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To: LibWhacker
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Currently our level of sensing technology is only capable of detecting very large planets and can see earth size planets only under perfect circumstances and close distances.
4 posted on 06/26/2021 10:43:26 PM PDT by wildcard_redneck ( COVID lockdowns are the Establishment's attack on the middle class and our Republic )
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To: wildcard_redneck

The project, called the Solar Gravity Lens, or SGL will use Albert Einstein’s idea that said, over a century ago, that gravity can bend and magnify light—a concept known as gravitational lensing. The gravitational field of the sun will create an immense lens. It will require precise navigation, communications over long distances, and the need for a sunshade to keep our own Sun’s light from entering the telescope. A coronagraph would also be required to block the light from the exoplanet parent’s star. Getting to the focal point will be challenging but the results will be spectacular. We will see these exoplanets in great detail. Once we determine which exoplanets have promising features, how will be get there? Think the Star Trek warp drive. Scientist have discovered how we can make a warp drive possible so men can travel to distant planets in minutes. Those strange UFOs we are observing may have discovered the way to make warp drive work already.


5 posted on 06/26/2021 11:06:08 PM PDT by jonrick46 ( Leftnicks chase illusions of motherships at the end of the pier.)
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To: wildcard_redneck
Lots of star systems have multiple stars. If the stars are of similar size then the planetary orbits will be chaotic and the planets will spend large amounts of time far from and close to the stars making life nearly impossible.

If one of the stars is a red dwarf, then the radiation from that planet will regularly kill off any life that happened to get started.

If the planets are in stable orbits too far or too close to a single star then life appears impossible, from what we know of our own solar system. Even if life is able to get started under water in iced over planets, then those life forms will have no access to fire and will most likely not evolve past dolphin-like intelligence.

If a planet happens to be in a favorable orbit around a single star, then whatever intelligent life might start there will soon devolve to the point where thy consider Lady Gaga music and Superhero movies as adult entertainment. From there it is not too long to Idiocracy and societal collapse.

8 posted on 06/26/2021 11:22:29 PM PDT by who_would_fardels_bear (This is not a tagline.)
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To: wildcard_redneck
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Currently our level of sensing technology is only capable of detecting very large planets and can see earth size planets only under perfect circumstances and close distances.

Understood but even with better technology, using the total number of stars as basis for assuming life as we know it must be common is a false assumption because type G stars such as out own are uncommon throughout the universe comprising roughly seven percent of the total.

So, right off the bat, you have to make a ~93 percent reduction from the total number of stars.

To be more precise, class G stars come in 12 basic variants, our sun being a type G2V.

Galaxies have what are thought to be habitable zones. Most stars within a galaxy lay outside the habitable zone. What this means is an exact clone of our solar system would not support life unless it was located within the habitable zone of a galaxy. This eliminates another huge swath of stars.

But then we must reduce the candidate field even further due to solar systems having their own habitable zone. Planets too close, or too far away from their sun will not support life.

And we are just getting started listing all the factors that reduce the cosmic field to those solar systems thought as most conducive to supporting life as we know it.

19 posted on 06/27/2021 3:26:05 AM PDT by fso301
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