Posted on 04/20/2020 7:25:20 AM PDT by Tenacious 1
Scientists analyzing data gathered by Kepler, which NASA retired in November 2018, just found a hidden gem: an Earth-size world that may be capable of supporting life as we know it.
The exoplanet, Kepler-1649c, circles a red dwarf star that lies 300 light-years from Earth, a new study reports. Kepler-1649c completes one orbit every 19.5 Earth days, putting the alien planet in its host star's "habitable zone," the just-right range of distances where liquid water could exist on a world's surface. (Because red dwarfs are so dim, their habitable zones lie quite close.)
"This intriguing, distant world gives us even greater hope that a second Earth lies among the stars, waiting to be found," Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement....
Both of these campaigns were very successful. Kepler spotted about two-thirds of the 4,100 confirmed exoplanets that astronomers have discovered to date. And the spacecraft's observations suggest that 20-25% of the 200 billion or so stars in the Milky Way galaxy host rocky worlds in the habitable zone. That's a lot of potentially life-supporting real estate....
Kepler-1649c is just 1.06 times the size of Earth and gets 75% of the stellar energy influx that our planet gets from the sun. This combination of characteristics makes the newfound world quite special indeed.
"There are other exoplanets estimated to be closer to Earth in size, such as TRAPPIST-1f and, by some calculations, Teegarden c," NASA officials wrote in the same statement. "Others may be closer to Earth in temperature, such as TRAPPIST-1d and TOI 700d. But there is no other exoplanet that is considered to be closer to Earth in both of these values that also lies in the habitable zone of its system."
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Tidally locked, probably, if it's that close to the star.
And what if we get there and it’s populated by Reptillians who welcome the arrival of fresh food?
Thanks now you took away the last remaining excuse I had to avoid helping my wife clean the house!
‘Honey I can’t ! I have to research red dwarf thermonuclear behavior’ was working! Now no longer!
:)
Anyway I should have read the article more carefully then I did.
Any life capable of getting here from wherever outside our solar system would not be a good thing for us. Their technology would be so far superior to make us the equal of a grain of sand to the oceans tide. IOW, stop wasting money on this crap and get to the business of figuring out how we take out this virus now, not in some light year of minutes in the future. Six more months of these ridicules clap downs will result in a world wide depression which will lead to mass exterminations by war.
I thought the the latest emerging ion drive technology could zip us along at about 1/3 the speed of light.
aka ‘Class M’
My calculation is 11 million years, that is if we were going space shuttle speed.
Such planet orbiting a red dwarf will be tidally locked and a be a very unpleasant place.
It's actually a contradiction in terms. If it is their planet, they are not aliens there. If they came here, they would be aliens.. If we went there, we would be the aliens. I learned this on "Lost in Space".
Damn, I was hoping this thread would be a brief respite from all the other nonstop virus crap that this site is hosting. Guess I was wrong........Sheesh!
Nope. On the contrary, I am very sure we have a long way to go to understand physics and the universe. From quantum physics and understanding subatomic particles to the behavior of gravity and light across this universe, we have more questions than answers. We have only been at it for a few thousand years. And, I think we are learning at an exponential pace as it relates to our earliest "scientists" (as in ancient Egyptians).
My expectation on how long before we have the capabilities and understanding is exactly a reflection on how much we have to learn about the universe and physics.
I suspect we will eventually learn that gravity is not a constant as it relates to mass in the universe. It may be a constant in our solar system. But how would we know otherwise? Answer: Well, we know how light behaves and.... But do we? What of these "black holes" that have so much gravity that light is affected? The black holes must have something "massive" that creates the gravity, right? Hell, the Big Bang Theory is as much science fiction as any idea in science when you think about it. It's a theory that explains what we think we know about the universe and it's origins and the happen stance of our existence. I suspect humans will have to be able to explore outside our solar system before we get to a point of understanding the science we need to "travel to other stars".
These are the ideas that interest me. At the same time, trying to grasp our infinitesimal existence in the universe as it relates to space and time, upon contemplation, leads me to believe our existence is not just happen stance.
um... then why did you support the argument that we can’t get to other stars?
I already called DIBS.
And I get to ride shotgun.
A 300 year trip, traveling at the speed of light. We might not be around to explore it!
Not if you define alien as "other than".
True, theoretically. Practically speaking, all we need is to be able to store enough of the theoretical fuel to power the theoretical engine that could produce a constant acceleration of 1G for a total of 4 years (acceleration, deceleration and back). LOL
By the time we develop and master these technologies, the Space Eco-environmentalists would be deriding our efforts by castigating our pollution of space with all that energy usage.
Geez... we just need Cochran to create warp drive.
I didn't.
Will humans ever migrate into space and inhabit exoplanets in the universe? I guess maybe in the next million years or so. Will we ever meet intelligent alien life? Not likely. Does intelligent extraterrestrial exist in the universe? Most likely. In fact, there well may have already been intelligent life out there that has come and become extinct. There may also be "intelligent life" that is just now evolving. But our star, the Sun, also has an expiration date. So even our opportunity in space and time is limited. It's good to look and is our human nature. But ultimately, is our expectation and hopes a bit ambitious?
My point is, we are so far away from being able to do it, the fascinating information and data we are collecting is currently useless, practically speaking. All we are doing is developing our methods to gather information for science in hopes of technological advancement that may be a thousand years out.
I enjoy reading about it and contemplating what it would be like. But I have a realistic grasp and practicality of the investment and return of this science and exploration.
It's a fun and intellectual diversion discussion from Corona Virus and politics.
Traveling through normal space is futile past our neighborhood.
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