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An extrasolar world covered in water?

nouvelles.umontreal.ca

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Re: An extrasolar world covered in water?

#11
post #6

A potentially worthy target for some atmospheric spectroscopy from JWST?

They say as much in the abstract:

> The water world candidate TOI-1452 b is a prime target for future atmospheric characterization with JWST, featuring a Transmission Spectroscopy Metric similar to other well-known temperate small planets such as LHS 1140 b and K2-18 b. The system is located near Webb's northern Continuous Viewing Zone, implying that it can be followed at almost any moment of the year.

Re: An extrasolar world covered in water?

#12
post #3

Based on those observations, the exoplanet appears to be about 70% larger than Earth with just five times its mass. That means it’s less dense than Earth Seems like a rather large leap to go from that to "it's a water world", at least in these days where we get a "this new exoplanet may be covered in water!" headline every few months.

So its a droplet, were a small moony core tumbles around in the crushing depths?

Re: An extrasolar world covered in water?

#13
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Programming machines to make the trip and then seeding with human life seems to be the best answer to distance.

That would be so interesting - could be many a sci-fi stories created on that premise. Some mechanical robot/starship storing frozen embryos for 100 years to be released on a far-away exoplanet, the starship taking care of them while they grow up and learn how to live on this new world - the beginnings of a new civilization - a technological adam and eve of sorts.

Raised by wolves

Re: An extrasolar world covered in water?

#14
post #13
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be so interesting - could be many a sci-fi stories created on that premise. Some mechanical robot/starship storing frozen embryos for 100 years to be released on a far-away exoplanet, the starship taking care of them while they grow up and learn how to live on this new world - the beginnings of a new civilization - a technological adam and eve of sorts.

Raised by wolves

And Interstellar

Re: An extrasolar world covered in water?

#15
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Programming machines to make the trip and then seeding with human life seems to be the best answer to distance.

That would be so interesting - could be many a sci-fi stories created on that premise. Some mechanical robot/starship storing frozen embryos for 100 years to be released on a far-away exoplanet, the starship taking care of them while they grow up and learn how to live on this new world - the beginnings of a new civilization - a technological adam and eve of sorts.

We can’t do lightspeed with the best tech available, so it’s more like 300-400 years probably.

Re: An extrasolar world covered in water?

#16
post #2

It's around 100 light years away from Earth for anyone interested.

Programming machines to make the trip and then seeding with human life seems to be the best answer to distance.

I have thought about this a lot. I have said for a long time that human space exploration doesn't make any sense to me. Space is so hostile to our life in general it seems that only purpose-built machines make any sense for the job. But of course for the preservation of our species, we would want to be able to send the "seeds" of our ecosystem to other places.

But then, if we have progressed to that level of technology, where we can send cells or even just DNA with the machines to be cultivated far away in the distant future... would we even bother? Would we even consider ourselves distinct from the machines by then? Honestly I'm not sure. It could very well be that we consider our creations to be our "children", so to speak. Destined to inherit the universe as we pass gradually into the dust from from which we came. It seems inevitable if we eventually crack AGI or artificial consciousness.

Re: An extrasolar world covered in water?

#17
post #4

Is there a better source? “Freethink” seems to be confusingly mixing terms. FWIW, we don’t have telescopes to resolve the surface of planets like this so they’re using inferences to approximate composition and extrapolating surface characteristics. Ie by these methods at a similar distance the statements are roughly equivalent to what we’d say of earth if we were seeing it at this distance. The crucial takeaway seems…

https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/news/1710/discovery-alert-intrig...

Re: An extrasolar world covered in water?

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Programming machines to make the trip and then seeding with human life seems to be the best answer to distance.

I have thought about this a lot. I have said for a long time that human space exploration doesn't make any sense to me. Space is so hostile to our life in general it seems that only purpose-built machines make any sense for the job. But of course for the preservation of our species, we would want to be able to send the "seeds" of our ecosystem to other places. But then, if we have progressed to that level of technolo…

[deleted]

Re: An extrasolar world covered in water?

#20
post #2

It's around 100 light years away from Earth for anyone interested.

Programming machines to make the trip and then seeding with human life seems to be the best answer to distance.

I have enjoyed reading "The Songs of Distant Earth" by Arthur C. Clarke which talks about seed ships and the culture rise from that. It's an interesting read.
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