Earth-like planet could be discovered within three years

The Guardian ^ | 02/15/09 | Ian Sample

[LiberConservative]

With our luck it will be a planet populated by highly advanced xenophobes who will kill or enslave all of us. That's why we need to keep 0bama in office for the next 50 years so He can save us!

[Question_Assumptions]

In the broader sense, yes. Not just orbital location but the local neighborhood. A nearby star going supernova can ruin your whole day, as can the x-ray bursts from a black hole.

[KevinDavis]

or huge asteroids.. The Key is a system with gas giants, they tend to protect Earth like planets..

[Rummyfan]

Let me be the first to say: no liberals or muslims allowed!

[BobS]

There are that many. I saw several UFOs during the last 30 years. It appears they don't want anything to do with this planet. They have a way to accelleration that is beyond our current knowledge.

Einstein died trying to crack the uniform feild theory. Somebody else must pick it up.

[Concho]

Usually what a news release such as this indicates is that they have already identified such a place and that they will admit to it within the next 3 years if it is profitable to them in some way.

[phatus maximus]

I’m going to put all the money I’m going to get from the Porkulus savings I’m about to receive on that they won’t find an “Earth like” planet in the next 3000 years.

A very large sum gamble, I know...

[cripplecreek]

I blame global warming alarmists for slams on all other science. I worried about the destruction of good science when the global warmists started declaring their theories to be fact.

[AntiKev]

Or a binary system like A.C.

[KevinDavis]

I agree..

[Question_Assumptions]

The big moon and the collision that formed it may be key, too. And that’s what may be very rare, if not unique. It moderates the Earth’s rotation, protects the Earth from some impacts, and the collision that formed it may be why we still have our magnetic field and why the surface and atmosphere have the composition that they have. Venus underwent a similar impact at a different angle that set the planet rotating slowly in reverse, didn’t give it a large moon, and may have sucked all of the free oxygen out of the atmosphere, binding it with iron and other elements.

[KevinDavis]

I think that is the key to terraform Venus.. Just slam a large object on in it and see what happens..

[Question_Assumptions]

Actually, that's the way I think we need to terraform Mars. If neither it nor Europa turn out to have life, slam the latter into the former at an oblique angle and it should add water, re-liquify the planet, and add radioactives to the core. If you to it at just the right angle, you might even get the large moon. It's strongly advised that we really know what we are doing before moving an object as large as Europa around the inner solar system since any significant interaction with Earth or a collision could be catastrophic. And, yes, I do think that it's possible to destabilize the orbit of Europa and send it toward Mars. (Why, yes, I did read Larry Niven's A World Out of Time.)

[KevinDavis]

That is true.. Safety is paramount when you deal with large objects in space. Also if we can find to turn Jupiter into a star (like 2010) I think that can help Mars terraform a bit.

[Question_Assumptions]

I think that if Jupiter were a good star candidate, it would have become one. On the other hand, Jupiter has a few large water-rich moons to play around with so it would be possible, for example, to hit Mars with Europa and still use Callisto and/or Ganymede if another hit is desired or to hit Venus. Sure, comets could be used to add water to Mars but one of those big moons would add a lot of water and, as a bonus, re-liquify the planet and get a magnetic field going again and possibly add a nice moon. The evidence strongly suggests the magnetic field is very important for life and if it’s rare to keep one for a few billion years like Earth has, that’s a real strike against the odds of extraterrestrial life and especially intelligent extraterrestrial life. The magnetic field keeps the solar and cosmic radiation out and also keeps the atmosphere from being whittled away by the solar wind.

[Revolting cat!]

Awesome, It’ll coincide with me being able to take my flying car

What flying car? You've only been promised a pony by our Dear Leader!

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

"If so I would like to go there and start a new "America" on that planet"

I'm greedier than you. I've fantasized about each state getting a solar system, and the United States (of the Milky Way?) covering a region of space. California would get a star system with several inhabited planets so that the various micro-cultures/regions could each get their own world.

After going through the 50 states (the District of Columbia/capital would be a space station or base on some uninhabitable rock), new star systems could be named for the original Amerindian, Inuit, and Native Hawaiian tribes which haven't yet been given state names. Those systems would be territories until they got enough people, and then they could become states.

[TASMANIANRED]

Sounds like an excellent suggestion.

But all of us will be as old as dinosaur dung before they figure out a vehicle to transport us there.

[KevinDavis]

I know..

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks KevinDavis.

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