NASA : Early Target for James Webb is Earth Sized Planet Trappist 1e

5 years on from the discovery of the 7 planet Tappist 1 system NASA have said Trappist 1e is a prime target for Webb , the planet is Earth size with a similar mass so exciting news for those looking for Webb to deliver us evidence of Extraterrestrial life.
At just 41 light-years from Earth the Trappist 1 system gives us the perfect opportunity to sample the atmosphere of a planet "right smack in the middle" of the Stars habitable zone.

The habitable zone is just a first cut. A potentially habitable planet also would require a suitable atmosphere, and Webb, especially in its early observations, is likely to gain only a partial indication of whether an atmosphere is present.

“What is at stake here is the first atmosphere characterization of a terrestrial Earth-size planet in the habitable zone,” said Michaël Gillon, an astronomer at the University of Liege in Belgium and the lead author of the study that revealed the seven sibling planets in 2017.

Measurements with the Hubble Space Telescope added more information about habitability. While Hubble does not have the power to determine whether the planets possess potentially habitable atmospheres, it did find that at least three of the planets – d, e, and f – do not appear to have the puffy, hydrogen-dominated atmospheres of gas giants, such as Neptune, in our solar system. Such planets are thought to be less likely to support life.

That leaves open the possibility of “the atmospheres’ potential to support liquid water on the surface,” said Nikole Lewis, a planetary scientist at Cornell University.

“The hope is that we see carbon dioxide, a really strong feature, right at the wavelengths [detectable by] Webb,” she said. “Once we know where there are little things peaking up above the noise, we can go back and do a much higher resolution look in that area.”

The size of the TRAPPIST-1 planets also might help to strengthen the case for habitability, though the research is far from conclusive.

They’re comparable to Earth not just in diameter but mass. Narrowing down the mass of the planets was possible, thanks to their tight bunching around TRAPPIST-1: Packed shoulder to shoulder, they jostle one another, enabling scientists to compute their likely range of mass from those gravitational effects.
exoplanets.nasa.gov...

Not saying there's Aliens , but there could be Aliens.

a reply to: gortex

I'm more excited that it could be habitable by humans.
If we found a habitable planet that we could reach and it had no life, then we could mine it and let our own world become a cleaner and more beautiful place.

A great future for the earth would be one where mining and logging and trash disposal was illegal and all done on another empty planet.

a reply to: scraedtosleep

It's to far for that but perhaps one day we may have the technology to send a probe there to take a close look , the star is smaller and more active than our own so it's unlikely we could live there but there could be life adapted to the conditions there.

a reply to: gortex

S&F, as always for your space posts.

Thanks for bringing so many of these interesting articles on space and for the value add your own comments on them brings.

Now we just need a craft the operates faster than light or stasis pods and we're golden.

a reply to: gortex

Looks like a good first planet to target,even just to test the scope.
Hope they get some good data from it.

originally posted by: scraedtosleep
a reply to: gortex

I'm more excited that it could be habitable by humans.
If we found a habitable planet that we could reach and it had no life, then we could mine it and let our own world become a cleaner and more beautiful place.

A great future for the earth would be one where mining and logging and trash disposal was illegal and all done on another empty planet.

We'll be extinct long before we ever get a chance to reach it. Our only hope is to send out a ship that can nurture humans from embryo to adulthood on a timer.

a reply to: Soloprotocol

One day (should we survive) we will gain the ability to travel out there , of course it will take years even at light speed to get there and back but I'm sure the pioneering spirit will still exist for those who wish to try it.

Even at sub light speed we could send out a probe but it would still be a long term venture but all good things come to those who wait.

Personally all I want is to find bio signatures that tell us we're not alone in this Universe , the rest is for the future us's.

originally posted by: Soloprotocol

originally posted by: scraedtosleep
a reply to: gortex

I'm more excited that it could be habitable by humans.
If we found a habitable planet that we could reach and it had no life, then we could mine it and let our own world become a cleaner and more beautiful place.

A great future for the earth would be one where mining and logging and trash disposal was illegal and all done on another empty planet.

We'll be extinct long before we ever get a chance to reach it. Our only hope is to send out a ship that can nurture humans from embryo to adulthood on a timer.

