Scientists find "possibly habitable" distant planet

[bobdole369]

Holy necro-thread.

I would say with current engineering and funding we might have a craft available within 10 years, capable of approaching maybe 200000mph, which is a mere fraction of light speed. No way we can do this in our lifetimes, short of a massive undertaking and several leaps of engineering feats.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

I gave it 10 years extra for acceleration, and then padded it with another 15 years for good measure. Of course most of that would be taken up with production. The deceleration I just neglected. We want pictures and fast

If we were going to do accel + decel + 20 yrs for data + 15 yrs to build it'd be more like 125 yrs. Still pretty cool if you think about it.

Of course by then we could probably build something faster and pass it on the way there.

Could you use gravitational slingshots to help with acceleration and deceleration?

Deceleration sucks, because the more you want to decelerate when you get there the more fuel you have to bring, which reduces the acceleration when you are trying to get there making the entire journey take longer...

 

[JTsyo]

Necro thread!

I searched before posting and found this tread. Since it's the same solar system, I figured it would add to the discussion.

 

[rasczak]

So if you are moving at the speed if light and continuosly send a message to earth every seconds, would earth not recieve a message every second?

DP

 

[rasczak]

So if you are moving at the speed if light and continuosly send a message to earth every seconds, would earth not recieve a message every second?

interesting question. I'd like to know as well.

 

[moshquerade]

Necro thread!

But more news on it released today.


I think it would be sooooooooooooo cool to discover intelligent life on another planet.

 

[sandorski]

So if you are moving at the speed if light and continuosly send a message to earth every seconds, would earth not recieve a message every second?

Hmm, I dunno. I think a possibility is that after the Message would take longer and longer to fully receive as the distance became greater.

 

[sandorski]

But more news on it released today.


I think it would be sooooooooooooo cool to discover intelligent life on another planet.

?

 

[AstroManLuca]

I wonder how much time it has left as a habitable planet, considering it's circling around a dwarf star.

"The average temperature on the planet is estimated to be between -31 to -12C, but the ground temperature would vary from blazing hot on the bright side and freezing on the dark side."

That's habitable? How would anyone grow anything for food there?

The temperature would be comfortable along the terminator (the line between light and darkness). Furthermore, a tidally-locked world could be very convenient for power generation - just put a ton of solar panels on the near side.

It would probably be difficult to grow Earth-based crops on such a planet, but the native life would have evolved around the conditions. There would most likely be some life native to the hot side, some native to the cold side, and some that lives along the terminator.

The other thing is that we only know so much about the planet. It might be the right size and distance from the star, but maybe it doesn't have any water. Or maybe the atmosphere doesn't have enough oxygen or it has too much ammonia or carbon dioxide. Any life that would have evolved on that planet would be accustomed to that planet's conditions, of course, but it isn't necessarily habitable to humans. One good thing is that the star is a red dwarf - red dwarfs are extremely long-lived, so there's no chance of the star dying before life has a chance to develop as would be the case for a short-lived star like a blue giant.

 

[moshquerade]

?

besides Earth :sneaky:

 

[sandorski]

besides Earth :sneaky:

?

 

[mizzou]

Hmm, I dunno. I think a possibility is that after the Message would take longer and longer to fully receive as the distance became greater.

i just thought of a test. Have a runner stand by a string on a track. The string wi move in a opposite direction parrallel to the runner.

When the runnerbis stationary, he places his balls on the line in one second intervals. Then with the runner moving at the same speed as the line but in a opposing direction, he still places his balls on the line in one second intervals. The difference in space from moving vs stationary could explain the diff from when msgs are received on earth from a speed of light shuttle.

Have the runner move twice the speed of the line and drop his balls, and there would be an even greater delay

 

[sandorski]

i just thought of a test. Have a runner stand by a string on a track. The string wi move in a opposite direction parrallel to the runner.

When the runnerbis stationary, he places his balls on the line in one second intervals. Then with the runner moving at the same speed as the line but in a opposing direction, he still places his balls on the line in one second intervals. The difference in space from moving vs stationary could explain the diff from when msgs are received on earth from a speed of light shuttle.

Have the runner move twice the speed of the line and drop his balls, and there would be an even greater delay

Ouch.

 

[mizzou]

Ouch.

Based on that , the delay would be immediate and constant, not.something gradual over time, as long as speed is not changed

 

[sandorski]

Based on that , the delay would be immediate and constant, not.something gradual over time, as long as speed is not changed

I'm pretty sure you are correct. I was letting Distance confuse me.

 

[mizzou]

I'm pretty sure you are correct. I was letting Distance confuse me.

I dont understand why speed of light is such a barrier anyway, its just a speed!

 

[AstroManLuca]

i just thought of a test. Have a runner stand by a string on a track. The string wi move in a opposite direction parrallel to the runner.

When the runnerbis stationary, he places his balls on the line in one second intervals. Then with the runner moving at the same speed as the line but in a opposing direction, he still places his balls on the line in one second intervals. The difference in space from moving vs stationary could explain the diff from when msgs are received on earth from a speed of light shuttle.

Have the runner move twice the speed of the line and drop his balls, and there would be an even greater delay

 

[sandorski]

I dont understand why speed of light is such a barrier anyway, its just a speed!

