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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

#231

Post by mr_toad »

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 host star is described as very inactive, which probably accounts for the retention of atmosphere.

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

#232

Post by jl6 »

pandoro wrote: post #197
teaearlgraycold wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Exactly. Imagine what would be possible after a billion year of technological evolution, heck even just 100'000 years. We already know that space time metric engineering is theoretically possible within our current understanding of physics, we don't have either the technology or access to energy density necessary to do it. And that's only within our limited understanding of how the universe works.

If you have a billion year long civilization, it would probably be easier to genetically/medically engineer humans to live forever, so that a 75,000 year space voyage doesn’t seem so long. Easier than near-lightspeed space travel at any rate.

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

#233

Post by tsoukase »

I think we should focus at the solution of Fermi paradox, especially the short time window factor. Life on earth evolved for billions of years, while one of it's creatures is capable to receive/send messages to space for only 50. That leads to a factor of billions/50 reduction at the calculated probability of alien life discovery. Multiply that with another billions/xxx at the receiver side, if they are similarly able to communicate for only a few centuries at best. I assume you agree that our and their evolution are independent.

So the new probability becomes quite low, which fits with our (non-)observation of alien life. We might not be alone, but we are far away and very short lived.

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

#234

Post by _puk »

JorgeGT wrote: post #211
brcmthrowaway wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's dead.

Yeah, it seems it's not permanent. You can go here: https://neo.gsfc.nasa.gov/view.php?datasetId=VIIRS_543D&date... and then click on the right side "0.25 degrees 1440 x 720".

https://neo.gsfc.nasa.gov/servlet/RenderData?si=2050444&cs=r...

Direct link

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

#236

Post by fwip »

conductr wrote: post #70
echelon wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This comment encapsulates how poorly we humans are at accepting unknowns. For me, that explains a lot of our belief systems. The fact we can’t just take the unknown but instead have to fill in the blanks with what ifs. and create a narrative like we know anything about the unknown thing. It helps us feel like we understand it more. That’s literally how religions and a lot of other things get created, it’s a pattern,…

I'd argue that it's this same pattern-seeking drive that undergirds science.

"Zeus sends the lightning, his wrath darkening the very sky," is an understandable model that connects "dark storm clouds" to a likely prediction of lightning.

That urge to explain the surprising, to find the pattern, leads directly to our understanding of the cosmos.

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

#237

Post by timbit42 »

peter_stokes wrote: post #204

life does not exist on other planets (not considering contamination). I'll bet on it

The universe is bigger than the part of it we can see. The part we can see is large enough that there statistically has to be life out there, but it's also so large that we'll never sense them let alone communicate with or see them.

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

#238

Post by somedude89897 »

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.

An alternative is to use Earth's atmosphere for imaging exoplanets:

https://www.snexplores.org/article/idea-would-turn-earth-gia...

I started a new thread for further discussion:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48953907

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

#239

Post by jenova-marie »

I'm a bit upset with Science for their current wording of some things. "Super Earth"? Really, what will ever be found out there that's more super than what we have here? Earth absolutely has sisters out there, but what could possibly be better than Her?

I get that super is more a reference to their size, but really? Science, please respect our Earth and don't label large rocks rotating around some distant star more super than what we have right here! I hate that term, it's offensive.

I also feel science has it totally wrong with "looking for life on other planets". Let start acknowledging that it's the planet ITSELF that is alive, not what's living on it's outer skin.

Science will never find life on a dead planet, OBVIOUSLY.

Science should be looking for "Planets that are alive".

Sorry OP, this has nothing to do with your post, the wording it used was appropriate. I do wonder, how can an atmosphere of He form? Helium commets? Must have been.

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

#240

Post by abrookewood »

medler wrote: post #223
JorgeGT wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it seems it's not permanent. You can go here: https://neo.gsfc.nasa.gov/view.php?datasetId=VIIRS_543D&date... and then click on the right side "0.25 degrees 1440 x 720".

Uploaded for the lazy: https://imgur.com/a/0I8f8DG

Looks very cool - thanks
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