NASA to Make BIG Announcement Live on Thursday - Another Earth?!

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Cryogenic freezing isn't the issue, its a matter of unfreezing them that we haven't yet figured out.

a reply to: FreeQuebec86

Yah 14 LY is a lot closer than the 300 LY you suggested... Possibly survivable at Light Speed...I'd love to take that trip!...
(I think 'We' have already mastered Worm Hole uses! But that's just the Conspiritorial mind of Mine thinking that!!) LOL!!!...

originally posted by: Jekka
a reply to: MystikMushroom

Cryogenic freezing isn't the issue, its a matter of unfreezing them that we haven't yet figured out.

Well unfreezing them wouldn't be much an issue if they had the freezing part right.

Right now we can't really figure a good way to freeze someone without damaging cells. Since we're like 80% water, and water expands when frozen, rupturing cell walls.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Well without exact math, isn't light year like Us traveling at the speed of light for one of Our years? If so, then 14 LY would be a long but survivable trip!
Jekka on the page after Your reply to me answered one of My thoughts on Cryo suspension... The thawing would be the trick to master I would think as well...
But back to my first remark here, I wouldn't think We'd have to use Cryo Suspension for a 14 year trip. Of course there would have to be a Bar, live music, and other distractions onboard to make the trip seem, well, not as long?! LOL!!

a reply to: ScientificRailgun

Hey SR! Nice to see You again!! ...

Couldn't 'We' Flash Freeze? Would that like, Not cause damage the cells from expansion, or not I wonder... Does Flash Freezing still expand water?...

originally posted by: Jonjonj
So similar sun, similar size planet to earth. Very cool indeed. All this research will set up the James Webb telescope for some fun observational work.

Yes. I am very excited for TESS and the James Webb Space Telescope!

TESS after launch in 2017 will basically build a map of places nearby of interest. It will look for where the potentially habitable worlds like this one are in our back yard. Think of it as a Kepler for spotting planets our immediate neighborhood. It's catalog and star map of our corner of the will be one of the first which future mission planners (and perhaps even starship captains) use to determine where to go.

JWST will analyze the most interesting places on the star map TESS provides and be able to tell whether the interesting planets it found have an atmosphere, oceans, perhaps even life itself!

The idea that we can determine all this and perhaps even take images to make crude maps of other Earths with a future series of space telescope all without even leaving our solar system is fascinating.

It makes me wonder, now that we know that these other Earths are common, and perhaps other life is common, and perhaps other advanced life like us out there, then answer to the "Fermi Paradox" might simply be that the aliens would have no need to come here. They could learn whatever they want from a distance just as we are in a very crude way beginning to do ourselves.

originally posted by: SyxPak
a reply to: ScientificRailgun

Hey SR! Nice to see You again!!

...

Couldn't 'We' Flash Freeze? Would that like, Not cause damage the cells from expansion, or not I wonder... Does Flash Freezing still expand water?...

I honestly dunno how flash freezing works, or what it's affects on the cellular level are. I do know that (at least until recently, unless something changed) Cryogenics was often a process of very SLOWLY cooling the body, rather than quickly.

a reply to: Jekka

How do we know we're even freezing them correctly in a way that can be thawed and reanimated?

That's my problem with cryonics. We could be going about the freezing part totally wrong. In the future when they get it sorted out they'll have a bunch of meat popsicles they can't thaw and do anything with.

originally posted by: ScientificRailgun

originally posted by: ThePeaceMaker
trying to keep this relatively on topic. Im gutted that my life will be over before I have a chance to set foot on another planet. When NASA talks about finding earth twin all I can image in like the planet from the film Avatar .. What would it be like to set foot on a planet with its own different types of trees, birds, clouds, blue skies, marine life etc. to try and picture it blows my mind

I'd be pretty terrified, to be honest. What host of micro-organisms float through the air that could be potentially lethal to a human immune system? We evolved to survive amongst the incredibly diverse habitat of earth and most of the microscopic nasties that float around in the air are quickly identified and washed out by our bodies.

I'd love to set foot on an alien planet, but not without a sci-fi style rebreather that filters out all microbial agents down to the nanometer scale.

Agreed.

Any far future, up close and personal exploration of alien planets similar to Earth might first be done with probes for that reason.

However if life on such a planet were based on DNA with the opposite chirality or "handedness" than Earth life then we'd probably be safe. If it's DNA were identical ours then we would want to be extremely careful as not only could its microorganisms kill us, we could kill life there just by being present in the same way that some diseases brought by settlers decimated certain native populations.


Or maybe the life would be based around some other thing than DNA entirely. That would be SO weird but incredibly fascinating.

a reply to: JadeStar

Bingo. Ya nailed it. Just by setting foot on the planet we could be endangering not only ourselves, but the entire ecosystem of the planet. One micro-organism could set of a mass extinction.

a reply to: SyxPak

Like Railgun said, the freezing part is important, but we have that part down to a degree and use it in modern medicine. When a person comes into the ER with severe trauma and very little blood left, they intentionally lower body temperature and start pumping cold saline and other fluids into the bloodstream to cool the body and preserve the brain and tissues from dying. Our cells don't like being outright frozen though and when they come back, they basically commit cellular suicide because of a small bit of code in our DNA. Removing that may help matters.

