NASA Has Made A Huge Discovery About Planets Outside Our Solar System

originally posted by: StallionDuck

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

originally posted by: StallionDuck

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

originally posted by: StallionDuck
So... NASA has announced that they have an announcement?

Then....


NASA announces that it's really dark in space!


Man I'm tired of reading those.

So you don't think NASA should hold these occasional press conferences (which they hold on a semi-regular basis) to explain the scientific research they are doing and the scientific findings that comes out of that research?

Would you rather have NASA just quietly publish their findings in a journal without having the general public get easy access to the info -- both through the live stream of the press conference and through questions asked by the media in attendance?

Nah.. I rather all the good stuff be thrown out when it happens, right when it happens. Otherwise it's like sitting in a really boring conference where you drink a pot of coffee just to stay awake.

It's like watching a documentary that builds upon building to get a point at the very end where you find that no real information was presented and you just spent 1.5 hours of wasted time when you could have gotten more information on the topic in 5 minutes by just googling it.

The problem with that is the scientific journals (in the case, the Journal "Nature") and the people publishing the papers in these journals do not want information out until the journals are published, because (in broad general terms) others groups working on similar research may attempt to steal the work, or specific insights into that research, and call it their own.

These groups work mostly from grant money (Money from NASA or other institutions/agencies), and the people making the most and largest discoveries get more grant money. So that means that those groups would keep the information they gather "close to their vest" until they are ready to publish their findings and conclusions.

Sounds like a broken system to me.

The money for research goes to the people who have previously shown that they can do good research, or people who show that they have a sound idea for future research.

Sure, that means that people doing that research will work in secrecy (away from competing groups) until after they publish or until after they present their ideas for future research...but then again, that is not unusual.

For example, an inventor does not freely give away his ideas until he patents them.

a reply to: gladtobehere

NASA's FY 2011 budget of $18.4 billion represented about 0.5% of the $3.4 trillion United States federal budget during that year, or about 35% of total spending on academic scientific research in the United States.

Budget of NASA

Speak for yourself. I'll be glad to pay my $0.005 on the dollar to promote science. In fact, heck, I'll pay yours too.

Write me down for $0.01.

arstechnica.com...

with this news just coming out before the announcement, i wouldn't be surprised if they are making plans to go to the solar system of said planets, drip drip comes the disclosure...

Trappist 1 Solar System - 40 light years away

Observation info comes from Spitzer.

The star is a red dwarf.

7 planets found in a solar system 40 light years away with 3 being in the habitable zone.

All 7 are earth size.

All are rocky.

They are all within about a / up to a million kilometers from each other and are about 5% the distance of the Earth to the Sun from their own star.

One planet is theorized to have a water rich environment.

The planets are so close together that if you were on one of the planets the 6 other planets would appear in the night sky as our moon does.

The planets in the habitable zone all receive the same amount of sunlight as the earth does.

Kepler and Hubble are also looking at the system.

The system is so close that when the James Webb telescope is deployed in 2018 we will be able to analyze the atmosphere gases to determine makeup in addition to mean surface temperatures.

The lead administrator said we are close to answering the question if we are alone in the universe. The methods they are using in the Trappist 1 system is helping pave the way to detecting possible life. The James Webb will be able to also detect gases that are produced that would not occur naturally.

SETI has already checked the system and have found no signals.

Press conference started at 1pm est.
Press conference ended at 1:38pm est.

a reply to: Xcathdra

Exciting discovery. I've been watching the NASA presser and AMA and it sounds like we will know for sure in a few years if there's life on one or more of these planets.

With them being in the Goldilox zone I would say there is life there. It's too bad we won't be able to visit any of these planets in our lifetime.

But it begs the question, should we visit them? I say yes. I would love to know what other life forms are out there. Intelligent or not.

a reply to: EchoesInTime

originally posted by: savemebarry

originally posted by: LSU0408

originally posted by: savemebarry

originally posted by: jhn7537
a reply to: Xcathdra

Ahhhh, Never A Straight Answer... Can't wait

If some major discovery, do we believe they actually share to share, or share because its no longer hidable and want to take credit? God I'm cynical, lol..

