Posted on 08/13/2016 8:51:10 PM PDT by ckilmer
The hunt for exoplanets has been heating up in recent years. Since it began its mission in 2009, over four thousand exoplanet candidates discovered by the Kepler mission, several hundred of which have been confirmed to be “Earth-like” (i.e. terrestrial). And of these, some 216 planets have been shown to be both terrestrial and located within their parent star’s habitable zone (aka. “Goldilocks zone”).
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
...as well as no magnetic field, thus no protection from solar radiation.
Mars - yes. Venus no - 800 degrees on a nice day with constant sulfuric acid rain, not to mention the crushing atmospheric pressure.
...
But from the distance that we’re discovering these exoplanets, Venus would be portrayed as very earth-like. That’s my point.
Lack of strong magntic field like the Luna? Then build underground - a good idea in any case.
If we were living on a planet around a red dwarf and looked to Sol and thought Venus is Earth like? Then we’d be not as smart as we like to believe.
Or just send out bio-arks loaded with frozen ova/sperm/seeds...the crew can be robotic/AI. If the planet turns out to be a bust upon arrival, move on to the next target.
Doesn’t sound like its Centauri Prime!
In addition to claims of being Earth-sized (which sometimes is really 2X Earth-size) planet and in a “habitable zone,” there are so many other factors which are needed for a planet to sustain life, or even edible life, much less even intelligent life, that a scientific article or report that hypes such a find is usually being dishonest or deceptive or hyping additional grant money from taxpayers’ pockets.
Wake me up when we get there.
It’s not a matter of intelligence, it’s a matter of obtaining information from a such a great distance.
Saying newly discovered planets are earth-like with our current technology in no way means they are inhabitable.
Intelligence makes the discoveries possible as well as the instruments to detect and define the discoveries - so in that way it is a matter of intelligence.
I thought that was a bit odd.
I loved when they went down to the “power core” and the room was bigger than the whole ship in that picture. Lost in Space needed a better model maker. :)
Our solar system probes are all “coasters.” Meaning the spacecraft accelerates via chemical rocket engine to a given speed of, say, 20-30,000 mph then they coast at that speed to the destination.
Absent some warp drive (Hollywood hooey) or a worm hole type of short cut, figure on a constant acceleration to the far off place in the 1G range via nuclear-powered engine or nuke plus light sail, perhaps. Acceleration at 1G allows travelers to live in more or less “normal” gravity or so it would seem.
At such a constant acceleration, calculations say you would travel approx .5 light year in the the first year of travel and a little more that one year of time for each additional light year distance. The craft could never reach the speed of light but would approach it nicely.
Of course, the craft will need to slow back down so at the half-way point it must flip 180 degrees and begin to deccelerate, still at that same 1G of thrust.
Present technology doesn’t allow for constant thrust at 1G for years but it seems like it should be an attainable goal. Such a craft would cut the travel time from 10s of thousands of years to a trip that can be done in a human lifetime.
They don’t have a rocket powerful enough to lift his fat a$$ off the earth yet.
When we get there!? The next sun, other than our own, is 1 light year away. 1 light year= 6 trillion (that’s with a T) miles away. Human space travel, out of our solar system, is and will always be just a dream.
We!!, that’s 450 hundreds!............
Dang tablet inserts words!.....
” several hundred of which have been confirmed to be “Earth-like”
Where’s the list? They may have discovered hundreds of exoplanets but “earth like”? I’ve never heard this one before.
“Human space travel, out of our solar system, is and will always be just a dream.”
The science of tomorrow will always seem like magic today. While I don’t expect to see it, interstellar space travel and many other seemingly magical and miraculous things will happen, if we don’t blow ourselves up.
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