New Earth-Like Planet Discovered

[deathman20]

Id say it's more a problem of energy. The problem is that we're still using fossil fuels. And propulsion techniques are yet to be improved. And aircraft have air to glide on...so tis a bit different...can't use scram jets in space or anything.

Theres ion propulsion drives if not mistaken already. Thought it was used by the Japanese's when they landed on the comet. While it be years before they should even consider it, maybe in 30-50 years we might see something happen.

[nn_step]

Let the space race really begin...

[triple_A]

[...]
The new planet's star system is a mere 20.5 light years away,...

So this planet may have exploded in the past 20.5years right?



Anyway i think its nice we've found some other planet which is pretty much like earth, but I think we should first solve some of the problems on our planet before screwing up another one.
Plus, even if the atmosphere over there is similiar to earth's atmosphere, its still pretty impossible to go there because its pretty far..

[edit]
i just realized that last sentence didn't really add something to the discussion.. so please ignore it

[revenant]

Theres ion propulsion drives if not mistaken already. Thought it was used by the Japanese's when they landed on the comet. While it be years before they should even consider it, maybe in 30-50 years we might see something happen.

well, yes... along those lines.. conventional thrusters burning solid fuels won't do this job.. we need something way more advanced.. like along the lines of solar sail type.. or something.. maybe ... like warp engines.. lol.. but for reals. LUDACRIST SPEED!!!!

[ColdWinter]

Hasn't the interest in space travel generally disappeared over the past years seeing as there's no money to be made and no prestige prizes to be picked up? It seems ages since I heard of new plans to travel to Mars etc. Seeing the way the governments seem to be dragging their heels over the ISS, I'd say the chances of seeing anyone land even on Mars within my lifetime are quite slim. It's times like these when I wish I'd been born at a later time but with my luck, I'll end up on earth just as they set off "Nuclear War No.10".

[Frank M]

If there is liquid water, there is life.

Well, AFAIK the primordial soup theory has been proven faulty - how life formed
on Earth is still a question.

[DeltZ]

I realised ion propulsion already exists...but it's speed of acceleration is pathetic. Takes like.. years to reach a decent speed. But since it's in space it accelerations like...forever:P But we don't want to take forever to get through space...ion drives at this moment are suitable for telescopes which we can just launch and just forget about for a while:P

For me...This is the progression we have to take:

Fossil fuels ---> Nuclear fissioned fuels -----> Nuclear fusioned fuels

then after that it's pretty sketchy..Need to invent some uber fuel cells..Increase great power efficiency. and bigger sources...then antimatter drives to run warp drives but that's anything up to millions of years away.

We just don't know...I can't really comprehend what's between anti matter and nuclear power. .....Batteries which can store a stupid amount of energy which is also solar energy charged and regenerated ... :/ Does really work for me...and while we're making 6 billionths of a gram of anti matter a year and can't store it properly at all...That's not going to be useful for a while.

[revenant]

more on spacecraft propulsion

in other news... so this planet is in Libra.. and all the Libra women I ever dated were pretty hot, so this might just be the land of geek-loving hotties.. whew.

[Metroid]

The way the technology is going. I think it is not far way for a mission to that place

[Quest_7F]

I would like this, yet I wouldn't like it to end up like the world we have now.
rules for new world:

No commercials during television.
No celebrities can move there. We dont need mansions for Angelina Jolies babies.
Noone who pushes beliefs on others.
We have a global army called the space marines.

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

If there is liquid water, there is life.

You wish?

Ryan

[m0da]

The way the technology is going. I think it is not far way for a mission to that place

Naa. A planet ~20 light years away would take 20 years to get there with a velocity equal to the speed of light. now... traveling at the speed of light is not possible, so it'll take longer than 20 years to get there. I do not believe we'll attempt a mission to a place that'll take that long to get to.
an unmanned endeavor might be different. we'll send something, wait ~30 years, then remember how inferior we were 30 years ago with depleted technology. ha... but wait.. communication will take another 20 years to transmit/receive if it is traveling at the speed of light.

so actually, i dont think we'll go through with a mission like this anytime soon, unless we have a dramatic advance in technology.

[NickS]

Very promising though. Maybe in the next ten years or so we can get there in less than 10 years, which could be possible.

The only problem is, how would the astronauts communicate with people @ earth from that far away?

[m0da]

lol... i don't think so!!
traveling FASTER than the speed of light? lol i think at that point, the general theory is that you go back in time!
if we make a time machine, we can do it... o-m-g. hope technology can advance to that :p

[StyM]

i'm going its not that far its only 120 trillion miles away...

[Scimitar]

Deep Space 1 using the Ion Engine reached like 25,000 mph in space. At that rate it would take 6 Billion Hours or 685,000 years to reach this planet. Ion propulsion is cutting edge space propulsion technology.

Don't hold your breath.

[pengizzle]

This planet isnt earth-like. It has a lock-in regarding the rotation around the red dwarf and regarding the planets own turning. In other words: The planet is always showin the same side to the "sun" which means one side of the planet is frozen and one side is hot as hell all the time.

[DFI pit bull]

I don't think we could live on this planet for too long because gravity is stronger there, would put it's toll on our bodies after a few weeks probably we'd have joint and heart problems.


Was just wondering what type of computers they have there

[[XC] Lead Head]

I don't think we could live on this planet for too long because gravity is stronger there, would it's toll on our bodies after a few weeks probably we'd have joint and heart problems.


Was just wondering what type of computers they have there

Well it said 1.6times the force of gravity on earth, so you would weigh 75 lbs instead of 50, or 150 lbs instead of 100. Doesn't seem like THAT much of a big deal to me

[Kingcarcas]

can we pls not go there.
i bet that planet is perfectly fine without us going there and ing it up.

Don't worry, the humans will wipe themselves out before they get a chance to explore this planet

[sladesurfer]

Naa. A planet ~20 light years away would take 20 years to get there with a velocity equal to the speed of light. now... traveling at the speed of light is not possible, so it'll take longer than 20 years to get there. I do not believe we'll attempt a mission to a place that'll take that long to get to.
an unmanned endeavor might be different. we'll send something, wait ~30 years, then remember how inferior we were 30 years ago with depleted technology. ha... but wait.. communication will take another 20 years to transmit/receive if it is traveling at the speed of light.

so actually, i dont think we'll go through with a mission like this anytime soon, unless we have a dramatic advance in technology.

20 years in space is nothing cause you get old slowly up there

[freeloader]

Travelling great distances is not a problem. Just ask some of the aliens at Area 51 how to bend space and time.

Very good find.

[adamsleath]

woohoo; let's go waste another planet by filling it with garbage !!

i'll go; just fill the spaceship with plenty of dehydrated pepperoni pizza's and a ps3 and maybe some good looking chicks to populate the new world...

on second thought just the pizza's and an excercise bike...

probably need a hydroponic system with a water recyc system for generation of high protien fud.

but more realistically you could send a mechanised probe...and we'll get some data back in ..well 100-200 years?? from this planet.....that is just a barely detectable wobble in that star's orbit at the moment

100-200 years there should be no fossil fuels left anyway

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

Well it said 1.6times the force of gravity on earth, so you would weigh 75 lbs instead of 50, or 150 lbs instead of 100. Doesn't seem like THAT much of a big deal to me

you'd develop some beat-your-ass legs in no time.

Ryan

[WRC]

since we haven't set foot on any other planets in our own backyard i don't know how we'll explore this one