> The gas detected in the atmosphere is helium, which would not be able to support life
Nonsense. You mean not able to support terrestrial life.
First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star
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Re: First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star
#1248 light years is in our back yard. Close enough that we could probably develop a probe to get there in the next few centuries and check it out. What are the current popular candidates for propulsion systems capable of accelerating to near the speed of light?
need to get small fusion reactors online, then many options blossom.
And work out safe systems for hibernation, maybe rotate the crew in shifts
Oh yeah this is the stuff of science fiction coming to life
Re: First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star
#1348 light years is in our back yard. Close enough that we could probably develop a probe to get there in the next few centuries and check it out. What are the current popular candidates for propulsion systems capable of accelerating to near the speed of light?
> in the next few centuries
assuming we can make it another few centuries, which seems increasingly unlikely.
Re: First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star
#1448 light years is in our back yard. Close enough that we could probably develop a probe to get there in the next few centuries and check it out. What are the current popular candidates for propulsion systems capable of accelerating to near the speed of light?
Probably more likely that we work out how to fold spacetime than we get there in anything like a high enough percentage of the speed of light - the fastest object we ever made travelled at something like ~0.064% * C so we are looking at ~750 years with current technology and presumably we'd need to switch on the probe in 3/4 of a millennium and figure out how to slow it down and get it into some sort of orbit around the planet.
750 years is hard for me to get excited about even as a vampire.
Re: First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star
#1548 light years is in our back yard. Close enough that we could probably develop a probe to get there in the next few centuries and check it out. What are the current popular candidates for propulsion systems capable of accelerating to near the speed of light?
laser propelled solar sails are the only plausible solution at the moment and it is not a given that even that is possible. Lots of engineering challenges there that may not have solutions. other ideas: 1. be way more patient 2. anti matter based propulsion (more out there than solar sails) 3. nuclear bomb based propulsion One issue is as you get to these speed little bits of dust will anhillate the probe, so you nee…
The political challenge of funding a laser program just for research for centuries seems just as daunting - lacking the capability for some self repairing, self healing devices, the automated or (lobster-ai) probe going to stars is just as far away as when Charles Stross first wrote about it in Accelerando some twenty years ago. Given the collapse of political norms, looking back, the decades long research projects of the US space program appear to be soon relics of the past.
Re: First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star
#16> The gas detected in the atmosphere is helium, which would not be able to support life Nonsense. You mean not able to support terrestrial life.
Would be briefly hilarious though as the squeaky response made it back through to mission control.
Re: First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star
#17> The gas detected in the atmosphere is helium, which would not be able to support life Nonsense. You mean not able to support terrestrial life.
I was skeptical about that as well so I googled it and:
>Helium cannot support life because it is a chemically inert noble gas. It does not form the complex, stable molecular structures (like carbon chains) required for biology. Unlike oxygen, it cannot be used by living organisms for cellular respiration to generate energy, making it an asphyxiant.
However, maybe we are projecting our current understanding of biology and shouldn't rule it out. I'm not a scientist so I have no idea.
Re: First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star
#1848 light years is in our back yard. Close enough that we could probably develop a probe to get there in the next few centuries and check it out. What are the current popular candidates for propulsion systems capable of accelerating to near the speed of light?
Probably more likely that we work out how to fold spacetime than we get there in anything like a high enough percentage of the speed of light - the fastest object we ever made travelled at something like ~0.064% * C so we are looking at ~750 years with current technology and presumably we'd need to switch on the probe in 3/4 of a millennium and figure out how to slow it down and get it into some sort of orbit around…
Honestly a near millennia long expedition would be very cool, and doesn’t seem too long on the scale of space stuff.
Re: First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star
#19We should build a solar lens telescope. By the time we're ready to use it, we'll have a bunch of candidates to point it at.
Re: First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star
#20We should build a solar lens telescope. By the time we're ready to use it, we'll have a bunch of candidates to point it at.
In theory we can then get 100 meter resolution on alien worlds. That would be insane.