Is there another Earth out there?

USA Today ^ | Staff Writer

[bedolido]

Forget the next Star Wars movie. The real space sequel guaranteed to capture public attention, astronomers say, is the discovery of another planet like Earth in our own starry neighborhood -- and it is likely to happen within a decade.

[AntiGuv]

One minor modification.. Any particular conclusion from the Fermi Paradox is a declaration of faith, not the Fermi Paradox itself..

[Grando Calrissian]

It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination.

[RightWhale]

There is an obvious question that needs to be asked. If another earthlike planet is found, what will happen here on earth? Will some social groups become disfunctional? Will the people of earth unite in a common cause of some kind? Will there be mass panic and looting? What is the range of liklihoods?

[Physicist]

To quote Enrico Fermi: "Where are they?"

Hint: There's always room at the bottom.

[Physicist]

What is the range of liklihoods?

Probability that it is used to bolster evolution: 100%

Probability that it is used to bolster creationism: 100%

Probability that astronomers use it as a pretext to call for more funding: 100%

Probability that a chorus of Freepers belittle the discovery and decry the expenditure, no matter how modest: 100%

Probability that democrats use the discovery to support their position on at least four unrelated issues: 100%

Probability that Jesse Jackson exploits the media buzz for face time: 100%

[Grando Calrissian]

The United Nations will create a treaty making it effectively off-limits to anyone from earth, other than pre-determined United Nations NGOs. The United States will refuse to ratify or sign the treaty and the rest of the world will once again call us "reckless uni-lateralists". Woman and children will be the hardest affected. The contracts to build a vehicle to propel people to said planet will go to some organization with ties to the Presidential Administration, and massive-partisan investigations will be launched....

[Joe Hadenuf]

So if they exist, where are they?

Earth just had a close call by a rather large 100 meter diameter asteroid, that they never really saw coming. A space craft could *easily* go undected.

Check this article out.

June 19, 2002 | On June 17th, astronomers from the Lincoln Laboratory Near Earth Asteroid Research project (LINEAR) discovered a new Earth-crossing asteroid. Designated 2002 MN, the object is approximately 100 meters across and flew by us on June 14th.

What is most shocking is just how close it came to Earth. This is only the sixth known asteroid to penetrate the Moon's orbit, and by far the biggest. According to Brian G. Marsden (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), the object came within 120,000 kilometers (0.0008 astronomical unit) of impacting Earth.

A disturbing detail is that 2002 MN was discovered three days after its closest approach.

Though we are almost certainly out of harm's way from this near Earth object (no potential impacts are forecast until at least 2050), its late detection may be telling. Currently there is no dedicated Southern Hemisphere NEO search program, and NASA is currently focused on finding bodies greater than 1 kilometer across.

[RightWhale]

No cynicism here. No sir. Manifold: Time, and Manifold: Space, and Manifold: Origin, all by Stephen Baxter discuss some of these problems. He sends out a ship with squid onboard. Carefully selected squid. The squid eventually revolt, of course, and go into competition against us. Baxter is also very cynical about NASA and Congress getting anything together for space exploration and has a private person wheel and deal his way into privately funded space exploration while NASA and Congress try to stop him, which they nearly do.

I think it will be near impossible to get an expedition together due to all kinds of opposition from all quarters.

[boris]

"The space people will contact us when they can make money by doing so." - David Byrne

Unfortunately I have it from impeccable sources that the space people use old automobile mufflers for money.

--Boris

[boris]

"I could go on. The point of the matter is that your original thesis is a fallacy."

You need to educate yourself before you shoot your mouth off. For example, read THIS.

[PatrickHenry]

I think it will be near impossible to get an expedition together due to all kinds of opposition from all quarters.

With presently-available technology the costs are enormous, so it's pretty much got to be a government project. And all government projects, sooner or later, end up being managed like the post office. And postal management just isn't going to get us to the stars. So it's going to have to await better, cheaper technology, so that it's affordable and profitable, and can be done by private enterprise. If the US can hang together, it's going to happen. But it will probably take at least another generation or so.

[AntiGuv]

I have read Rare Earth, as a matter of fact.. Read my succeeding posts, particularly #57.

[RightWhale]

When it comes to interstellar exploration, we will probably not bother with robots, but go ahead with human settlers from the beginning. But that won't be for a while yet. We will gradually expand our bubble of life to include the solar system and the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. Migration to the next star system will be a reverse procedure, hopping to their Oort cloud, their Kuiper Belt, and inward toward the star in easy steps leaving a trail of settlements all along the way. Won't be any hop and skip between stars in the beginning, just from one rock to the next.

[Joe Hadenuf]

I think it will be near impossible to get an expedition together due to all kinds of opposition from all quarters.

I tend to agree, that's why I do my own little exploration.

This is the latest of Jupiter, still experiencing focusing problems, but it's getting better. Through the eyepiece is considerably better and the atmospheric detail is at a much higher resolution. Through the eyepiece I can clearly see the Great Red Spot, which is now tan... One day, it will be a CCD camera instead of a film format. And a web cam too, as some of the folks doing amateur work with web cams are getting stunning planetary results .

[RightWhale]

I know eyepiece projection is not easy. Do you have focusing jigs, a ground glass screen, etc.?

[adx]

If habitable real estate (meaning right temp, gravity, no need for domes or tunneling, etc., etc.) is real scarce, why not break out the neutron bombs? Wipe out the natives and their biosphere, and replace it with your own, especially if they can't shoot back.

[fat city]

Somewhere in a parallel universe the Red Sox win the World Series more than once every 100 years.

Bet they don't.

[PJ-Comix]

The real space sequel guaranteed to capture public attention, astronomers say, is the discovery of another planet like Earth in our own starry neighborhood -- and it is likely to happen within a decade.

It likely won't happen for another million years or, more accurately, NEVER.

[AntiGuv]

I did make one repeated, unfortunate error however - which was equating a particular conclusion of Fermi's Paradox (that no other civilizations have ever existed) with the Paradox itself. Fermi's own conclusion was quite different, I might add: that interstellar travel is either impossible, or at least so difficult that nobody undertakes it because it is not worth the effort.

[PatrickHenry]

that interstellar travel is either impossible, or at least so difficult that nobody undertakes it because it is not worth the effort.

It would be worth the effort if the sun were going to die soon. But we're a long way away from that. With present technology, I can't think of much else that would be a sufficient motivation.