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

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
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.

That is exactly why we would need to do extensive testing with actual cryonics. What I described simply slows the progress of cellular death so that major damages can be fixed without worrying about killing the person as they are at that point deceased-ish.

a reply to: Jekka

I had thought of the construction for such a 'vehicle'... And as far as the space debris, we'd just capture it, as the old satellites or whetever flew by, and recycle the materials for our construcion for rour craft in space! Prob solved!!

a reply to: SyxPak

Not a bad idea, only issue would be if we "accidentally" caught a spy satellite or something similar. Other problem is that anything in orbit it travelling amazingly fast and most of it is smaller than a softball. Ever tried to catch a bullet?

If mankind went to this planet (or any other), we'd just be one species of many that have and will visit. It will be a special event for us, but in the overall scheme of things, just another visitor. Earth has had its share of off-world tourists too.

a reply to: Jekka

I know of the speeds up there of all the junk. We are smart enough to grab that stuff somehow, I'd think!? And no on the bullet catching. LOL!!! I don't think I even want to try that... Yet... LMAO!!!

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.

Yes. I would hope by the time we can travel to some of these worlds in person that we have some sort of moral code (prime directive?) which would forbid any human from setting foot on a planet containing alien life until such time that the risk to both the human and alien life were well known.

It would be a shame if some kinda far future maverick set foot on a lush, vibrant, world only to sneeze and kill the planet.

We'd then have to catch and try that person for genocide.

a reply to: carewemust

I agree we have had off world visitors here! There is evidence of that all throughout or history as a species! If one cares to look... Seen some things in my life so far in the skies that have Me believing !!!

Now I'm just waiting to give a High-Five to an alien!!

originally posted by: carewemust
If mankind went to this planet (or any other), we'd just be one species of many that have and will visit. It will be a special event for us, but in the overall scheme of things, just another visitor. Earth has had its share of off-world tourists too.

originally posted by: JadeStar

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.

Yes. I would hope by the time we can travel to some of these worlds in person that we have some sort of moral code (prime directive?) which would forbid any human from setting foot on a planet containing alien life until such time that the risk to both the human and alien life were well known.

It would be a shame if some kinda far future maverick set foot on a lush, vibrant, world only to sneeze and kill the planet.

We'd then have to catch and try that person for genocide.

Genocide? That's too narrow of a scope. lol

Is there a "cide" for an entire planet? Biocide? Habicide? Planecide?

Am I the only one who sees this as a historical breakthrough? What are the chances of finding any better Earth-like planet? This one sounds literally like another Earth.

a reply to: SyxPak

I'd think so too, it's a matter of developing the tech to do it. I'm waiting for a cybernetic hand before I attempt that kind of a game of catch hahaha.

a reply to: TheWiseDwarf

The "Holy Grail" of sorts is for Astronomers to find an Earth-sized planet at roughly same distance from a Sun-like star, with a Jupiter-like gas giant at Jupiter-like distance to help sweep the inner solar system clear of debris.

a reply to: JadeStar

Realistically though, if you think about it, we would have an effect, but the odds of killing everything is quite slim. Speaking from a genetic standpoint, there would be a large surviving population. Any creature capable of surviving evolution and natural selection to the point of not only sentience but intelligence would have to be somewhat tough. We are fragile things on a brute force physical scale but on a microbial level we are quite tough. We have them doing work for us symbiotically in our own bodies right now, aiding in digestion and other things. It would be a mass genocidal act or (insert planet name here)cidal act, but would likely not wipe them out entirely. Wouldn't make many friends that way though.

a reply to: Jekka

LOL on the Cybernetic Hand!! Agreed!!! ...

In a bumpy NYC cab. ... Can't see the news release, can anyone. Plz link me 🗽 🚕

originally posted by: Jekka
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.

A couple of things of interest. A 14 light year trip (not sure where 14 light years is coming from because this planet is 1,400 light years away - decimal places again?) would not seem like it lasted 14 years to the crew if they were traveling close to the speed of light.

Due to a well understood relativistic effect called "time dilation" the crew of a star ship travelling at 1G acceleration to a maximum of 99% of the speed of light (0.99c) the trip to the your planet circling a hypothetical star 14 lightyears away would only appear to last 5 and a half years to the crew even though for people on Earth almost 16 years would have passed.

So that may allow long journeys in human lifetimes. Time moves more slowly in a moving frame than a stationary frame. The GPS in our cars and iPhones actually make use of and correct for this effect.

So yeah, the clock in the moving star ship will run more slowly than a clock on Earth according to the equation:

δTearth = γ·δTship
where,
__________
γ = 1 / √ 1 - v2/c2
v - velocity of the star ship
c - speed of light in vacuum = 299,792,458 [meters/second]
Note that as v gets closer to c, the term γ approaches infinity. The effect of time dilation is negligible at small velocities but increases asymptotically as the velocity of the star ship approaches the speed of light.


Useful huh?

Considering that we're already planning for human missions to Mars lasting 4 years or so what's an extra year and a half? No freezing would be necessary, just bring your iPad and a few friends.

(of course the tricky part would be getting a ship up to that incredible speed and protecting it from impacting even tiny dust particles but those are different issues from the one you all are trying to solve).

We should point SETI at it and listen.

a reply to: ghostrager

Still no word about Ceres, ghostwrit... er, rager!?

You sound more like one of NASA's little helpers. "Incoming big announcements" about a second Earth being found have been around for years, still yet NASA fails to deliver, where it actually covers up many actual interesting discoveries. Just like now with Ceres.

originally posted by: galaga
We should point SETI at it and listen.

They already have. Someone asked that question at the press conference and the guy from the SETI Institute said Kepler-452b has been looked at and so far nothing. BTW: They point SETI at all the Kepler planets and planet candidates and since this was a planet candidate before today's announcement it should come as no surprise they've already had a look at it.

a reply to: JadeStar

I saw a movie last year where the astronaut went through a worm-hole at the speed to light and returned to Earth to find his daughter was an old lady on her death-bed. He hadn't aged hardly at all though. What I don't understand is how the dude in the mothership orbiting the visited planet aged 40 years. That movie was DEEP. Pity I can't think of the name of it now...

That movie must have used the theory you described. Awesome stuff.