There is currently no theoretical upper speed limit to the Alcubierre drive.
Just a matter of time before this tech becomes functional, if not already.

originally posted by: Soloprotocol

originally posted by: scraedtosleep
a reply to: gortex

I'm more excited that it could be habitable by humans.
If we found a habitable planet that we could reach and it had no life, then we could mine it and let our own world become a cleaner and more beautiful place.

A great future for the earth would be one where mining and logging and trash disposal was illegal and all done on another empty planet.

We'll be extinct long before we ever get a chance to reach it. Our only hope is to send out a ship that can nurture humans from embryo to adulthood on a timer.

I don't think so. That's using present-day knowledge. When Jules Verne wrote "From the Earth to the Moon" people said the same thing about getting to the Moon. Today we seem trapped by the notion that we can't exceed the speed of light because--you know--Einstein, therefore it is impossible to get to the Trappist system.

But what if there is a way around the "speed of light" problem that we do not yet understand? I do not believe we should ignore human innovation nor should we be hobbled by the 'impossibilities' we've been taught.

a reply to: schuyler

For some reason people tend to believe space travel will be limited and reliant on speed.
Just imagine hitting a grain of sand while traveling 150k miles an hour… poof..

You are correct in saying it will depend on getting around the speed of light.
Bending space or wormholes are a possible solution…

NASA is not waisting any more time to discover we're not (we can't be!) alone in this universe.

imagine if they make beer!

a reply to: sarahvital
Imagine if they dont

originally posted by: Soloprotocol

originally posted by: scraedtosleep
a reply to: gortex

I'm more excited that it could be habitable by humans.
If we found a habitable planet that we could reach and it had no life, then we could mine it and let our own world become a cleaner and more beautiful place.

A great future for the earth would be one where mining and logging and trash disposal was illegal and all done on another empty planet.

We'll be extinct long before we ever get a chance to reach it. Our only hope is to send out a ship that can nurture humans from embryo to adulthood on a timer.

That's true.

Our current fastest ship/probe is I think New Horizons at 36,000 mph top speed, at that speed it would take us well over 800,000 years~ to get to Trappist1 ! We will need a worm hole or some other Star Trek means to get there sooner.

originally posted by: Blackfinger
a reply to: sarahvital
Imagine if they dont

what if the trappist beer makers here on earth, came from there . or didn't.


my favorite is corsendonk. it's out of this world!

funny, i am subscribed to nasa jpl but haven't been getting any news letters lately.

last one i got was in 2020. bummer. i have like 700 saved.

i only know about the webb telescope from ATS. thanks gortex and everyone else.

Visiting Trappist-1e and what we may find.

a reply to: gortex

They should do Ross 128b.

www.theverge.com...

It looked like human-created radio frequency structured signals like satellites, except they have been passed through interstellar space.

Almost as if human-produced satellites were already around Ross 128/128b.

How does one calculate size from mass without knowing or assuming composition?

Since stars are so distant and planets do not emit any light of themselves, detecting even a giant planet, such as Jupiter, is like trying to spot a speck of dust floating around a powerful light bulb miles away. And then we're not even talking about figuring out the composition.

Yet, even if many planets do exist that meet the stringent conditions necessary to sustain life as we know it, the question remains, How would life arise on those worlds? This brings us to the very foundation of the belief in beings on other worlds​—evolution.

To many scientists, it seems logical to believe that if life could evolve from nonliving matter on this planet (a.k.a. chemical evolution as described in for example “the chemical evolution theory of life”), that could be true on others as well. As one writer put it: “The general thinking among biologists is that life will begin whenever it is given an environment where it can begin.” But that is where evolution faces an insurmountable objection. Evolutionists cannot even explain how life began on this planet.

Still, SETI astronomers blithely assume that life must have originated by chance all over the universe. Gene Bylinsky, in his book Life in Darwin’s Universe, speculates on the various paths evolution might have taken on alien worlds. He suggests that intelligent octopuses, marsupial men with pouches on their stomachs, and bat-​people who make musical instruments are not at all farfetched. Renowned scientists have praised his book. However, other scientists, such as Feinberg and Shapiro, see the gaping flaw in such reasoning. They decry the “weakness in the basic experimental foundations” of scientists’ theories about how life got started on earth. They note, though, that scientists nonetheless “have used these foundations to erect towers that extend to the end of the Universe.”

