Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 156 posts

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

#141

Post by hermitcrab »

gsky wrote: post #30
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.

What if the advanced civilization treats us like the way we treat animals? In my view it's better to stay away from the advanced civilizations

Or like Columbus treated the people who lived in South America or the Caribbean. How did that monster get a day named after him?

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

#142

Post by belter »

_nalply wrote: post #61

1. I looked up the phase diagram of water. If the mass is 10 times the earth, their athmospheric pressure might be one hundred times of ours. At that pressure, water boils at about 300°C. If ambient temperature is about 200°C then their chemistry would be completely incompatible with ours. And with hydrogen athmosphere anyway. 2. Re the Dark Forest hypothesis: maybe. They will discover our radio in about 60 years (as…

As the mass is 10 times Earth, gravity will be much stronger. So the invading aliens might be of a different size to us. To their disadvantage. The outcome might be likely to be ...as hinted in this old Dutch commercial from an insurance company - https://youtu.be/XcdC-Y2dQto

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

#143

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

_nalply wrote: post #105
reacharavindh wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

600 years at 20% speed of light. So, we are not going to visit the planet unless we find a way to create worm holes at will.

If you think as a species, then 600 years is nothing. If you think as an individual, then 600 years is dismaying.

Not if you're a fruit fly.

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

#144

Post by rbanffy »

ImHereToVote wrote: post #38
rbanffy wrote: post #28

I am more optimistic about the gas giant in the same system and its satellites.

If it's anything like our gas giant, the radiation of the satellites will neutralize all life on the surface. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Europa#:~:text... .

Doesn't have to be. It could be a more peaceful one like Saturn.

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

#145

Post by checkyoursudo »

pharmakom wrote: post #69
dividedbyzero wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then they might assemble something like a robotic attack army and send it over Why would they want to though? What do we have here that someone who could do the above couldn't get much easier otherwise?

To ensure that we don’t do the same.

But if we have the capability to destroy another civilisation 120 light years away, then we also have developed far beyond the need to, and they will know that just as well as we will know that.

I think it is impossible to survive as an exterminationist species to the point of having non-trivial interstellar reach. If you (as a species) were that inclined toward destruction, then you would not survive.

The counter arguments of, “Well, look at us!” are not convincing to me. We might well be that destructive, but we certainly have not developed to the point of non-trivial interstellar reach. I am not even convinced yet that we will get to the point of intrasystem mastery much less interstellar reach before we destroy ourselves. I hope we can overcome our barbarity, but there is no guarantee.

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

#146

Post by checkyoursudo »

King-Aaron wrote: post #15
Gys wrote: post #11

Distance is 120 light years. So whatever we see is 120 years in the past. Getting there within a reasonable time frame is impossible with our current technology (an unmanned rocket will still needs 1000s of years). The good news: if there is intelligent life it will not easily get here either.

> 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…

> Unless 'it' left a long time ago and is already here.

Might be posting on HN right now. Never know.

All your hypotheticals are not entirely unreasonable, but they are also so far beyond our current ability to test, that it becomes pretty futile to speculate, except as a source of entertainment.

Space is reaaaaaaaaaaaaaally big, much bigger than people really have a conception of. Bigger than I have a conception of, and I try really hard to understand how bad my conception of it is.

A space fungus from 120 light years away would presumably only reach us by almost 100% chance, which is something I am comfortable saying is almost 100% unlikely. This is true of most hypothetical threats.

Fantasies about aliens or AI coming here (or sending big rocks) to exterminate are as weird to me, as I image "space is big haha" is to you.

There is no reason for anyone even to try to cross interstellar distances, especially not for war. The expected gain will never be worth the cost, outside of some fantasy FTL-for-free engine, which is just that: fantasy.

But, it is fun to think about it all.

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

#147

Post by kcplate »

checkyoursudo wrote: post #145
pharmakom wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To ensure that we don’t do the same.

But if we have the capability to destroy another civilisation 120 light years away, then we also have developed far beyond the need to, and they will know that just as well as we will know that. I think it is impossible to survive as an exterminationist species to the point of having non-trivial interstellar reach. If you (as a species) were that inclined toward destruction, then you would not survive. The counter ar…

>But if we have the capability to destroy another civilisation 120 light years away, then we also have developed far beyond the need to, and they will know that just as well as we will know that.

That is a huge leap of faith and operating under a lot of assumptions not the least of which is that a completely alien intelligence would somehow operate in a utopian Age of Enlightenment and moral way and not in a way that we can’t even imagine or even understand because they are completely alien to us.

I’m of the opinion that intelligent life is probably extremely rare (in the one place where we know life exists it took 20+ million species and a full third of the age of the universe to make the single intelligent life we have…and we do our best on a regular bases to make ourselves extinct) and that is a damn good thing because I cannot see how intelligent alien life wouldn’t be completely hostile to other alien life and not immediately skeptical of the other’s motivations.

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

#148

Post by dang »

bartread wrote: post #73
dividedbyzero wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then they might assemble something like a robotic attack army and send it over Why would they want to though? What do we have here that someone who could do the above couldn't get much easier otherwise?

[flagged]

"Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#149

Post by dang »

Jerrrry wrote: post #126
daveguy wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

Posting like this will get you banned here. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules, regardless of how wrong someone is or you feel they are, we'd appreciate it.

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

#150

Post by dang »

daveguy wrote: post #129
Jerrrry wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

Posting like this will get you banned here. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules, regardless of how wrong someone is or you feel they are, we'd appreciate it.
Post reply on HN