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NASA says distant exoplanet could have rare water ocean, possible hint of life

theguardian.com

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Re: NASA says distant exoplanet could have rare water ocean, possible hint of life

#51

Post by sigmoid10 »

verisimi wrote: post #43
dotancohen wrote: post #3

> the agency also hinted at even more remarkable possibility in the > potential finding of a molecule called dimethyl sulfide (DMS), which > on Earth is only produced by life. Are there any other instruments or telescopes that could further investigate this? Or is JWST the only telescope instrumented to detect such molecules 120 LY far away?

I can't see a molecule on my desk, even with a jeweller's microscope, nevermind seeing one 120 million light years away! Science is amazing.

You're actually seeing tons of molecules on your desk. You just can't resolve them individually. Neither can the JWST.

Re: NASA says distant exoplanet could have rare water ocean, possible hint of life

#52

Post by IanCal »

mpreda wrote: post #17

We can expect these posibilities: 1. no life 2. simple life 3. advanced intelligent civilization In the first two cases, we need to send a physical probe there. In the third case it might be enough, and much faster, to send communication signals there and get answers back. The third case is also arguably the most interesting.

It's 120 light years away, sending a probe isn't going to do much unfortunately.

Re: NASA says distant exoplanet could have rare water ocean, possible hint of life

#53

Post by sigmoid10 »

molly0 wrote: post #23
mpreda wrote: post #17

We can expect these posibilities: 1. no life 2. simple life 3. advanced intelligent civilization In the first two cases, we need to send a physical probe there. In the third case it might be enough, and much faster, to send communication signals there and get answers back. The third case is also arguably the most interesting.

If 3, And The are truly advanced we should consider not communicating with them. Maybe they are hiding from someone else... ;) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_forest_hypothesis

If they are truly that advanced, they certainly already know about us. It seems kind of arrogant to presume that we could detect them with our primitive technology and they could not detect us. Most likely scenario is that they don't care about us in the same way we don't care about ants.

Re: NASA says distant exoplanet could have rare water ocean, possible hint of life

#54

Post by sigmoid10 »

IanCal wrote: post #52
mpreda wrote: post #17

We can expect these posibilities: 1. no life 2. simple life 3. advanced intelligent civilization In the first two cases, we need to send a physical probe there. In the third case it might be enough, and much faster, to send communication signals there and get answers back. The third case is also arguably the most interesting.

It's 120 light years away, sending a probe isn't going to do much unfortunately.

Not on human lifespans. But on species lifespans, we could probably establish contact.

Re: NASA says distant exoplanet could have rare water ocean, possible hint of life

#55

Post by raducu »

sigmoid10 wrote: post #53
molly0 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If 3, And The are truly advanced we should consider not communicating with them. Maybe they are hiding from someone else... ;) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_forest_hypothesis

If they are truly that advanced, they certainly already know about us. It seems kind of arrogant to presume that we could detect them with our primitive technology and they could not detect us. Most likely scenario is that they don't care about us in the same way we don't care about ants.

It's why I'm 100% it can't be advanced life: we can't find life anywhere in the galaxy but we find advanced life in our own backyard (I know 120 light years is quite a lot)?

Re: NASA says distant exoplanet could have rare water ocean, possible hint of life

#56

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

perihelions wrote: post #19
King-Aaron wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The good news: if there is intelligent life it will not easily get here either. Unless 'it' left a long time ago and is already here. I always feel the 'space is big haha no one can cross it' argument is weird due to always framing it in our own frame of reference. What if the hypothetical 'thing' is like a jellyfish and time isn't as big an issue, or an AI that definitely doesn't care about time. Or a bundle of fu…

Even simpler: you send out self-replicating AI drones in advance—to every star in the entire galaxy. That guarantees permanent security. The drones assess if alien intelligences have any potential to become a threat, and if so annihilates their planet, by autonomous decision. Takes a few million years to set up... but that's just a blink of an eye on cosmic time scales; a brief era in the galactic-scale lifespan of a…

We are the self-replicating drones.

It's taking a few million years to get from violent confused simians to violent confused simians with autonomous AI. But we're getting there.

Re: NASA says distant exoplanet could have rare water ocean, possible hint of life

#57

Post by nkrisc »

verisimi wrote: post #43
dotancohen wrote: post #3

> the agency also hinted at even more remarkable possibility in the > potential finding of a molecule called dimethyl sulfide (DMS), which > on Earth is only produced by life. Are there any other instruments or telescopes that could further investigate this? Or is JWST the only telescope instrumented to detect such molecules 120 LY far away?

I can't see a molecule on my desk, even with a jeweller's microscope, nevermind seeing one 120 million light years away! Science is amazing.

The JWST is essentially “seeing” them the same you see all the molecules in front of you in your desk: from the light they scatter or absorb.

Re: NASA says distant exoplanet could have rare water ocean, possible hint of life

#58

Post by amelius »

mpreda wrote: post #36
amelius wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not aim an antenna at it, and download the answers to the questions of the universe?

Because it's directional communication (point-to-point), in order to be energy-efficient over long range.

1. They may have found us and may have directed a communication beam at us.

2. The technology they use may be so advanced as to overcome any power problems.

Re: NASA says distant exoplanet could have rare water ocean, possible hint of life

#59

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

mongol wrote: post #31
psiops wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best time to send a probe to an exoplanet is 200 years ago. The second-best time to do it is now.

No, sending it several million years ago would be better.

Better yet if it was always there.

Re: NASA says distant exoplanet could have rare water ocean, possible hint of life

#60

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

sBqQu3U0wH wrote: post #13
truculent wrote: post #6

If the presence of dimethyl sulphide is confirmed, what would the next steps be? Presumably sending a probe would not be feasible in any foreseeable timeframe?

Well... nothing? These kinds of news pop up from time to time, but that's the end of it. It's ridiculously far away, and there is little we can do, at least within any foreseeable time frame.

We won't be visiting any time soon. But news of (likely) life would increase funding for telescopes, and eventually we'd get some idea how common life is - which is an interesting little fact in itself.
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