Posted on 06/12/2023 7:40:42 AM PDT by McGruff
A nearby exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of a star just 4.2 light-years from Earth may be home to a vast ocean, boosting its chances of supporting life. Since its discovery, questions about the conditions at the surface of Proxima b have been swirling; the planet’s mass is just about 1.3 times that of Earth’s, and the red dwarf star it circles is similar in age to our sun.
Studies over the last few years, however, have both bolstered hopes of its habitability and shot them down. Now, a new study has once again raised the possibility that Proxima b could support life, suggesting that under the right conditions, the exoplanet could sustain liquid water.
“The major message from our simulations is that there’s a decent chance that the planet would be habitable,” Anthony Del Genio, a planetary scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told LiveScience.
Since its discovery, questions about the conditions at the surface of Proxima b have been swirling; the planet's mass is just about 1.3 times that of Earth's, and the red dwarf star it circles is similar in age to our sun. Artist's impression
In the study published this month in the journal Astrobiology, the researchers ran what are said to be the first climate simulations of Proxima b with a dynamic ocean. The planet is thought to be tidally locked with its star, Proxima Cent
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.thespaceacademy.org ...
I always figured the forest moon of Endor was tidally locked with its planet. This would allow the death star to maintain a fixed position in the Endor sky to be constantly protected by the field generator. The planet could be tidally locked to the star, but the moon tidally locked to the planet. On the moon, day and night would be caused by a revolution around the planet, not by its own rotation. Which would explain how the ewoks did so much preparation for battle in a single night.
Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, I have one final thing I want you to consider. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense!
Why would a Wookiee, an eight-foot tall Wookee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of two-foot tall Ewoks? That does not make sense!
But more important, you have to ask yourself: What does this have to do with this case? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case! It does not make sense!
Look at me. I’m a lawyer defending a major record company, and I’m talkin’ about Chewbacca! Does that make sense? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense! None of this makes sense!
And so you have to remember, when you’re in that jury room deliberatin’ and conjugatin’ the Emancipation Proclamation, does it make sense? No! Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, it does not make sense! If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit! The defense rests.
Hands are more versatile.
Do you carry 25/7/365.241?
What? Are you kidding?
The life here is pretty terrifying!
Better the devil you know...
I don't think the hot air keeps well, they may have to take the supply with them.
*sob*
Getting there ourselves?
More challenging...
They will, but disarming a lousy Centauran and holding its own Zlurg against them is more humiliating.
Harmless Teddy Bear ~ Is it free of liberals?
No, that's where the gloom comes from...
As far as I have read, habitable planets around a Red Dwarf have to be close in and that means they will be tidally locked - it would be rare if one were not.
Does not matter really what it does, no human could survive the radiation.
Great!
All we have to do is be able to transit space at at least the speed of light and we can be there in just four years of so. Give or take a light year.
Stainless steel repels radiation and micrometeorites right? I thought so.
Hey Elon! We have another promo for you.
It may be click bait. Some appear to be dominated by the notion that there has to be life on other planets, and thus it becomes like only having a hammer and everything looks like a nail.
And then there’s the need to hype up their current research to keep the grant money flowing, because who will get anymore funding if they show a planet is actually uninhabitable.
Just 4 light years and we just need to invent a warp drive.
Sounds so easy on paper.
“Some appear to be dominated by the notion that there has to be life on other planets,”
On that I am an agostic, taking the position that it “may be” possible while taking the position that the evidence is not there (yet, maybe??).
“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare do things that are difficult.”
Seneca
Yeah because no one on planes or space ships ever mutinies or attacks others on board. Or sabotages any kind of cryo-sleep chambers people are in. Much less the ship even working that long to get you there alive.
As per the foreign army, have no idea what scenario you’re thinking of there.
Not the case in this instance.
It is fine to imagine and even tell others what you imagine, as long as you explain to others that’s all the “evidence” you have - your imagination, and you don’t pretend otherwise.
When they get there in a hundred years or so, they find a planet immersed in climate change paranoia and a population in the billions. And signs: Yankee Go Home!
And on the way they'll probably conjure up another 150 genders, making reproduction totally untenable, so the aliens will find a capsule full of bones.
In addition to the obvious carbon-based life-hospitable factors, such as a temperature suitable for liquid water and a suitably-sized sun, there are many more factors required for a planet to be fit for carbon-based intelligent life (with more factors likely to be discovered):
Suitable gravity for atmosphere, with appropriate pressure, to retain oxygen and water vapor but not hydrogen; suitable axial rotation rate; appropriate tilt of planet axis for seasons; suitable orbital distance from star to prevent tidal locking; magnetic field from planet’s molten core to shield atmosphere from cosmic radiation; sufficient planetary plate tectonics for crustal mineral recycling; suitable distribution and shape of continents to sustain deep ocean currents; sufficient actinide radioisotopes in planet interior for decay heat; suitably-sized moon at a suitable distance to create needed tides and stabilize planet rotation; giant outer gas planets to prevent large asteroids and comets from frequent collisions with planet; suburban galaxy location providing sufficient distance from recent supernovas; far enough away from gravitational disturbances by higher density of stars in inner area of galaxy; only minor orbital variations caused by small chaotic gravitational interactions between nearby planets.
With these factors, and Bayesian statistics, the number of planets in our galaxy capable of sustaining carbon-based intelligent life is much smaller than the media and grant-seeking astronomers imply in their articles. The estimated probable number is likely very close to the experimentally measured value of one.
As for non-carbon-based life forms, those can be found in numerous science fiction writings, movies, and TV shows.
Tidally locked also implies that it is very close to star. That, even for a red dwarf, implies that the “wind” would have long weakened any protective magnetic shield. Even if there is still an atmosphere, surface would be bathed in radiation.
Life still possible, tho, but dicey.
I won’t say. Suffice it to say I live in NYS.
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