Discovering A New Earth 430 Light Years Away

Well, I find it hard to believe that we don't have some form of anti-gravity propulsion somewhere on this earth. Just seems absurd not to research and develop such a thing.

Space just wasn't designed for rockets

We'll have anti-grav before even pictures of exoplanets emerge so meh, confirming what we already suspected just helps more research I guess.

Well, it took the Earth about 500 Million years to form from its protoplanetary disk and cool down, then another 500 Million or more before the oceans formed...so that's perhaps about 1 Billion years before that disk forms something that we would remotely call an "Earth-like planet".

By that time humans will no longer exist (or we will have evolved into something totally nonhuman-like). One billion years ago on Earth, the most complex creatures were simple multi-cell organisms. Even 600 Million years ago the most complex life on Earth was limited to trilobites and simple fish.

So, when that disk becomes a planet, there will probably no longer be humans around to explore it.

[edit on 2/23/2010 by Soylent Green Is People]

If we are being observed, and our observing civilization knows humanities destruction inflicted upon this planet, we won't be allowed to leave and colonize the virus elsewhere in the galaxy and other parts of the universe.

Example, stephenville, tx sighting. Sending out two F-16 to try and intercept or try to take down the object, what does that tell you? Hostility towards visitors and an obvious stupidity in putting innocents in danger. Whos to blame if the visiting civilization now takes a hostile approach to us? Whos to blame?

We're not leaving earth. They wouldn't risk our filthy footsteps and refineries plague another earthlike planet.

By the time life evolves intelligently, they'll be looking for our silver shaped saucers.

Originally posted by Larryman
I can't believe they did not even bother to state the name (or designation) of that system's star.

I can't believe they didn't even inform us through news sites (at least, the Dutch newssites don't report it).

Originally posted by die_another_day

Woot?

430 light years away means that 1 generation will never reach there.

It will take 860 years to send to and receive a radio wave from there.

So is this the closest "possible" source of ETs that we "will" come across within a million years?

Or maybe 430 light years isn't much compared to the size of our galaxy (100000 light years). Maybe I can assume that there are thousands of Earth like planets in our galaxy alone.

www.sciencedaily.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Interesting thread.
However, here you are assuming that the speed of light is set. Also that the speed of light is the fastest you can travel from point A to point B.

We will never travel out of our solar system at this speed. It's not efficient enough. We will either be using worm holes (bend space/time) or traveling inter-dimensionally...which would negate the limits of mass and energy at the speed of light and faster.

I think inter-dimensional travel will be the way we will go. No mass, inertia, and energy limitations like we see with standard propulsion.

reply to post by QuantumDeath


Even in the US Government, Especially in the US Government

Originally posted by rjmelter
reply to post by Solasis

 

Well the planet has probably already formed, the light is just now only reaching us. I could be very wrong though... (probably am

) How long would it take our current shuttles to travel 430 Light years?

I think this is great... its about time humanity starts looking to the stars once again. I wouldnt mind taking a few adventures even......


Cool post OP

[edit on 22-2-2010 by rjmelter]

No, that actually makes sense. I always explain stuff like this to people in the following way...

Think about it, if someone was 120 light years away and was looking at earth with a really powerful telescope they'd be seeing president Lincoln running the US...

However, 430 light years isn't enough time for a planet to form.

Disregard this post if I'm completely off... I've been up for many hours and been working non stop on photoshop so I'm a bit out of right now.

S&F.

[edit on 23-2-2010 by highlyoriginal]

Soylentgreen is people, and Highlyoriginal, are correct in that the planet is still forming... 430years may seem to be a long time, compared to an average human lifespan. but as far as planetary formation goes, it is hardly even a blink of an eye..

Basically it will still be close to another Billion years before the planet is fully formed, (approxamations) and still a few billion years untill "intelligent life" may appear.. (yes this is all "conjecture") so interaction in our lifetime is pretty much out of the question.

