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First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star

bbc.com

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Re: First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star

#71

Post by isodev »

fellowmartian wrote: post #65
andy_ppp wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It’s highly unlikely we’re ever getting FTL. We should become comfortable with that and let go our fantasies. Let theoretical physicists chug away at this, we should get underway with projects that are possible with known science.

It would help if our science wasn’t distracted by things like global warming and nazi governments though. There are definitely ways we can help the process * right now *

Re: First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star

#72

Post by jvanderbot »

mekdoonggi wrote: post #19

We 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.

A kilometer scale telescope contract would exercise all the right pipelines for massive orbital buildout like in-situ assembly, multi-lift cadences, and big-old infra. And it'd look cool as hell in the night sky during assembly.

Re: First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star

#73

Post by kurthr »

myrmidon wrote: post #34
mekdoonggi wrote: post #19

We 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.

There is no "building" such a thing. All we could do right now is send the "telescope probe" >500AU away, on the opposite side of the sun from the observation target, then hope it still works 80 years later or so when it gets there. Edit: My point is that you can't "build" such a thing and later point it somewhere-- you have to fly the camera part of the "telescope" about 3 times as far as voyager 1 went, exactly opp…

Well, there is a way to do it slowly, the probe(s) just need to be in a 500AU circular orbit. At that distance power and thrust are an issue, and RTGs seem like a better choice than solar. Certainly, takes longer to get to orbit than fly through a point for a pic, but you would get a lot more pics.

Re: First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star

#74

Post by calgarymicro »

bilsbie wrote: post #43

Am I understanding right? They detected an atmosphere but don’t know what it’s made of?

No, they detected helium, which would be in the upper reaches of the planet's atmosphere (as on Earth); they believe there are other gasses lower down, but the helium is what's confirmed.

Re: First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star

#77

Post by Archelaos »

andy_ppp wrote: post #14
jimbokun wrote: post #2

48 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…

We are looking at 75,000 years. You forgot the %.

Re: First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star

#78

Post by oceanplexian »

detritus wrote: post #27
buildbot wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly a near millennia long expedition would be very cool, and doesn’t seem too long on the scale of space stuff.

Perhaps, but it is horrifically long in terms of human stuff.

> Perhaps, but it is horrifically long in terms of human stuff.

Not really, unless you're obsessed with the idea that great works need to happen within your lifetime. Europe is chock full of cathedrals that took 400-600 years to build, worked on by countless generations who would never live to see them completed.

Re: First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star

#79

Post by myrmidon »

kurthr wrote: post #73
myrmidon wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no "building" such a thing. All we could do right now is send the "telescope probe" >500AU away, on the opposite side of the sun from the observation target, then hope it still works 80 years later or so when it gets there. Edit: My point is that you can't "build" such a thing and later point it somewhere-- you have to fly the camera part of the "telescope" about 3 times as far as voyager 1 went, exactly opp…

Well, there is a way to do it slowly, the probe(s) just need to be in a 500AU circular orbit. At that distance power and thrust are an issue, and RTGs seem like a better choice than solar. Certainly, takes longer to get to orbit than fly through a point for a pic, but you would get a lot more pics.

First: Orbital period out there is over 10000 years.

And if you circularize (which is expensive to do in delta-v), you minimize the time window you have for observation (because you're basically pointing your speed vector straight to outside of your observation cone).

Re: First atmosphere found on Earth-like planet in habitable zone of distant star

#80

Post by peddling-brink »

mekdoonggi wrote: post #33
sgt wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory we can then get 100 meter resolution on alien worlds. That would be insane.

According to AI, an equivalent would be roughly when Google maps shows you 10mi/20km reference scale. Turning off the labels, aliens would probably assume that the world is naturally full of green stuff that is dealing with some strange grey infestation.

Spectral analysis at that resolution would be much more telling.
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