Syx, 14 years would be survivable and you have the right of it. The greatest danger to the crew of a long, confined space trip is the crew itself. If you ever wonder how you would fare or how difficult it would be, imagine sitting in a space effectively the size of a 20x20 room with 6-12 other people with time effectively frozen for you entertainment-wise. No new movies, books, games, tv shows, music or any other entertainment media. You could end up stuck with the same playlist of music, for 14 years. To top it all off, you have half a dozen or so menial, mind numbingly repetitive tasks you need to do every few hours or so. Imagine that you didn't get along with one of them. You couldn't just part ways like you can here on earth, you would have to continue working with them. And you couldn't turn to a bar, alcohol affects the body much differently in space. Not to mention any intimate relationship would not only be difficult due to the strain of a lack of real privacy, but imagine breaking up and still having them there, for the next however many years are left in the trip. Yes, while freezing is far from perfect. Spending large stretches of that time frozen would make a 14 year trip seem less long, but no amount of entertainment could make 14 years with the same people, music, entertainment media and the same space saving, nutritious and utterly tasteless food seem less long. Understanding the psychology of that is our greatest challenge in a trip without the option of cryo-sleep.

originally posted by: Quyll
Yay...another Earth for humanity to destroy.

Great.

s&f

Funny. I thought the same thing.

If they see us coming, I don't think they will let us enter their orbit. Not if they know anything of our history.

Why are we spending this kind of money now when we have such much need on this planet?

We have no right contaminating other worlds until we can show them we can live in peace and harmony on this one.

a reply to: JadeStar

A well made point. We have examples on our own planet of silica-based life. Not that I am a Trekkie but we will likely have to develop something similar to the "Prime Directive" when dealing with new worlds, firstly so that we don't simply ride in as minions of pestilence and secondly, could you imagine if someone showed up here when we were in the beginning of our industrial age, or during Manifest Destiny and showed us how to make nuclear weapons? We would have utterly destroyed ourselves. Hell even giving us the mathematical and scientific knowledge unrelated to but that could lead towards such things at that point could be devastating. Medicine would work in much the same way to use a less warlike example. Part of our modern medicine is genetic modification of viruses and such. That could easily blow up in our face right now, to say nothing of having not gone through the trial and error process to get where we are today and have that handed to us.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

If we thought that way a few hundred years ago we would have never crossed the Atlantic. Part of learning our way through things as a fledgling species is making mistakes. It is unfortunate, but we as a species don't learn very well through patience. If we did, the concept of a mad scientist wouldn't exist.

originally posted by: ScientificRailgun
a reply to: JadeStar

Bingo. Ya nailed it. Just by setting foot on the planet we could be endangering not only ourselves, but the entire ecosystem of the planet. One micro-organism could set of a mass extinction.

pfft. im still waiting for the vogons to demolish the earth in preparation for the bypass. the plans have only been posted in alpha centauri for the past few decades.

a reply to: Jekka

Awesome reply! However, if 'We' could travel in something like this or similar, or larger, we would have much more room to traverse along in Our journey...? I do agree with the points of same food, etc..., but if we had a large enough ship, we could raise pigs, (GOTTA have that Bacon!! LOL!) and cattle, sheep, and have gardens for veggies, etc... Just a thought. The music couold be sent by Ansaller wave, instant, (not sure of the correct words there...), to get the newest sounds from Earth? And then the alcohol issue... Another drug for self indulgance that would be usable for Us, and not damage our cells, or brains, etc...? I dunno... There has to be a way to have the same things, or similar, that we have now on this Planet...

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
Wouldn't the gravity on a larger world be greater?

Yes if it has a rocky/terrestrial density which this one has.

Meaning -- we couldn't really live there without being crushed?

Not at all. We'd feel heavier, like we were doing a workout. Or as the one scientist said, "like a fireman carrying a hose", but if we somehow had to live on a planet with twice Earth gravity it would only take us a few weeks to a month to adapt. Future generations of humans evolving on such a planet over thousands of years would eventually take on a shorter, more muscular appearance.

a reply to: SyxPak

Syx I would love to see a craft like that. That would help immensely, the more space people have to themselves, the better they can coexist, psychologically speaking. The only drawback to a construction project of that size is in its construction. We would have to build it in space out of light materials and unless we develop a similar or better method for breaking earth's atmosphere than liquid fuel, we would run out of that resource long before we could get the material into space to begin with. It would have to be done in tandem with many other countries, similar to the ISS and we would have the issue of any stray space debris collisions during construction. Lots of EVA for the workers, lots of fuel used, lots of material, collaboration would be key. When I considered this a long time ago, I thought of the moon, but the lunar dust would be a huge problem in itself. This would be a project we would need full financial and labor commitments from quite a few of our major powers. It would solve a lot of issues though. And yes, gotta have bacon.

Sorry to be a party pooper, but Kepler 452b is 1400 light years away, not 14.

originally posted by: Junkheap
Kepler 452b is 1400 light years away, not 14.

Nothing a little superluminal travel couldn't fix.