But it is still fascinating to be able to observe the formation of an "Earth like" planet...

Those who've been saying on this thread that humans can never reach the star around which this planet is forming have forgotten time dilation, a consequence of the theory of Special Relativity.

A spaceship accelerating at a constant rate of no more than one gravity (32 ft/sec/sec) would attain 95 percent of the speed of light in about three and a half 'ship years' (time as experienced by the crew). Decelerating back to zero velocity would take the same time. Seven years of acceleration and deceleration.

At 0.95c, it would take about about 135 years, ship time, to travel 430 light-years. So the total travel time to the star, as experienced by the people aboard that ship, would be less than 150 years. (Seven years accelerating and decelerating, 135 years coasting).

Six human generations would arise and pass aboard the starship. And remember, we're never accelerating at more than 1g. I'm sure we could build a ship that could do it, even with our present technology, if we really tried.

Here's one guy's proposal for how to do it.

reply to post by Astyanax


Thank you that is an interesting read.....

Quantum weirdness wins again: Entanglement clocks in at 10,000+ times faster than light.

So it may be possible in the not too distant future to communicate vast distances more efficiently. Who is to say that this isn't the medium (or something similar) through which alien civilizations communicate right now?

reply to post by Astyanax


But how does this account for the increased mass of accelerated whatsies?

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People
Well, it took the Earth about 500 Million years to form from its protoplanetary disk and cool down, then another 500 Million or more before the oceans formed...so that's perhaps about 1 Billion years before that disk forms something that we would remotely call an "Earth-like planet".

By that time humans will no longer exist (or we will have evolved into something totally nonhuman-like). One billion years ago on Earth, the most complex creatures were simple multi-cell organisms. Even 600 Million years ago the most complex life on Earth was limited to trilobites and simple fish.

So, when that disk becomes a planet, there will probably no longer be humans around to explore it.

[edit on 2/23/2010 by Soylent Green Is People]

Bingo..
And for the one that used the term "Blink of an eye", on that "planet" that
eye hasnt even been thought about..The god on that planet just started
with molding and folding..The light we can see has traveld 430 years.

Originally posted by Solasis
But how does this account for the increased mass of accelerated whatsies?

Thanks for asking an intelligent question.

The Lorentz transform will give you the increased mass of the accelerated whatsies () by the formula m' = γm where γ is the Lorentz factor.

At 0.95c, γ = 3.203, roughly speaking.

So yer thousand-ton starship would mass 3,203 tons at maximum velocity. Not too bad.

You'd have to carry more fuel, obviously, to cope with the mass increase, and the mass of this fuel would itself increase as v -> c due to the relativistic effects, but none of this is yet beyond the bounds of possibility.

And remember we're talking mass, not weight; artificial gravity on shipboard will be 1g during acceleration/deceleration phases, and whatever we want it to be at other times. The crew would feel no discomfort.

Wouldn't a normal person be crushed with 3 times their mass even under 1g acceleration? Certainly they wouldn't be able to stand or move around [easily].

[edit on 25-2-2010 by Tearman]

Originally posted by Tearman
Wouldn't a normal person be crushed with 3 times their mass even under 1g acceleration? Certainly they wouldn't be able to stand or move around.

Another intelligent question, and thanks.

Reduce the acceleration to 1/3g. It will add a few years to the trip time--no big deal.

reply to post by Astyanax


Wait, I thought we were undergoing 1g acceleration all the time?

--oh, nevermind, net acceleration. Right? Shoot...

reply to post by Solasis

Now that's not so intelligent. Re-read the post. v = u + ft, okay? Reducing the acceleration to 1/3g just takes three times as long to reach .95c

[edit on 25/2/10 by Astyanax]

reply to post by Astyanax


No,no, I meant already. Not in this situation; I meant the force of gravity (or rather the acceleration due to the force of gravity) is 1g already. I meant here, not on the space ship.