Most Earth like planet spotted by Kepler

[Jodell88]

The most Earth-like planet yet has been discovered, scientists report in the journal Science.
The rocky planet, Kepler 186f, is close to the size of Earth and has the potential to hold liquid water, which is critical for life, the team says.
Nestled in the Milky Way, it is part of a five-planet system that orbits around a cool dwarf star.
It was spotted by the Kepler telescope, which has found nearly 1,000 new worlds since its launch in 2009.
"This is the smallest planet we've found so far in the habitable zone," said Prof Stephen Kane, an astrophysicist from San Francisco State University, US.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27054366

Very cool. :thumbsup:

 

[Exterous]

Very cool. :thumbsup:

Indeed!

 

[purbeast0]

i find it kind of odd that they assume that liquid water is critical for life on another planet in another solar system. for all we know, other living creatures on other planets might not need anything like water to survive. the life on other planets could very easily be something we simply don't understand or can't grasp concept of yet.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Very cool!

 

[sandorski]

i find it kind of odd that they assume that liquid water is critical for life on another planet in another solar system. for all we know, other living creatures on other planets might not need anything like water to survive. the life on other planets could very easily be something we simply don't understand or can't grasp concept of yet.

A liquid is considered to be important, because it is most probable that you need a moving medium before the basic building blocks of Life can come together. Water is especially interesting, because we know that it has achieved Life at least once.

 

[Ruptga]

i find it kind of odd that they assume that liquid water is critical for life on another planet in another solar system. for all we know, other living creatures on other planets might not need anything like water to survive. the life on other planets could very easily be something we simply don't understand or can't grasp concept of yet.

This comes up every single time this sort of announcement is made.

There is a nearly infinite number of possible forms life could take, but we might as well start by looking for the sorts of life we can recognize.

 

[gorobei]

Neil Degrasse Tyson has gone over this(as well as others i assume):

yes there could be more exotic non carbon-based non amino acid life forms but given the ratio of abundance of elements H, O, C, N, Na, Fe in the universe, the chances of planets having the same ratio is very high. given that earth has a similar ratio to the universe and that life formed here in water, occam's razor suggests that liquid water planets have a higher probability so that should be our starting point.

 

[shortylickens]

i find it kind of odd that they assume that liquid water is critical for life on another planet in another solar system. for all we know, other living creatures on other planets might not need anything like water to survive. the life on other planets could very easily be something we simply don't understand or can't grasp concept of yet.

The DNA we know about needs to form in water over a billion years.

Its mostly guesswork, but right now all we have to go on.

 

[BoberFett]

i find it kind of odd that they assume that liquid water is critical for life on another planet in another solar system. for all we know, other living creatures on other planets might not need anything like water to survive. the life on other planets could very easily be something we simply don't understand or can't grasp concept of yet.

I'm pretty sure we already know about them.

 

[SlowSpyder]

i find it kind of odd that they assume that liquid water is critical for life on another planet in another solar system. for all we know, other living creatures on other planets might not need anything like water to survive. the life on other planets could very easily be something we simply don't understand or can't grasp concept of yet.

There could be all kinds of different forms life in the universe. But so far there is only one combination of conditions that we know for sure has produced life, so we get more excited when we find a planet of that nature.

 

[Agent11]

i find it kind of odd that they assume that liquid water is critical for life on another planet in another solar system. for all we know, other living creatures on other planets might not need anything like water to survive. the life on other planets could very easily be something we simply don't understand or can't grasp concept of yet.

That would be neat, but water is actually pretty unique chemically. Life as we know it relies on these unique properties. (hydrogen bonds, etc.)

 

[Muadib]

With the state of space travel today, we will never know if it has life or not. At least not in our lifetimes.

 

[Feneant2]

With the state of space travel today, we will never know if it has life or not. At least not in our lifetimes.

This is exactly my problem with these annoucements. Seriously, they could have the telescope pointing to an alien on that planet with a sign that says 'Free bacon' and we still wouldn't be able to get there for another 100-200 years.

 

[Paratus]

This is exactly my problem with these annoucements. Seriously, they could have the telescope pointing to an alien on that planet with a sign that says 'Free bacon' and we still wouldn't be able to get there for another 100-200 years.

That's not entirely accurate.

