Newfound "super-Earth"

My goodness people! The reason for these discoveries is not to plan a trip. It's to understand more about our own solar system, galaxy and universe. 22 light years away is relatively close. It's becoming clear that habitable planets are more common than was previously thought.

Originally posted by Patriotsrevenge

Originally posted by ssupp
reply to post by 6minutes212

 

ONLY 22 lightyears?
You do realize it still takes 95,000 years for us to reach that with our current mainstream technology, right?

Since we just found it, that means we are seeing what it was like and not what it is like. It could have been destroyed by an Asteroid by now.

We're seeing it as it was in 1990. I seriously doubt it has been destroyed by an asteroid since then.

Originally posted by McGinty
Would any inhabitants be smaller than those of Earth, since its larger mass would make gravity on surface more powerful?

Or would gravity be the same since the distance from the core to the surface is directly proportional to the Earth (assuming it's spherical)?

Yes pretty much, It depends on the core of the planet to like you said, which generates its gravity & magnetosphere? Mars is a good example to look at, it once had oceans, now that really would have been a sight and amazing had it still done so today, but due to its core stalling/cooling it lost its strength, weakened, and intern its atmosphere, which leak/evaporated into space.

This new earth, With its 3 suns & no moon id give intelligent life there a very slim chance, with all the danger factors taken into account & the fact the moon helped massively in bringing about life here with its washing machine affect, also that entire solar system is deficient in heavy elements vital building blocks, so even less chance i guess, all you need for life is an earth like planet in the right location & water, imo there is life of some type there, i think life is extremely abundant in the universe,

Originally posted by Chrisfishenstein
reply to post by 6minutes212

 

I saw this planet probably has carbon......Let's go mining for diamonds....Who wants to join me?

There are diamonds the size of earth and BIGGER in space, its a bi product of dead stars, i will help you tow one of those back,

Let's just be careful parking it, otherwise we wont have any costumers

Originally posted by BRITWARRIOR

This new earth, With its 3 suns & no moon id give intelligent life there a very slim chance, with all the danger factors taken into account & the fact the moon helped massively in bringing about life here with its washing machine affect, also that entire solar system is deficient in heavy elements vital building blocks, so even less chance i guess, all you need for life is an earth like planet in the right location & water, imo there is life of some type there, i think life is extremely abundant in the universe,

OK hold on a minute now. They just discovered a planet, 22 ly away, like 0.11 AU from it's star, why so convinced it has no moon? The article said the stars are quite far apart, the stars have a great gravitational pull, and far away could have the kind of tidal force on the planet as a moon would.

Here our sun rules our tidal forces, our large moon close by second, and all of the planets in our solar system combined has a tidal effect on earth, combined about 2% the tidal effect our moon has, with Jupiter making up 1.7% of that total 2%, as much as the moon. Put a star in Jupiter's spot and you see what I'm getting at.

We, at least I, have no indications that this planet is even a terrestrial one, as the article states the stars lack heavier elements than atomic weight #2 Helium. Where's the beef? So speculations for life are expected, slim to none. That's why I hate that term 'Habitable Zone'.

Originally posted by Osiris1953
reply to post by JOBEone

 

The thought of future generations being born and raised on an alien world is simply a fantastic thought. I love speculating about such things.

My worry is this.... should we really be contaminating the rest of the galaxy with the virus of humanity?

Think of it like Earth is an apartment, and everyone on the planet are like room mates, you keep everyone too close together and they're going to start getting on each other nerves. Maybe what we all need is to go look for somewhere to spread out at.

This is an extraordinary discovery! Imagine future generations of human beings living on all of these earth-like planets! GJ 667Cc, Gliese 581G, Earth, and who knows how many others! If we eventually create the technology to travel light years in days, or even hours, then humans could travel back and forth from one civilized planet to the other. Bored on a Sunday? I think I'll make a quick trip over to Gliese 581G to visit a buddy, then over to GJ 667Cc for coffee with my parents, and be back to Earth before dinner time! Oh how I wish I could have grown up during a future generation instead of ours.

Originally posted by Illustronic
...That's why I hate that term 'Habitable Zone'.

I've always hated the term "Earth-like".

"Earth-like" (by scientists definition) could be a planet with an average temperature of 175° F (80° C), an atmosphere containing toxic amounts of (for example) chlorine, a gravity so strong that we wouldn't be able to stand or walk, and with crushing air pressures plus deadly radiation.

The planetary astrophysicist definition of Earth-like does not necessarily mean "like Earth".

Life has already proven to be very resilient and hardy. Maybe evolution took a different path on this planet and developed life that can withstand what seems to us as difficult conditions for life as WE know it.

My biggest qualm is science limits is view to life as we know it. Not as it could be. Life does not have to resemble us at all.

There have been several other planets supposedly like this but you only hear one from them and never again. Too bad that this will be forgotten too.

Originally posted by Patrik
There have been several other planets supposedly like this but you only hear one from them and never again. Too bad that this will be forgotten too.

I don't understand how they would be forgotten. The information on all of these planets that have been found is still there.

The list of terrestrial-type planets keeps growing, with more announced all the time. I think Kepler has 100's of candidate planets that it is studying. Some planets, such as Gliese 581G and HD85512B have been subjects of additional research, as well as Gliese 876B, which is a gas giant in it's stars habitable zone which may not have life of it's own, but scientists think it is possible that it may have moons around it where life could perhaps exist.