It's a good question and I don't know the answer. I think it probably seems like it due to the limited knowledge we have regarding Propulsion. An ICE or Jet Engine won't work in Space and even if they did I doubt they hold together given some insane RPM required to achieve Light Speed.

Using some kind of Sail would have only Light to work with and Light travels only at Light Speed. Assuming 100% efficiency, the best you could hope for would be Light Speed.

The only way that possibly can exceed Light Speed that we know of are Wormholes/Space Folding. We haven't figured those out yet and when/if we do, that really isn't a Speed and/or would exceed Light Speed so much that it would need it's own standard measurement.

 

[JTsyo]

So if you are moving at the speed if light and continuosly send a message to earth every seconds, would earth not recieve a message every second?

I would think it would be the same as with sound. You don't even need to go the speed of light. Any velocity will do since it will take longer and longer for the signal to reach earth as you move away.

Of course that's not taking into consideration time dilation.

 

[JTsyo]

I dont understand why speed of light is such a barrier anyway, its just a speed!

As you velocity increases you effective mass increases. As you near the speed of light, all the energy in the universe wouldn't be enough to accelerate your further. I would imagine the energy needed grow exponentially.

 

[Lash444]

God, thanks Astro...I am sitting at work laughing uncontrollably.

 

[classy]

I was like, wow this is cool, till I read how far away it is. We will never ever be able to habitate this planet without a major, major, major, discovery in space travel. That planet is really far away.

 

[Fritzo]

It's a good question and I don't know the answer. I think it probably seems like it due to the limited knowledge we have regarding Propulsion. An ICE or Jet Engine won't work in Space and even if they did I doubt they hold together given some insane RPM required to achieve Light Speed.

Using some kind of Sail would have only Light to work with and Light travels only at Light Speed. Assuming 100% efficiency, the best you could hope for would be Light Speed.

The only way that possibly can exceed Light Speed that we know of are Wormholes/Space Folding. We haven't figured those out yet and when/if we do, that really isn't a Speed and/or would exceed Light Speed so much that it would need it's own standard measurement.

I was going to post a detailed answer on why you are not able to go past the speed of light, but this article explains it better than I could:

http://helenair.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/article_3ad30b3c-cb94-11df-87cf-001cc4c002e0.html

The speed of light is the speed limit for our universe. Nomatter how big your rocket engines, no spacecraft could even reachthe speed of light, much less go faster.

Why? What makes this true? Why should there be any speed limit atall?
People used to think that a plane could never break the soundbarrier. Why should the light barrier be any different?

This speed limit, as discovered by Einstein and others, is one ofthe most amazing and extraordinary features of our universe.

It all comes down to this: Light moves in a strange and bizarreway. It moves in a way that is very different from how anythingelse moves.
Normal objects move with a speed that is different for differentpeople, depending on how the people are moving. The speed of a beam of light is the same, no matter how you move relative to it.

If a car is driving toward you at 30 miles per hour, and you runtoward that car at 10 miles per hour, then you are traveling 40miles per hour relative to the car. The speeds of normal objectsadd up in a straight-forward way.
The speed of light isn’t like that.

Every beam of light travels through space at precisely 186,282miles per second. That speed never changes, no matter how you moverelative to the light.

If someone shines a beam of light towards you, and you drive towardthe light, you would expect that, relative to you, the light wouldbe traveling just a little faster. But it doesn’t!

If someone shines a beam of light toward you, and you drive awayfrom the light, you would expect that, relative to you, the lightwould be traveling just a little slower. But it isn’t!

Every beam of light always travels at precisely and exactly thesame speed, no matter how you move. This was discovered in thelaboratory more than 100 years ago, and after a century, thisbizarre result has been double-checked and verified millions oftimes.

But how is this possible? It seems as strange as if a laboratoryexperiment showed that one plus one does not equal two!

Explaining this mystery was one of Einstein’s greatest discoveries.Speed is a relationship between distance and time. If you drive adistance of 100 miles in a time of two hours, then you must havebeen averaging a speed of 50 miles per hour.

Einstein knew that if distances and times are the same foreveryone, then speeds must be relative. However, because the speedof light is not relative, then distances and times must bedifferent for different people.
Something that takes five minutes on my watch might take fourminutes on yours, and six minutes for someone else. The only wayfor every person to measure the exact same speed for every beam of light, no matter how the person is moving, is if times and distances are distorted for different people depending on how theyare moving.

This means that time slows down for fast moving objects as they approach the speed of light. If a person could reach the speed of light, time would stop completely for them.

That’s why no spacecraft could ever accelerate to a speed fasterthan light.

Our universe is a crazy place, organized by a weird and wonderful set of rules. The speed of light is a strange and perplexing thing,which has changed our understanding of even very basic things liketime and distance.

Who knows what we will discover next!

Kelly Cline, Ph.D., is associate professor of astronomy andmathematics at Carroll College.

 

[nerp]

Why do some believe that Earth's conditions are the only ones suitable for life?

Because they haven't studied physics and space.

 

[silverpig]

Could you use gravitational slingshots to help with acceleration and deceleration?

Deceleration sucks, because the more you want to decelerate when you get there the more fuel you have to bring, which reduces the acceleration when you are trying to get there making the entire journey take longer...

You responded to a post I made back in 2007. Kinda time-traveley huh?

Yes you could use gravitational slingshots to help with acceleration and deceleration.