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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

#301

Post by rixed »

echelon wrote: post #64
PxldLtd wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a project that's going well from NASA for this. Still a moonshot but they've progressed through the early stages well so far. https://www.nasa.gov/general/direct-multipixel-imaging-and-s...

I wonder about all the extraterrestrial AI swarms that have already imaged earth. Surely it has happened. They must have all spotted our planet millions of years ago and must be watching us with a continuous high-resolution feed. They've seen our dinosaurs. Their interest will really be piqued when they finally see us invent electricity, though that might be some time in the future for them. Perhaps even gravitationa…

  > all the extraterrestrial AI swarms
It's expected that a human would associate life with intelligence, but it's also a bit of a contradiction because it does not seem very intelligent to do so given all we know about the history of life on our planet.

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

#302

Post by perilunar »

teaearlgraycold wrote: post #184
creesch wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just going to recycle this comment I made in reply to an almost identical comment as yours. I don't think you folks realize how big space actually is. The speed of light is 1079 252 848 km/h, the fastest space craft ever made was the Parker Solar probe (using a sling shot) clocking in at 692 000 km/h. So at that speed it would take, 1559 years to travel one light year. This planet sits at a distance of 48 light years…

If we’re talking about human technology available in a few hundred years, don’t discount far more exotic options. I’ve heard people talk of theoretical terrestrial lasers pushing on tiny probes. With an absolutely gigantic laser and magical material at the back of the probe that won’t instantly vaporize there’s enough energy to get something the size of a smartphone up to a reasonable proportion of the speed of light…

At the distances involved even the beam from a gigantic laser will be spread out enough not to vaporise anything — you won't need a magic material, just a very large, thin, and highly reflective solar sail.

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

#303

Post by izend »

gcanyon wrote: post #298
tulio_ribeiro wrote: post #170

Didn't know a rocky planet in the habitable zone of a red dwarf could retain atmosphere against intense stellar stripping. Red dwarfs are known to be cooler (the habitable zone is therefore closer) and unstable. I don't think LHS 1140b is "Earth-like" at all. Rather, it's more like a mini-Neptune, being boiled off by its star. Edit: JWST emission spectroscopy of LHS 1140b as it passes behind its star rules out a mini…

The definition of "earth-like" in this context is almost absurdly broad: roughly it means: a rocky-metallic planet, around Earth mass (maybe 0.5 to 1.5 or so?), and in an orbit that might support liquid water -- not has water, just water would be liquid under some circumstances if it were there. So: - no atmosphere? no problem - no water? no problem - average temperature 40c? fine - 4c? Yup I think both Venus and Mar…

LHS 1140 b has about 5.6 times Earth’s mass

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

#304

Post by palata »

palata wrote: post #148
danieltk76 wrote: post #99

i do hope in my lifetime we find other animals on other planets

So that we still have animal to kill in our lifetime, after the ones on Earth are all extinct?

You can downvote me as much as you want, but that's a genuine question: there are more species on Earth than any of us know. Before hoping to find new animals on new planets, why not caring about what's on ours?

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

#305

Post by creesch »

globular-toast wrote: post #270
creesch wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just going to recycle this comment I made in reply to an almost identical comment as yours. I don't think you folks realize how big space actually is. The speed of light is 1079 252 848 km/h, the fastest space craft ever made was the Parker Solar probe (using a sling shot) clocking in at 692 000 km/h. So at that speed it would take, 1559 years to travel one light year. This planet sits at a distance of 48 light years…

The comment you replied to doesn't appear to be misunderstanding the size of the galaxy, they mention acceleration to near the speed of light so they're probably thinking 100 years to get there and another 48 to receive signals back. The missing part is the propulsion system capable of doing that.

> The missing part is the propulsion system capable of doing that.

That is a pretty big missing part. Not as big as the galaxy, but still huge.

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

#306

Post by stasomatic »

palata wrote: post #304
palata wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So that we still have animal to kill in our lifetime, after the ones on Earth are all extinct?

You can downvote me as much as you want, but that's a genuine question: there are more species on Earth than any of us know. Before hoping to find new animals on new planets, why not caring about what's on ours?

No downvote from me, but - Aren't the undiscovered ones just different colored insects or jellyfish? I mean, it's a cool job if you get paid for it to discover new things that can kill us fast in the Amazon. I think we can leave them alone to do their thing and concentrate on team Human. Money better spent.

I'd be terrified to meet an alien. Very much doubt they'd be attractive purple skinned humanoids like in the STNG. But they are welcome to discover us if they are so advanced, why do we need to sweat, we aren 't done with this rock yet? Thank the universe and light years it's never gonna happen.

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

#307

Post by RetroTechie »

chrsw wrote: post #168
creesch wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just going to recycle this comment I made in reply to an almost identical comment as yours. I don't think you folks realize how big space actually is. The speed of light is 1079 252 848 km/h, the fastest space craft ever made was the Parker Solar probe (using a sling shot) clocking in at 692 000 km/h. So at that speed it would take, 1559 years to travel one light year. This planet sits at a distance of 48 light years…

Science fiction has entertained and inspired millions of people and we should all be grateful for that but it has also distorted what people think space really is. When you consider the scale of space it becomes pretty understandable why the Milky Way isn't teeming with civilizations sending large amounts of mass all over the galaxy. A realization one comes to despite the facts that it has taken humans a blink of an…

We simply don't kow.

On a scale of probable -> less probable, you have:

Self-organizing chemicals -> replication -> evolution -> multi-cellular life -> creatures that move around -> intelligent life -> use of tools -> basic technology like wheels, steam engine -> industrialization -> advanced tech -> automation -> space faring -> capable of interstellar travel -> capable of intergalactic travel. Powered by energy sources of increasing complexity/sophistication & scale.

This whole evolution requires a stable environment. Dinosaur-killing asteroid & it's back to square 1. Also (for example) how would intelligent life on a waterworld (which basically excludes electronics as we know it) become space-faring?

So it's not unlogical to expect that microbial life could be 'everywhere', tool-using intelligent creatures are rare, and interstellar-capable civilizations are so few & far between that (on average) they're just too distant in space or time.

Doesn't matter who visits who if neither party can cross the ocean in between.

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

#308

Post by fuzzfactor »

SubiculumCode wrote: post #51
MattCruikshank wrote: post #42

Sure, but keep in mind that technically New Jersey is "habitable," so don't get too excited.

Florida is the typical and deserved target.

There's at least one Florida county where there's more people from New Jersey than there is from Florida :0

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

#309

Post by throwthrow7766 »

izend wrote: post #303
gcanyon wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The definition of "earth-like" in this context is almost absurdly broad: roughly it means: a rocky-metallic planet, around Earth mass (maybe 0.5 to 1.5 or so?), and in an orbit that might support liquid water -- not has water, just water would be liquid under some circumstances if it were there. So: - no atmosphere? no problem - no water? no problem - average temperature 40c? fine - 4c? Yup I think both Venus and Mar…

LHS 1140 b has about 5.6 times Earth’s mass

[dead]

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

#310

Post by [deleted] »

jjk166 wrote: post #258
kazinator wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A really powerful magnetic field could help, also. Without our field, we would be in trouble, too.

This is false. Earth's magnetic field does not significantly impact atmospheric loss. For comparison, Venus is closer to the sun and has no magnetic field, but has a substantially thicker atmosphere than earth.

[deleted]
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