Well, Never A Simple Answer, perhaps... considering that ice particles and camera glitches need complicated detailed explanations for some people who cannot understand technology or physics..

Or it's... Aliens.

You never know. I mean, they DID cut their live ISS feed after 6 UFOs were spotted passing by.

According to?

Can someone who watched the live feed verify this? Till, then, it's ST10 who claim it was cut.. and how better a way to make money for your popular monetised youtube channel than to create a video of alleged UFO's mixed with a NASA cut the feed, conspiracy?? as they are known to do.

Good point. I don't pay enough attention to realize they cut their feed often. It's all over websites though, I haven't watched it on Youtube.

originally posted by: EchoesInTime
a reply to: Xcathdra

Exciting discovery. I've been watching the NASA presser and AMA and it sounds like we will know for sure in a few years if there's life on one or more of these planets.

With them being in the Goldilox zone I would say there is life there. It's too bad we won't be able to visit any of these planets in our lifetime.

But it begs the question, should we visit them? I say yes. I would love to know what other life forms are out there. Intelligent or not.

What if our satellite telescope landed to get a closer look and brought a UFO back with it...

originally posted by: Gryphon66
a reply to: StallionDuck

Recommend a better one then?

Sure

If it takes so long for someone to publish a find before actually releasing the information when it comes out, all because of the fear of someone else taking the credit... Why not just put out an "I found this first!" log, let the people know about the find then spend all of the rest of your time publishing the paper.

My point is that the information that comes from NASA just doesn't seem to be very worth wild. I rather just see the information published on their website as it happens rather than wait for some overblown announcement that seems more like hype than any real breakthrough. If people are interested, like most news sites, they know where to go and they'll click on what they want to read.

Science is such a buzzkill. Science gets us all excited that there are potentially habitable planets out there.

But science also taught us that space is so vast and hostile that we will never, ever (ever) go there or see them or have any meaningful interaction with them. So in that regard, they might as well be fictional.

Way to go, science. Whatever.

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

originally posted by: StallionDuck

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

originally posted by: StallionDuck

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

originally posted by: StallionDuck
So... NASA has announced that they have an announcement?

Then....


NASA announces that it's really dark in space!


Man I'm tired of reading those.

So you don't think NASA should hold these occasional press conferences (which they hold on a semi-regular basis) to explain the scientific research they are doing and the scientific findings that comes out of that research?

Would you rather have NASA just quietly publish their findings in a journal without having the general public get easy access to the info -- both through the live stream of the press conference and through questions asked by the media in attendance?

Nah.. I rather all the good stuff be thrown out when it happens, right when it happens. Otherwise it's like sitting in a really boring conference where you drink a pot of coffee just to stay awake.

It's like watching a documentary that builds upon building to get a point at the very end where you find that no real information was presented and you just spent 1.5 hours of wasted time when you could have gotten more information on the topic in 5 minutes by just googling it.

The problem with that is the scientific journals (in the case, the Journal "Nature") and the people publishing the papers in these journals do not want information out until the journals are published, because (in broad general terms) others groups working on similar research may attempt to steal the work, or specific insights into that research, and call it their own.

These groups work mostly from grant money (Money from NASA or other institutions/agencies), and the people making the most and largest discoveries get more grant money. So that means that those groups would keep the information they gather "close to their vest" until they are ready to publish their findings and conclusions.

Sounds like a broken system to me.

The money for research goes to the people who have previously shown that they can do good research, or people who show that they have a sound idea for future research.

Sure, that means that people doing that research will work in secrecy (away from competing groups) until after they publish or until after they present their ideas for future research...but then again, that is not unusual.

For example, an inventor does not freely give away his ideas until he patents them.

Why not just make it a global effort rather than divide and conquer like we do in our political structure for world domination. This might actually push people to accept a better way of thinking for all other segments of our lives.

I understand it's money involved but putting out a summary to protect your interests (if you really need to do that) is better than waiting months to publish a paper about it before letting the world know what you've found.

It just seems like a backwards way of thinking. Things seems to advance more so when the subject is public domain. That's just my thinking.

