Posted on 02/03/2012 7:27:00 PM PST by Clintonfatigued
The planet, dubbed GJ 667Cc, orbits a red dwarf star 22 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Scorpio. A binary pair of orange dwarf stars are part of the same system.
(Related: "'Tatooine' Planet With Two Suns Could Host Habitable Moon?")
The new planet has a mass 4.5 times that of Earth and orbits its host star every 28 days.
The red dwarf is relatively dim, so the planet receives slightly less light from its star than Earth does from the sun. But most of the star's light is infrared, so the planet should absorb more of its incoming energy than Earth does from sunlight.
That means if the planet has a rocky surface—which is predicted for planets less than ten times Earth's mass—and an atmosphere, it could support liquid water and maybe life, said co-discoverer Guillem Anglada-Escudé, who conducted the work while at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C.
"If it has an atmosphere, it's probably reddish all the time, because the star is really red," Anglada-Escudé said. "It would be like being evening all the time."
For any hypothetical observers on the surface, the binary stars in the distance would be "very prominent in the sky, and it would be an exotic thing."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
That’s only 129 trillion miles - practically right around the corner.
At 50,000 miles an hour it would only take 295,000 years to make the trip.
>>>>>>>"Sorry I’m sort of an astronomy nerd."<<<<<<<
I saw E.T. three times and still didn't understand it.
“Try like many many lifetimes. We do not have the technology YET to even get close.”
____________________________________________
Of course, you are right.
I failed to say “traveling the speed of light”.
I well remember back in 1958, when the search for ET radio signals became a serious endeavor.
The theory was that very high power VHF TV signals had begun in the late 30s and had time (11 years) to reach the nearest star and a return signal to be received 11 years later.
This was like a forerunner, or inspiration for SETI.
The distance factor is why I scoff at the UFO enthusiast
who think ET is zipping all over the planet today.
I guess we have to see if the SIFI concept of worm holes and parallel universes becomes fact.
I am not holding my breath, haha.
As the radius goes to zero, your weight goes to infinity. As it increases without limit, your weight goes to zero.
So although this planet is 4.5 times the mass of the Earth, if it's radius is large, we could actually be pretty comfortable on the surface. I suspect this is the case because another article I read said the planet is poor in heavy metals (it's not a compact iron ball).
Right now the trip, one way, would take about 375,000 years. Better pack a big lunch. That is Earth time, it would appear to be slightly quicker to those on the space craft, but not much quicker.
To bad we can not yet go 50,000 mph (except down a gravity well) in open space, best we have been able to do is less then 40,000 (Voyager space craft speed leaving Solar System).
Oh, Okay. I get it.
I did hear that if a planet were solid gold, it could be half the size of Earth to get 1g
heh
Hardly - the place isn't habitable - four time the gravity of earth? Rather than weigh 170, I'd weigh 680 pounds and be unable to lift my body off the ground.
Can we send all the liberals to that planet?
There goes the magnetic field, I hate it when that happens. But maybe a Red Dwarf does not produce the same solar radiation as our Sun, hmmmm, there might still be hope that this planet has hot babes! We need to check it out immediately. The heck with a moon base, let's build a base on this planet.
Sorry, I’m a struggling Dawg from Athens...
I believe that travel between worlds is possible, it would explain Obama. He just says his father was a Kenyan but I keep looking at the ears and wondering about the birth certificate. The whole Kenyan thing might be like the Coneheads claiming they were from France to explain their strangeness.
|
Or hanging. Without a natural source of Viagra reproduction as we know it could not exist. |
“We would have to develop warp drive first. The idea is to somehow shrink space/time in front of your space ship and expand it behind. Then you could go faster than light.”
This is exactly why I am so fascinated with the undertakings currently underway at CERN. Although it seems logical to me that it would be impossible to go faster than the speed of light (which would theoretically result in time travel) there needs to be a way to get extremely close to that speed.
But heck, in complex matters such as these I default to that physicists.
PING!!!
there’s only one missing ingrediant....GOD.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.