How do we check about life that far?
Two potentially life-friendly planets found orbiting a nearby star
161–170 of 391 posts
Re: Two potentially life-friendly planets found orbiting a nearby star
#162The trilogy _Three Body Problem_ is a good read, and has something to say about this. :)
I had high hopes, but TBP is a terrible novel. It certainly has some fascinating ideas, but just as many ludicrous ones that are equally central to the plot. Not to mention Liu is absolutely terrible at anything relating to characters: dialogue, character development, etc.
Re: Two potentially life-friendly planets found orbiting a nearby star
#163> The team calculates that one of the planets, called Teegarden’s star b, completed an orbit in a mere 4.9 Earth-days; the other world, Teegarden’s star c, has an orbit of just 11.4 days.
I wonder how our understanding of orbital mechanics would have evolved differently had our planet orbited the Sun this fast?
If the planets have long days, then they could potentially see in one night what it takes us a full year to see!
Re: Two potentially life-friendly planets found orbiting a nearby star
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
Imagine being the child born on the ship on a crash course to this new planet.
And imagine you're the first ship to arrive only to find out a) that the planet is not habitable and there were some wrong assumptions about it b) that the planet is already occupied by a different form of life and there's no warm welcome to us
Man, B is a good problem to have.
Re: Two potentially life-friendly planets found orbiting a nearby star
#165Being that close also offers us a better ability to examine it. The nearer the star, the more arc-seconds (or tiny fractions thereof) the star will appear in telescopes. 12ly is ridiculously close! It also tells us something interesting. If we presume there's nothing special about our little corner of the universe, then the distance to the nearest potentially habitable planets gives us an estimate of how many habitab…
Yes 12 ly is amazingly close! > If we presume there's nothing special about our little corner of the universe, then the distance to the nearest potentially habitable planets gives us an estimate of how many habitable planets are out there I would put a slight caveat to this - I would argue we do know there's something "special" about our little corner of the galaxy , at least - we are in the continuously habitable zo…
Wouldn't each system's star do a decent job of pushing back extra-solar radiation? Up to a point, obviously, but it would seem that planetary background radiation levels aren't a direct function of solar density.
Re: Two potentially life-friendly planets found orbiting a nearby star
#166> The team calculates that one of the planets, called Teegarden’s star b, completed an orbit in a mere 4.9 Earth-days; the other world, Teegarden’s star c, has an orbit of just 11.4 days. I wonder how our understanding of orbital mechanics would have evolved differently had our planet orbited the Sun this fast? If the planets have long days, then they could potentially see in one night what it takes us a full year to…
Just imagine the astrology columns in the local newspapers
Re: Two potentially life-friendly planets found orbiting a nearby star
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Are they exactly at our level of development? If so, then at just 12ly away, we could converse with them within (many of) our lifetimes.
What are the chances that would've already happened given how long we've been sending life made RF off the planet? A 24 year exchange isn't awful.
12 light years is a long way for a signal to go without attenuating into noise.
Re: Two potentially life-friendly planets found orbiting a nearby star
#168The note that it's an old star makes me worry though. If they're older then us, and habitable, were they inhabited? Our current era is a few hundred years of real, directed technological development. A few thousands years either side of that and who knows what we'd be looking at, but you imagine that - hopefully - the general progression of technology is forward. So if they were inhabited, what happened to them? Are…
Do we know that intelligent life is an evolutionary inevitability? Most of these discussions seem to assume that it is, but I haven't read any biologists mention this.
Re: Two potentially life-friendly planets found orbiting a nearby star
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is also assuming A) Human engineering can create something that can last 200+ years of space travel. We don't even build houses anymore that can feasibly last 100 years. 2) People don't go mad and kill each other or do a mutiny III) Any number of stray objects from asteroids to rogue planets that just slams into the ship and causes major malfunctions d) Food and life support sustainability I mean... there are SO…
Meh. 200 years aro they would have called you insane for wanting to fly between continents, let alone to the moon.
They also would have called you crazy for saying you wanted to turn lead into gold with alchemy. Fact is, most of the time the people who say something can't be done are right.
Re: Two potentially life-friendly planets found orbiting a nearby star
#170The note that it's an old star makes me worry though. If they're older then us, and habitable, were they inhabited? Our current era is a few hundred years of real, directed technological development. A few thousands years either side of that and who knows what we'd be looking at, but you imagine that - hopefully - the general progression of technology is forward. So if they were inhabited, what happened to them? Are…
> Are they exactly at our level of development? If so, then at just 12ly away, we could converse with them within (many of) our lifetimes.
Could we?
Despite stellar levels of energy being emitted, this star itself was only detected in 2003. We have to use the Deep Space Network to communicate with probes light-hours away.
I'm no expert so it very well may be possible, but 12 LY is still Very far.