So none of the planets are being forgotten. In fact, many of them are the subject of additional study.

Actually if I recall correctly there has only been one other planet that was believed to be in the habitable zone however very far away. That planet in particular had one side always facing the sun and one side always facing away form the sun. Even if it was capable of sustaining liquid water it was only a narrow strip of land inbetween the light and dark sides of the planet.

This one, if reports are to be believed, has absolutely no question of being in the habitable zone where liquid water actually could exist on the entire planet. This is the absolute best candidate (of the currently discovered planets) to be able to possibly support life as we know it and it is very close, cosmically speaking anyways.

If anyone remembers other planets please correct me, I still say this is an awesome find fairly early on in our planet hunting. Hopefully with any luck one of those 100 closer stars will be found to have a planet that can support life.

Heck I'll die and reincarnate into "their" form and get to the new planet before any of you on your pathetic spacecraft.

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People

Originally posted by Illustronic
...That's why I hate that term 'Habitable Zone'.

I've always hated the term "Earth-like".

"Earth-like" (by scientists definition) could be a planet with an average temperature of 175° F (80° C), an atmosphere containing toxic amounts of (for example) chlorine, a gravity so strong that we wouldn't be able to stand or walk, and with crushing air pressures plus deadly radiation.

The planetary astrophysicist definition of Earth-like does not necessarily mean "like Earth".

You know what's funny, and I already knew this, but! chlorine and sodium make typical salt that is a base of life as we know it, salt is in out DNA. Salt is in our body, a full cup if you separated the chemicals out, and extracted the water. The salt in the Sahara desert led ancient natives to the discovery of mummification, no they didn't learn that method in ancient Egypt in science class. Or the Gobi desert. It was discovered from natural people that died in the deserts that were preserved due to the salt. People in moderate climates with short fishing seasons salted their fish to eat moths later.

The other ingredient in salt is Sodium, (NA). Its a metal, you can cut this metal with a knife. If you drop pure sodium in water it will flame, if you drop a larger chunk in it will explode, (Don't believe those Youtube water energy videos, they are using the natural explosive nature of pure sodium dumped in water, ha ha).

Salt, the basis and giver of life is sodium chloride (NaCl), separately they will kill you, together they give you life. (The chloride ion is formed when the element chlorine, a halogen, gains an electron to form an anion (negatively-charged ion) Cl−. The salts of hydrochloric acid HCl contain chloride ions and can also be called chlorides.), Chlorine, the main WWI chemical warfare element of choice.

Originally posted by MegaMind
Heck I'll die and reincarnate into "their" form and get to the new planet before any of you on your pathetic spacecraft.

Originally posted by seeker1977
Actually if I recall correctly there has only been one other planet that was believed to be in the habitable zone however very far away.

Gliese 581g is thought to be one in the habitable zone. Another planet in the same system, Gliese 581d is thought to be in a position similar to mars (i.e., perhaps too cold for liquid water), but this planet is also known to be quite massive, and maybe its gravity can hold onto a thick atmosphere that can retain heat.

Two other rocky (earth-type) planets that I know about are HD 85512 b and Kepler 22b.

Gas giants (Jupiter-type planets) have also been found in the habitable zone of stars. While these planets probably have no surface (or only a rocky core burred deep in the gas), these gas giants could have large moons that may be habitable. So far 19 gas giants have been discovered in the habitable zone.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


Thank you Soylent, Gliese 581g was the planet I was thinking of. I wasn't aware of HD 85512 b and Kepler 22b and will have to look them up.

It is exciting to find an 'earthlike' planet so near to us that could harbor life.

But don't start packing for the trip just yet...

Twenty-two light years is a daunting expanse of space. To put it into a 'time' perspective,
at our 'world record' space-travel-speed of 150,000 mph (240,000 km/hr), which is
the speed the Helios2 attained in a (gravitational assist) slingshot around our sun, it
would take 95,000 years to travel 22 light years.

To put it into a 'distance' perspective...

The earth is 24,900 miles in circumference at the equatorial bulge.
An ant travels 2 foot per minute.
So (according to a rough estimate off-the-top of my 'calculator')...
...attempting to cross this expanse of space as a human in a spaceship
would be similar in scope to an ant attempting to travel around the
entire earth...790 times!....of course the ant would get ALOT more exercise

We are basing all of these assumptions of possible water and life on this planet simply on its location?
Seems highly speculative to me.

Does the planet have a magnetic coar? What's the atmospheric pressure like? Does it have an atmosphere for that matter? Does it have a moon and how large is it? Based on its size does it sustain an above advrage number of asteroid impacts?

Yes the report is very interesting but to base assumptions simply on location is highly speculative at best.

reply to post by Max_TO


No one is saying this isn't speculation, the idea is that for life as we know it that requires liquid water. There is no one saying that this planet definitely harbors life, just that at this time it is the very best candidate as a posibility.

It may turn out to be another lifeless planet but the discovery itself is still great. Our solar system has 3 planets in the habitable zone however we see how well that determination works with only one that we know of supporting life. That alone can not be considerred the ultimate way to determine if there is life however it at least increases our chances of finding something similar to us.

Until we learn a lot more about our universe all we have is specilation based on available evidence. No one is jumpiong to any conclusions at the moment though.