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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

#221

Post by malandrew »

hueving wrote: post #217
ExactoKnight wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can nitpick the exceptions, but his general point about affluent living standards existing for 100 years in the West for most people is true.

If it were an exception, we wouldn't be having a debate about healthcare coverage in the US.

We will always have this debate since the scope of healthcare will continue to grow.

Today advanced robotic bionic prosthetics are experimental prototypes. In 100 years, people will be arguing that access to bionic limbs should be a universal human right.

Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star

#223

Post by gnaritas »

malandrew wrote: post #221
hueving wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it were an exception, we wouldn't be having a debate about healthcare coverage in the US.

We will always have this debate since the scope of healthcare will continue to grow. Today advanced robotic bionic prosthetics are experimental prototypes. In 100 years, people will be arguing that access to bionic limbs should be a universal human right.

And they would be right to do so, because "rights" are not inherent, they're simply social agreements and are thus always up for negotiation. Nature doesn't provide people rights, people do.

Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star

#224

Post by virtualwhys »

ExactoKnight wrote: post #101

I am flabbergasted that as a society we aren't rushing to build a 100 metre wide telescope mirror large enough for us to directly image the spectra of the potentially habitable exoplanets around us. A telescope this large could tell us whether any of these potentially habitable planets contain oxygen, and thus, biological processes. Yet thanks to funding cuts in science the biggest telescope we have in the pipeline r…

> Why are we here, and are we alone.

An old friend once said, "We're all alone together". I replied, "I can't handle that".

"Well, can you handle this?", he said, with arms spread wide to the sky, laughing.

Not to be anti-technology, but it may well be that the answers to life's questions depend on nothing.

Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star

#225

Post by aptwebapps »

wtvanhest wrote: post #199
hnau wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

adaptive optics on earthbound telescopes have allowed them to easily surpass hubble's resolution nearly a decade ago. it's also a lot easier to service telescopes on the planet than something orbiting at the ideal L2 point, some 1.5 million km from earth.

This is extremely far from my area of expertise so I am probably wrong, but I imagine that at some point we will advance earth based telescopes to the point where we get diminishing returns when considering atmospheric disturbance. At that point, it will make more and more sense to launch space based telescopes. But... if we wait until we reach that point in the diminishing returns curve, than we lost valuable innova…

What do you mean by the two types of technology converging?

Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star

#226

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

jballanc wrote: post #55
baron816 wrote: post #37

Ok, let's assume we find a warm, watery planet like Earth's within ~20 light years, and we figure out a way to travel >= 50% the speed of light, making it somewhat reasonable to get there. If the planet's gravity is greater than 10% different from Earth's, or its Day/Night cycle is much different from Earth's, wouldn't it still be a nightmare to live on. Anatomically modern humans have lived on Earth for 200,000 year…

Even at 50% the speed of light, adding in a fudge factor for acceleration/deceleration, you're still talking about a trip time of 50 yrs. Even if you go all Neon Genesis and send 15 year olds on the journey, they'll be at retirement age by the time they arrive. In other words, you'd almost definitely have to send a generation ship. Which means you'd have to have already figured things like artificial gravity, giving…

Send robots with a genome database so that they can regenerate and raise humans at the end phase of the trip. Or just cut out the humans altogether and let the machines be our legacy.

Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star

#227

Post by andy_ppp »

aptwebapps wrote: post #225
wtvanhest wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is extremely far from my area of expertise so I am probably wrong, but I imagine that at some point we will advance earth based telescopes to the point where we get diminishing returns when considering atmospheric disturbance. At that point, it will make more and more sense to launch space based telescopes. But... if we wait until we reach that point in the diminishing returns curve, than we lost valuable innova…

What do you mean by the two types of technology converging?

Launching huge telescopes (and possibly assemble them) into space...?

Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star

#228

Post by andy_ppp »

outericky wrote: post #197
jdavis703 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's assume a 100-meter telescope is 10x the cost of the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope. That means it would cost about $14 billion to build. If the U.S. and E.U. split the cost it would take about $14 for every person and child to build this. If you split the cost out to a decade, it'd be about $1.40 everyone had to pay out every year. This is a matter of priorities, not there being a lack of resources.

where do I send my $56 check?

Let’s set up a kickstarter?

Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star

#229

Post by jessaustin »

ExactoKnight wrote: post #184
function_seven wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We cannot ask a question "are we alone" unless we know exactly what a whale sings about (if anything) or what crazy complicated dolphin or beluga chatter means. I don't follow. You could say the same thing about any Earth-bound phenomena. There is an endless supply of interesting things to study on our planet. There's also an endless supply of space exploration waiting for us. To pick one to the exclusion of the ot…

I dream about the day where the U.S.'s spending on its military, and its spending on science research, are flipped.

I dream instead about spending a little more on science, and nothing at all on war.

Re: Four Earth-sized planets detected orbiting the nearest sun-like star

#230

Post by sumedh »

meric wrote: post #157
redthrowaway wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is because most of society is still struggling with day-to-day tasks like getting housing, clean water, reliable food, healthcare and dealing with physical conflicts. It's been nearly 100 years since anyone struggled with that in the West. Nobody's expecting Eritrea to put a satellite in orbit.

Yes even most people in Pakistan/India have access to those, plus broadband internet. Yes I've been there.

> Yes even most people in Pakistan/India have access to those, plus broadband internet. Yes I've been there.

Indian here, lot of people in metro cities dont have clean water. Most middle class and rich people use water filter to clean the water in their house. Forget the villages.

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