Scientists Will Look For Signs of Life on This Newly Discovered Earth-Size Planet

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: gortex

As usual science misses it by a mile. We have to die first to go out there.

Have you ever wondered why we look and listen but never detect any signals or they are not landing and exploring obvious 'tourist spot"?

Yeah - signal degradation... it happens.

But it certainly doesn't mean we shouldn't try to look though.

As for 'them' getting here - that's an extremely hard thing to do. It's why it hasn't happened yet, unless you're a die hard "I wanna believe so hard that it's happened I'll make up any old crap to confirm my beliefs" type of person.

a reply to: MarsIsRed

As for 'them' getting here - that's an extremely hard thing to do. It's why it hasn't happened yet, unless you're a die hard "I wanna believe so hard that it's happened I'll make up any old crap to confirm my beliefs" type of person.

Or, unless you're a die hard " i wanna believe so hard that life only exists here and hasn't had an eternity to develop and spread everywhere", type of person.

Talk about, stuck in the old Middle Ages crap.

a reply to: schuyler

I absolutely agree. At some point in the future, Earth will be hit by a comet. Someday Yellowstone will blow again. If we do not have human life migrated to another self-sustaining world, our species will die.

Some may want to solve all of our problems before advancing, but by the time we do... our species may very well be out of existence.

We may never be perfect, but I would prefer our species not go extinct. Call me greedy.

~Winter

I took a few minutes reading the OP linked article...


the Earth cousin (Ross 128 b) is 20X closer to that red-dwarf Sun
than the Earth is to Its' white-dwarf Sun
that corresponds to 93 Million miles versus 4.65 Million miles


now the Earth cousin is composed of material generated from a dust cloud that could create a red dwarf star, so there is likely the absence of many elements... rare & trace elements that have been identified as primal building blocks of life (at least on Earth)
A 'red' sunlight would make for a great photo-lab for developing old style photographs but not so great for the kind of mosses or bacteria that have sprung up on Earth's land or sea....

a Sun Mass that close... a 9.9 (Earth days) Year... would likely have visiting astronauts able to 'jump' into Space from the surface.... anyone accomplished with depicting/presenting this off world environment in terms we are familiar with would be appreciated

off the top of my head... this would be a hostile environment.... the planets gravity would not allow for an atmosphere that close to Its' Sun...regardless of the planets mass @ 1.35 times that of Earth...Ross 128 b will remain a reject place for any form of living organism imho




ADD: from a Reddit . com Q & A page:

..No red dwarves are ever able to burn helium in their cores, so they will never form elements such as carbon and oxygen. However, stars above 0.25 solar masses are still able to go through a red giant phase (which, contrary to popular belief, is not a helium-burning phase). Also note that the star will still contain a certain amount of metals that came with the gas it formed from; we think that red dwarves may not be able to form until the universe reaches a certain metallicity threshold..

a reply to: gortex

One day we will need to flee from an oppressive one world nation and go to a habitable world. If this world is habitable, this would have been the perfect place to start anew.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: MarsIsRed

As for 'them' getting here - that's an extremely hard thing to do. It's why it hasn't happened yet, unless you're a die hard "I wanna believe so hard that it's happened I'll make up any old crap to confirm my beliefs" type of person.

Or, unless you're a die hard " i wanna believe so hard that life only exists here and hasn't had an eternity to develop and spread everywhere", type of person.

Talk about, stuck in the old Middle Ages crap.

I totally agree. Thankfully I don't subscribe to such notions - I have little doubt that life is not unique to this little planet. I don't have, however, have any proof of this, nor would I claim otherwise. A long way to travel is a long way to travel, whichever way you look at it.

a reply to: gortex

It's gonna be pond scum or bugs if they find anything, which will cause excitement for a quick min then everyone goes back to sleep, I wanna peek at what the galactic overlord's planet looks like.

This just now occurred to me...

Can't we detect magnetic fields that planets produce? I mean life as we know it would not have developed without ours. I know we can developed some pretty sensitive equipment.

Just curious. Hopefully a brain better than mine can shed light. Just seems to be good way to add another item to the checklist of things needed for habitable worlds.

a reply to: Terminal1

As far as I'm aware magnetic fields aren't detectable yet but astronomers are working on ways to do so.
When James Webb is operational it will examine exoplanets atmospheres for the chemical fingerprints that would indicate habitability , finding a planet with a magnetic field and friendly atmosphere would be exciting.

a reply to: Spider879

As a starter I'd happily take pond scum or bugs , any discovery of life out there no matter how basic would be a huge leap forward and an indication that others are waiting to be discovered.

a reply to: gortex

Yep.

We can detect magnetars but of course they are the most powerful known magnetic object in the universe.

It would be delicious if the JWT detected habitable atmosphere inside the goldilocks with a magnetic field.

Thanks for the reply!

originally posted by: MarsIsRed

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: MarsIsRed

As for 'them' getting here - that's an extremely hard thing to do. It's why it hasn't happened yet, unless you're a die hard "I wanna believe so hard that it's happened I'll make up any old crap to confirm my beliefs" type of person.

