NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers Bigger, Older Cousin to Earth

Post by CuriousSkeptic » Thu, Jul 23, 2015, 6:28 PM UTC

qrendel wrote: post #56

DuskStar wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently it has a diameter 60% larger than that of the Earth, and so if we assume it has the same density as the Earth it would have about 16m/s^2 gravity on the surface, and an orbital velocity of around 12km/s @ ~1000km (in comparison to the Earth, where a 1000km circular orbit is closer to 7km/s). This means that merely achieving orbit would be approximately as difficult as launching a probe on a Hohmann transfe…

To colonize or seed life you don't need to launch huge space vehicles with enough life support to maintain a breeding population, though. You can just launch some kind of self-replicating microbes capable of directing themselves into the forms of life you want to encourage over time. The precise ability to do this would depend on your current state of technology, but we're pretty close to developing full blown synthe…

Post by jessaustin » Thu, Jul 23, 2015, 6:30 PM UTC

parksy wrote: post #35

stormcrowsx wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More money spent on science and technology.

What benefit could that possibly have for humanity? /s

Post by mkehrt » Thu, Jul 23, 2015, 6:30 PM UTC

DuskStar wrote: post #40

qrendel wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I propose it's unlikely that any technological civilizations more advanced than our own have existed on this planet in the past few billion years, otherwise some subgroup of their species would likely have seeded the local universe with life (it's only ~1400 lightyears away) and they would be here instead of us. Unless of course the panspermia hypothesis is correct and that is indeed where life on Earth came from.

Apparently it has a diameter 60% larger than that of the Earth, and so if we assume it has the same density as the Earth it would have about 16m/s^2 gravity on the surface, and an orbital velocity of around 12km/s @ ~1000km (in comparison to the Earth, where a 1000km circular orbit is closer to 7km/s). This means that merely achieving orbit would be approximately as difficult as launching a probe on a Hohmann transfe…

Post by narrator » Thu, Jul 23, 2015, 6:33 PM UTC

qrendel wrote: post #24

phantarch wrote: post #5

At 2 billion years older than Earth, I can't begin to imagine what kinds of things could possibly be living on this planet. Given, of course, that it's got the right ingredients for life to arise. What if it's suffered huge extinctions recently? What if there's a domineering species out to conquer the planet just like humans? What if there's a society there more sophisticated than us? It's a very exciting discovery.

I propose it's unlikely that any technological civilizations more advanced than our own have existed on this planet in the past few billion years, otherwise some subgroup of their species would likely have seeded the local universe with life (it's only ~1400 lightyears away) and they would be here instead of us. Unless of course the panspermia hypothesis is correct and that is indeed where life on Earth came from.

Post by estrabd » Thu, Jul 23, 2015, 6:35 PM UTC

DuskStar wrote: post #40

qrendel wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I propose it's unlikely that any technological civilizations more advanced than our own have existed on this planet in the past few billion years, otherwise some subgroup of their species would likely have seeded the local universe with life (it's only ~1400 lightyears away) and they would be here instead of us. Unless of course the panspermia hypothesis is correct and that is indeed where life on Earth came from.

Apparently it has a diameter 60% larger than that of the Earth, and so if we assume it has the same density as the Earth it would have about 16m/s^2 gravity on the surface, and an orbital velocity of around 12km/s @ ~1000km (in comparison to the Earth, where a 1000km circular orbit is closer to 7km/s). This means that merely achieving orbit would be approximately as difficult as launching a probe on a Hohmann transfe…