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Two Potentially Habitable Earth-Like Planets Discovered Around a Star Near the Sun
Scitech Daily ^ | DECEMBER 27, 2022 | By INSTITUTO DE ASTROFÍSICA DE CANARIAS (IAC)

Posted on 12/27/2022 9:21:12 AM PST by Red Badger

click here to read article


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To: Red Badger

2 places the Liberals can call home , please move now


21 posted on 12/27/2022 9:40:08 AM PST by butlerweave
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To: TexasM1A

“ load up the liberals and ship them out, their utopia awaits.”

“To Serve Man” - It’s a cookbook!


22 posted on 12/27/2022 9:41:17 AM PST by Venkman
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To: Chode

Voyager 1 or 2 could get there in only about 300,000 years. That’s not too bad.


23 posted on 12/27/2022 9:41:24 AM PST by Telepathic Intruder
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To: Red Badger

Don’t get too excited - any Red Dwarf planets would not be prime real estate - from Wiki, FWIW:

Modern evidence suggests that planets in red dwarf systems are extremely unlikely to be habitable. In spite of their great numbers and long lifespans, there are several factors which may make life difficult on planets around a red dwarf.

First, planets in the habitable zone of a red dwarf would be so close to the parent star that they would likely be tidally locked. For a nearly circular orbit, this would mean that one side would be in perpetual daylight and the other in eternal night.

This could create enormous temperature variations from one side of the planet to the other. Such conditions would appear to make it difficult for forms of life similar to those on Earth to evolve.

And it appears there is a great problem with the atmosphere of such tidally locked planets: the perpetual night zone would be cold enough to freeze the main gases of their atmospheres, leaving the daylight zone bare and dry.

On the other hand though, a theory proposes that either a thick atmosphere or planetary ocean could potentially circulate heat around such a planet

Variability in stellar energy output may also have negative impacts on the development of life. Red dwarfs are often flare stars, which can emit gigantic flares, doubling their brightness in minutes. This variability makes it difficult for life to develop and persist near a red dwarf.

While it may be possible for a planet orbiting close to a red dwarf to keep its atmosphere even if the star flares, more-recent research suggests that these stars may be the source of constant high-energy flares and very large magnetic fields, diminishing the possibility of life as we know it.


24 posted on 12/27/2022 9:42:59 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Chode

16 light years is what it says in the article


25 posted on 12/27/2022 9:44:57 AM PST by enumerated ( )
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To: PIF

GJ 1002b is closest to its star and takes just over 10 days to complete an orbit; GJ 1002c is further out, with an orbit of just over 20 days.


26 posted on 12/27/2022 9:52:44 AM PST by TexasGator (!!!)
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To: PIF; dsrtsage
Unfortunately there are so many variables that have to be right for the planet to support advanced life, or even for a star to be the right kind of star to have a planet to do it.

For example star GJ 1002 (the star this article is about) has about 10% of the mass of Sol (or sun). And of the two planets orbiting the star, neither is a massive Jupiter-like planet. Thus, any life on either of these planets would suffer frequent life extinction events like our Earth would if we didn't have big brother Jupiter protecting us by sucking in most asteroids into its much larger gravity well. The same for our massive sun (relative to star GJ 1002) pulling in lots of potential life extinction objects into its gravity well. Thus, that event rarely happens to Earth.

That's just one of many characteristics. Then there's the fact that star GJ 1002 is a red dwarf star which tends to be highly volatile with a lot more flares (and since it's smaller the planets are orbiting closer to it than Earth orbits our Sol star...).

We could go on and on and on about how special not just Earth is but also our star is, or even our Milky Way galaxy is. The more you look at it, the more the most plausible explanation seems to be is that it's specifically created for life by God. Then once you realize that, when it comes to determining if there's advanced life elsewhere it becomes a question of if God decided to create life elsewhere besides just Earth. I don't know the answer to that.

27 posted on 12/27/2022 9:55:05 AM PST by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: TexasGator

Really whizzing around- a guy would get dizzy


28 posted on 12/27/2022 9:55:34 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Chode

—% near the sun??? WTF...

Yes, but it’s a dry heat


29 posted on 12/27/2022 9:57:06 AM PST by aMorePerfectUnion (Fraud vitiates everything. )
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To: Tell It Right

Just because humans would likely die under such conditions does not mean another form would not thrive.

Humans cannot live under the oceans without aid, or at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, or in hot volcanic undersea vents - but other forms do.

Life is everywhere. It just that we would find Earth-like planets more to our liking, than say Mars


30 posted on 12/27/2022 10:00:44 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: PIF
Life is everywhere.

and several lower forms exist in Kali-fornia
31 posted on 12/27/2022 10:04:24 AM PST by Karma_Sherab
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To: Red Badger
two planets with Earth-like masses in orbit around the star GJ 1002, a red dwarf

A red dwarf star will not support life.

32 posted on 12/27/2022 10:06:08 AM PST by fso301
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To: beethovenfan

A robotic probe could get there in under a hundred years. Long range planning might make it worthwhile.


33 posted on 12/27/2022 10:06:18 AM PST by muir_redwoods (Freedom isn't free, liberty isn't liberal and you'll never find anything Right on the Left)
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To: Red Badger

This attempt to scale down the Goldilocks Zone is a joke. 10 and 21 day years? Yikes.


34 posted on 12/27/2022 10:07:57 AM PST by Quentin Quarantino
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

lol, oh yeah, like Vegas...


35 posted on 12/27/2022 10:09:00 AM PST by Chode (there is no fall back position, there's no rally point, there is no LZ... we're on our own. #FJB)
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To: Venkman

“There’s no point in acting surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display at your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for 50 of your Earth years, so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it’s far too late to start making a fuss about it now. … What do you mean you’ve never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven’s sake, mankind, it’s only four light years away, you know. I’m sorry, but if you can’t be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that’s your own lookout. Energize the demolition beams.”


36 posted on 12/27/2022 10:11:32 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: PIF
That's what I meant when I said "advanced life". Advanced life requires a lot more parameters in the environment to be just right, unlike microbes and bugs.

Think about how few organisms could survive on land if we didn't have a magnetic field blocking much of the radiation. Our planet's molten highly metallic core seems to be a unique occurrence, but I guess it's possible to find another planet with one.

But can you find one that has a strong magnetic field, while also being in the goldilocks zone for liquid water? And have enough tectonic activity to stir up heavy elements from the bottoms of oceans and the earth's crust, but not so much tectonic activity that it kills too much advanced life? And not have a synchronous rotation with its host star (it's common for the same side of a planet to face the star like the same side of the moon faces the earth)? Etc...

37 posted on 12/27/2022 10:12:08 AM PST by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: dfwgator

lol - and now for some Vogon poetry …


38 posted on 12/27/2022 10:20:14 AM PST by Venkman
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To: Red Badger

We’ve been 60+ years getting people to Mars....Maybe in another 30?


39 posted on 12/27/2022 10:21:26 AM PST by citizen (Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people - John Adams 1798)
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To: Venkman

Don’t Panic!


40 posted on 12/27/2022 10:21:35 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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