, not only will you not live to return to a hero's welcome, but you will die before you even get to another solar system.

Not entirely true.

Most people miss the actual benefit of relativity. Yes FTL travel is impossible but what people don’t understand is why and what actually happens at let’s say 99% the speed of light. Theorized and proven over and over again in particle accelerators, time itself gets modified to protect the light speed limit. Relative to the particles travelling almost light speed time outside will start speeding up. Relative to observers the particle’s time is slowing down. It will slow down just enough to protect the barrier. Thus if you can catch a ride on one of these particles you’ll have the illusion of travelling faster than light but you’ll be travelling into the future.

A photon however is said to experience no time at all as it would be slowed down infinitely and the photon itself will travel to the edge of our universe without experiencing a single second. Thus you can use relativity in order to travel great distances at the cost of time relative to the outside. Traveling at 99% the speed of light would mean the people/Aliens onboard would experience 70 years or so and find themselves on the other side of our galaxy. Unfortunately more than 100,000 years would have passed outside.

Building something this fast is impossible in today’s time but maybe not for them. BTW this is one of the fundamental rules of general relativity.

 

[chrisc]

You are looking at this using 20th century science. Just wait 50-60 years and the FTL travel problem will have been resolved

 

[thestaggy]

So where are they ?

Either they couldn't be bothered or as Einstein said, FTL travel is not possible therefore unless these aliens live for thousands of years, what is the point of setting out on a journey if you know, not only will you not live to return to a hero's welcome, but you will die before you even get to another solar system.

One problem; That assumption is based off of human intellect and our technological capabilities. If there are any other intelligent species out there, there is no way we can apply our intellectual and technological limitations to "them".

And then there is the whole concept of cryogenics with regards to deep space travel.

 

[chrisc]

I don't think cryogenics will be necessary. Again, you are looking at a 21st or 22nd century problem with 20th century science. It was the chairman of the Royal Society who said in 1888 that heavier than air flight was an impossibility

 

[Bizkit87]

I don't think cryogenics will be necessary. Again, you are looking at a 21st or 22nd century problem with 20th century science. It was the chairman of the Royal Society who said in 1888 that heavier than air flight was an impossibility

Agreed, if you take into consideration that the first flight for mankind was in 1903, and now 109 years later, we've put a nuclear powered rover on Mars, then what technological advances will a civilisation have over us if lets say they've mastered flight 10 000 years ago?

 

[thestaggy]

I don't think cryogenics will be necessary. Again, you are looking at a 21st or 22nd century problem with 20th century science. It was the chairman of the Royal Society who said in 1888 that heavier than air flight was an impossibility

I fully agree with you, I was just opening up yet another technological avenue that we have yet to even broach that could assist deep space travel.

 

[patrick]

Statistically there must be more planets with life. The definition of intelligent may need looking into, seems we lack a lot of that locally...