People tend to believe what they want to believe. Scientists, for all their claims of objectivity, are not exempt from this human failing.

Hoyle and Wickramasinghe observe that “the theory that life was assembled by an intelligence” is “vastly” more probable than spontaneous generation. “Indeed,” they add, “such a theory is so obvious that one wonders why it is not widely accepted as being self-​evident. The reasons are psychological rather than scientific.” Yes, many scientists recoil from the idea of a Creator, even though the evidence points that way. In the process, they have created a religion of their own. As the above authors see it, Darwinism simply replaces the word “God” with the word “Nature.”

So in answer to the question, “Is anyone out there?” science clearly gives no grounds for belief in life on other planets. In fact, as the years pass and the silence from the stars continues, SETI is a growing embarrassment to scientists who believe in evolution. If various types of life evolve readily from nonlife, then why do we not hear from them in this vast universe? Where are they?

According to science writer Isaac Asimov, this is “a question that, in a way, spoils everything” for those who believe in life on other planets. Originally posed in 1950 by nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi, the question capped an argument that went something like this: If intelligent life has arisen on other planets in our galaxy, many civilizations should now exist that are millions of years ahead of our own. They should have developed interstellar travel long ago and spread abroad in the galaxy, colonizing and exploring at will. So where are they?

While some SETI scientists are admittedly shaken by this “Fermi paradox,” they often reply to it by pointing out how difficult it would be to voyage between the stars. Even at the speed of light, enormous though that is, it would take a spaceship a hundred thousand years to traverse just our own galaxy. Surpassing that speed is deemed impossible.

Science fiction that features ships hopping from one star to another in a matter of days or hours is fantasy, not science. The distances between stars are vast almost beyond our comprehension.

That is why SETI scientists lean so strongly on radio telescopes; they imagine that since advanced civilizations might not travel between stars, they would still seek out other forms of life by the relatively cheap and easy means of radio waves. But Fermi’s paradox still haunts them.

American physicist Freeman J. Dyson has concluded that if advanced civilizations exist in our galaxy, finding evidence of them should be as easy as finding signs of technological civilization on Manhattan Island in New York City. The galaxy should be buzzing with alien signals and their immense engineering projects. But none have been found. In fact, one article on the subject noted that “searched, found nothing” has become like a religious chant for SETI astronomers.


a reply to: Daalder (apart from the opening question)

originally posted by: Daalder
NASA is not waisting any more time to discover we're not (we can't be!) alone in this universe.

Even if other habitable planets exist, is there any evidence that life could originate on them by chance?

Many people believe that man is being visited, or has been visited in the past, by extraterrestrials. Scientists generally dismiss these claims; they cite the lack of verifiable evidence in all cases and maintain that most UFO (unidentified flying object) sightings can be explained by natural phenomena. They tend to relegate the abduction claims to unexplored areas of the troubled human psyche or to psychological and religious needs.

One science-fiction writer noted: “The urge to investigate and believe in this stuff is almost religious. We used to have gods. Now we want to feel we’re not alone, watched over by protective forces.” Further, some UFO experiences reek more of the occult than of science.

But many scientists believe in “visitors” in their own way. They see the impossibility of life originating by chance here on the earth, so they claim it must have drifted here from space. Some say that aliens seeded our planet with life by sending rockets loaded with primitive bacteria. One has even suggested that aliens visited our planet ages ago and that life originated by chance from the garbage they left behind! Some scientists draw conclusions from the evidence that simple organic molecules are fairly common in space. But is that really evidence for the chance formation of life? Is a hardware store evidence that a car must accidentally build itself there?




Context (playlist)

originally posted by: whereislogic
... Some scientists draw conclusions from the evidence that simple organic molecules are fairly common in space. But is that really evidence for the chance formation of life? Is a hardware store evidence that a car must accidentally build itself there?

...

Note the illustration used by James Tour at 14:35 with a car and its parts (in light of the videos showing biomolecular machinery). Don't miss the related "Synthesis Problem" starting at 17:30:

I probably should have added that at the end of my comment.