 

[shortylickens]

This is exactly my problem with these annoucements. Seriously, they could have the telescope pointing to an alien on that planet with a sign that says 'Free bacon' and we still wouldn't be able to get there for another 100-200 years.

Several thousand. And thats assuming some super duper fuel source thats renewable along the way, like solar. But mega-solar, ultra efficient.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

i find it kind of odd that they assume that liquid water is critical for life on another planet in another solar system. for all we know, other living creatures on other planets might not need anything like water to survive. the life on other planets could very easily be something we simply don't understand or can't grasp concept of yet.

No other substance has the solvent properties of water. Even if there are forms of life which are completely different from us, materials have to get around. Water fits the bill.

 

[BladeVenom]

500 light-years away. Anyone want to go? Split the gas money.

 

[DesiPower]

 

[Paratus]

I seem to post this every couple of weeks but interplanetary and interstellar travel may not be as far off as some think:

On the bleeding edge we have the Quantum Vacuum Plasma Thruster. Effective ISP in the millions, no on board propellant required. It will need electrical power and a lot of it. With a multi-megawatt nuclear reactor constant meaningful thrust should be available. It would reduce trip times to Mars from months to weeks and outer planets from years to a few months.

Functionally it pushes on the sea of virtual particles that QM says exists.

This assumes the laboratory experiments continue to check out and as space worthy prototype can be made.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_vacuum_plasma_thruster

The research team claims the "Q-thruster" utilizes the quantum vacuum fluctuations of empty space as a "propellant". The existence of quantum vacuum fluctuations is not disputed, because experiments with the quantum mechanical Casimir effect have unambiguously demonstrated that quantum vacuum fluctuations do exist. What remains to be proven is that these fluctuations can be utilized for this practical purpose.[1]

The Q-thruster operates on the principles of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), the same principles and equations of motion used by a conventional plasma thruster. The difference is that the Q-thruster uses the atomic particles spontaneously produced by quantum vacuum fluctuations as its propellant. The atomic particles produced by the fluctuations are subsequently electrically ionized to form a plasma. The now electrically charged plasma is then is exposed to a crossed electric and magnetic field, inducing a force on the particles of the plasma in the E×B direction, which is orthogonal to the applied fields. The Q-thruster would not technically be a reactionless drive, because it expels the plasma and thus produces force on the spacecraft in the opposite direction, like a conventional rocket engine. However, this action does not require the spacecraft to carry any propellant. This theory suggests much higher specific impulses are available for Q-thrusters, because they only consume electrical power and thus are limited only by their power supply's energy storage densities. Preliminary test results suggest thrust levels of between 1000–4000 μN; specific force performance of 0.1 N/kW, and an equivalent specific impulse of ~1x1012 s.[2][3]

On the OMGWTF Scotty! side is the Warp Drive experiment going on:

http://www.decodedscience.com/faster-speed-light-nasa-looks-warp-drive/40698

There are two sets of microscopic warp drive experiments planned at White’s Eagleworks laboratory.
In the current “low fidelity” experiment, NASA is using ordinary positive energy to try and warp local spacetime. A “White-Juday” interferometer splits a laser beam into two beams. Very high energy capacitors are placed around a small region of one beam.
“The light will go through that region as though it seems like a shorter distance.” Dr. White told Decoded Science. “So it takes less time for it to cover that region with the device on versus off.” When the two beams are recombined, detectors look for tiny changes in the interference pattern.
A future experiment will attempt to extract negative energy from the vacuum to warp local spacetime. “We have a line of technology called Q-thrusters, which works off the principle of pushing off of the quantum vacuum.” said Dr. White. “Q-thruster technology has invention disclosures in the NASA system.”
“We hope to adapt that technology to construct some test devices for our interferometer — to get closer to negative (energy and) pressure. This would get us one step closer to something that is non-trivial in magnitude.”

This would be huge, if it's possible. We know from the inflationary period after the Big Bang that space time can expand faster than light. So now the question is can we do the same.

From another thread



TL DR

NASA is working on Warp Drive and Impulse Power.
Not a lot but a small effort.

 

[RaistlinZ]

Gold.

 

[Paratus]

Did you notice this guy: (who just died )

That's not entirely accurate.

Is in the background of this:

 

[LongIslandTech]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27054366

Very cool. :thumbsup:

Awesome!

Thanks for posting.