Or, unless you're a die hard " i wanna believe so hard that life only exists here and hasn't had an eternity to develop and spread everywhere", type of person.

Talk about, stuck in the old Middle Ages crap.

I totally agree. Thankfully I don't subscribe to such notions - I have little doubt that life is not unique to this little planet. I don't have, however, have any proof of this, nor would I claim otherwise. A long way to travel is a long way to travel, whichever way you look at it.

Oh, okay. Thats better. You do have proof. In your own mind its impossible we are the only life.

Considering the transition from this dimension to another how do we know that its not possible to travel instantly to any other place? I have to consider this possibility, I have seen one of their 'thingys' with my own two eyes, over a lifetime I have a smattering of spirit encounters as well.

Both possibilities of extra dimensions and hi tech in unison are enough 'proof' for me.

Now, all I need to do is pass on to that realm and live it.

Scientists are looking in all the wrong places, this dimension is all around us all the time, right here.

a reply to: St Udio

I've read the actual research paper. Ross 128b looks pretty decent.

Ross 128b discovery paper

Planetary mass is estimated at 0.9 to 1.8 times Earth mass with best guess at 1.3 times Earth mass so it would be probably somewhat heavier than Earth gravity at the surface.

The estimated equilibrium surface temperature also looks reasonable, and with a greenhouse effect of moderate size, less than Earth but not zero, it could be a nice shirtsleeves temperature.

Planets gravity would be perfectly fine to keep a reasonable atmosphere---more important on that measure is if the star is reasonably behaved (it appears to be, Ross 128 is an unusually quiescent red dwarf) and if the planet has a magnetosphere to deflect some solar wind. Not known yet.

The sunlight of Ross 128 is 3200K in color temp vs 5700K for our Sol, so its sun would look like a very bright incandescent light, sort of like a 4 or 5pm sun (on Earth) but over head and brighter, shining on you while strolling outside on the b planet. It would look like Mars while walking outside, orange red, but much much warmer, like the Grand Canyon more likely.

It has an equilibrium temperature (i.e. blackbody equivalent assuming Earthish albedo but no atmosphere) very close to Earth's as far as exoplanets go (which can be a huge range). Unknowns are albedo and greenhouse effect size but it's right smack in the middle of OK.

It's the best nearby candidate for habitability or colonization. Not as likely to evolve a native biology as complex as Earth as photosynthesis is harder with the longer wavelength.

The combination of high-contrast imaging and high-dispersion spectroscopy, which has successfully been use to detect
the atmosphere of a giant planet, is one of the most promising potential probes of the atmosphere of Earth-size worlds.
The forthcoming generation of extremely large telescopes (ELTs) may obtain sufficient contrast with this technique to
detect O2 in the atmosphere of those worlds that orbit low-mass M dwarfs. This is strong motivation to carry out a
census of planets around cool stars for which habitable zones can be resolved by ELTs, i.e. for M dwarfs within ∼5
parsecs. Our HARPS survey has been a major contributor to that sample of nearby planets. Here we report on our
radial velocity observations of Ross 128 (Proxima Virginis, GJ447, HIP 57548), an M4 dwarf just 3.4 parsec away from
our Sun. This source hosts an exo-Earth with a projected mass m sin i = 1.35M⊕ and an orbital period of 9.9 days.
Ross 128 b receives ∼1.38 times as much flux as Earth from the Sun and its equilibrium ranges in temperature between
269 K for an Earth-like albedo and 213 K for a Venus-like albedo. Recent studies place it close to the inner edge of the
conventional habitable zone. An 80-day long light curve from K2 campaign C01 demonstrates that Ross 128 b does not
transit. Together with the All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) photometry and spectroscopic activity indices, the K2
photometry shows that Ross 128 rotates slowly and has weak magnetic activity. In a habitability context, this makes
survival of its atmosphere against erosion more likely. Ross 128 b is the second closest known exo-Earth, after Proxima
Centauri b (1.3 parsec), and the closest temperate planet known around a quiet star. The 15 mas planet-star angular
separation at maximum elongation will be resolved by ELTs (> 3λ/D) in the optical bands of O2.
Key words. stars: individual: Ross 128 – stars: planetary systems – stars: late-type – technique: radial velocity –

originally posted by: Spider879
a reply to: gortex

It's gonna be pond scum or bugs if they find anything, which will cause excitement for a quick min then everyone goes back to sleep, I wanna peek at what the galactic overlord's planet looks like.

This is what it looks like:

Galactic overlords

originally posted by: mbkennel

originally posted by: Spider879
a reply to: gortex

It's gonna be pond scum or bugs if they find anything, which will cause excitement for a quick min then everyone goes back to sleep, I wanna peek at what the galactic overlord's planet looks like.

This is what it looks like:

Galactic overlords

Oh! ok we have met the enemy and he is us..

a reply to: schuyler

ahhhh yesss an ally , you and me are on the same page!

We need multiple colony ships being built now in near earth orbit , big enough for 10,000 people
send them out to every known planet to sustain life.

and never stop