So it is done then. Top CNN news. Top Deutsche Welle news. Top BBC news. RT streamed it live.

Now what?

a reply to: Xcathdra

I hope it's news about absolute life found on a planet or two.

But I think it's just going to be the same old stuff. Not that it's not exciting , it's just not that exciting.

It's going to be Goldielock planets. Which in my lifetime doesn't amount to much anymore.

It's like discovering ants at this point. There's a bunch of them.

But I don't know why this would be so major that it requires a news conference.

I'm hoping there is more than just "we found more Goldielock planets"

Because that has become boring as crap.

a reply to: galaga

Right now NASA need to do this. They have to jazz stuff up and generate some public interest. Keeps the funding flowing to continue on to better things. I mean its a nice find for an earth based telescope but as for life its not good.

bad news: The star is probably around 1 billion years old - this is not very long for life to get going. If we use earth as an example there was maybe some microbes but nothing complex like plants/animals. That took another 3 billion years.

It's a red dwarf star M class and they can have very violent solar flares. not good for life

The planets are so close they are tidally locked and the tidal forces exerted by the star could cause internal disruption leading to an unstable surface. They may well have oceans of magma instead of water

M stars will be the first to give up their secrets. We wait for a true earth analogue - earth sized planet in the HZ of a G type star like sol. I'll get excited then

originally posted by: yeti101
a reply to: galaga

bad news: The star is probably around 1 billion years old - this is not very long for life to get going. If we use earth as an example there was maybe some microbes but nothing complex like plants/animals. That took another 3 billion years.

They really can't tell how old it is, because it is thought white dwarfs might be able to live a very long time long (4 or 5 TRILLION years; that's "Trillion", with a "T" -- which is 1000X longer than the lifespan of our Sun). Because it can live so long, and because it "ages" so slowly, it is difficult to tell how old a white dwarf is. TRAPPIST 1 is at least a half billion years old, but it could be older, even older than our Sun.

It's a red dwarf star M class and they can have very violent solar flares. not good for life

It's an ultra-cool white dwarf; white dwarfs are generally cooler than red dwarfs, although some populations of red dwarfs are M-type stars, like a white dwarf is a type-M. White Dwarfs, when they were young, could behave in the the same type of tumultuous way that a red dwarf behaves, with solar flares and such. However, after a white dwarf leaves infancy, it settles down and quiets down.

a reply to: Box of Rain

OK but the point is this is a very different place than earth/sol system.

originally posted by: galaga
a reply to: Xcathdra

I hope it's news about absolute life found on a planet or two.

But I think it's just going to be the same old stuff. Not that it's not exciting , it's just not that exciting.

It's going to be Goldielock planets. Which in my lifetime doesn't amount to much anymore.

It's like discovering ants at this point. There's a bunch of them.

But I don't know why this would be so major that it requires a news conference.

I'm hoping there is more than just "we found more Goldielock planets"

Because that has become boring as crap.

I really don't get you and other NASA haters in this thread.

If it is so boring to you, why not just ignore it?

a reply to: EchoesInTime

that many Earth-like planets so close to our solar system means that there are probably all kinds of species visiting Earth.

Very exciting! NASA can stop hiding them now.

a reply to: yeti101

...and it would take us almost 2 million years to get there by current standards. Even if we traveled much faster, it's a long ways off for even many hundreds of generations. ...only to get there and say "Ooops! That wasn't water we saw... Sorry guys. Let's turn it around and go home. ..If we still have a home".

people need to step back and look at the times they are in...... i still remember the 80s, i was playing a ZX spectrum, now
we have first gen VR! Graphene! and we have just discovered how to create a piece of meat from a single cell, the snowball of technological advancement is only getting faster and bigger.
Why is the Speed of this advancement only matched by the new fangled mental illnesses that are spreading through those of a weaker dispositional consciousness, coincidence! doubt it, i dont do coincidences!


theres signs everywhere, and belief in the truth will put the right signs in front of you, or you will notice the important ones.
here is one.
www.psychologytoday.com...

i think that other dimensions are a possibility, and our minds when pushed can perceive those dimensions.
i can't perceive them just now but i have left my mind open to the possibility.