Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star
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Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star
#2Hearing distances like 12 light years makes you think if it is ever possible to travel there.
However, when you start to think about it, nihilist thoughts start to kick in.
Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star
#3This title is a bit imprecise. They detected four planets with lower bound on their masses to be down to 1.7 Earth masses. Because these planets don't transit, there are no direct measurements from their radius. They can use mass-radius relations to infer the radius of these planets, but the key finding is their masses (actually lower bounds on their masses).
Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star
#4[deleted]
Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star
#5Key line to mitigate disappointment:
"The outer two planets around tau Ceti are likely to be candidate habitable worlds, although a massive debris disc around the star probably reduces their habitability due to intensive bombardment by asteroids and comets."
Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star
#6Key line to mitigate disappointment: "The outer two planets around tau Ceti are likely to be candidate habitable worlds, although a massive debris disc around the star probably reduces their habitability due to intensive bombardment by asteroids and comets."
We'll just wear helmets!
Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star
#7The fastest spacecraft ever built would take 4000 years to travel one light year.
Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star
#8Hearing distances like 12 light years makes you think if it is ever possible to travel there. However, when you start to think about it, nihilist thoughts start to kick in.
With the EMdrive it'll take around 150 years (give or take a century), so it's within the realm of possibility if we can engineer a ship with shielding that can last that long. The mission becomes an order of a magnitude more difficult if you want to put a viable human population on it... watch Pandorum for one scenario.... perhaps it's best to send a seed ship (as written about in the excellent SF story by Pamela Sargent, Earthseed)
Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star
#9Is there any benefit to the planets being earth-sized? I would think the important part is that they're in the habitable zone.
Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star
#10The fastest spacecraft ever built would take 4000 years to travel one light year.
In 4000 years we can build way way more faster ships and catch up to those poor guys launched a centuries earlier just because they thought they are fast enough :)
On the serious side, we only need antimatter and the drive problem is kind of solved (yes, I might be the one in the good enough ship :)).