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http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/story/2011-12-05/nasa-finds-planet-that-could-sustain-life/51656310/1

Enjoy

Meh, it's probably full of acid or the populace is jerks. I don't like the cut of its job.

Interesting.....

Whoa, cool. If only we had the means of getting there.

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of an Earth-like planet in the "habitable zone" around a star not unlike our own.

The planet, Kepler 22-b, lies about 600 light-years away and is about 2.4 times the size of Earth, and has a temperature of about 22C.

It is the closest confirmed planet yet to one like ours - an "Earth 2.0".

Big news, but play the odds: there are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the Universe. Each galaxy has between 10 million and 100 trillion stars. So there are roughly 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the Universe. So there's bound to be more than a few earth-like planets knocking around the cosmos.

ShumaGorath wrote:Meh, it's probably full of acid or the populace is jerks. I don't like the cut of its job.

You meant "jib" right? Don't worry apples ode to the devil, autocorrect, gets me all the time too.

And only 600 light years away.Sign me up! Spin up the FTL...oh I guess we're really putting the cart before the horse here. How's about we land on Mars you know the next planet out, before we get exited about a habitable planet 6 lifetimes away...you know traveling at the speed of light.

The NewScientist article on it

Location for dakkacon 2013 anyone?

Can't they like superglue extra telescopes at the end so they can zoom in and see if there was even any life there 600 years ago?

Necros wrote:Can't they like superglue extra telescopes at the end so they can zoom in and see if there was even any life there 600 years ago?

That'd be a stupid idea.

You'd have to use something like duct tape instead of super glue.

ShumaGorath wrote:Meh, it's probably full of acid or the populace is jerks. I don't like the cut of its job.

Yea, you don't want to travel 600 light years just to find out that the planet is populated by alien babes who are all 6's or less...

Yay! A whole new world of new friends and happy times!

Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure...

purplefood wrote:Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure...

Awww, you're so mean.

CuddlySquig wrote:

purplefood wrote:Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure...

Awww, you're so mean.

You should see me on a Thursday...

Rule one of purplefood, no thursdays.

Awesome. GOOD WORK KEPLER!!!! Though other planets in the habitable zone have already been discovered. (Gliese 581 system, and a few other gas giants)

Also nobody made a thread about the new mars rover, Curiosity, which launched not too long ago.

purplefood wrote:Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure...

Come on my friend, sholdn't we get there first. Rape it for all the natural resorces it has, inslave or wipeout the indigious population, then convince them that only Jesus can save them first? Then nuke it from orbit to be shure.. isn't that the usual way things go with humans?

FabricatorGeneralMike wrote:

purplefood wrote:Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure...

Come on my friend, sholdn't we get there first. Rape it for all the natural resorces it has, inslave or wipeout the indigious population, then convince them that only Jesus can save them first? Then nuke it from orbit to be shure.. isn't that the usual way things go with humans?

...to be sure it's an Earth like planet.

People from there have probably a;ready come here, decided we're all too violent and stupid to deal with and went back home. If we show up in their space uninvited, we'll probably be the ones getting nuked from orbit.

What good would it get us if we could go there, with a mass up to 36 times more then earth it would be impossible to land there and survive.

Pyriel- wrote:What good would it get us if we could go there, with a mass up to 36 times more then earth it would be impossible to land there and survive.

Depends on the planet's volume, since gravity is a function of density rather than mass. Doing some (very) quick math by the estimates they gave, the gravity there should be about 5.5 times stronger than ours. Fairly brutal, but humans can survive worse. Landing would be a pain in the ass, of course.

This calls for a crusade .

FabricatorGeneralMike wrote:

purplefood wrote:Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure...

Come on my friend, sholdn't we get there first. Rape it for all the natural resorces it has, inslave or wipeout the indigious population, then convince them that only Jesus can save them first? Then nuke it from orbit to be shure.. isn't that the usual way things go with humans?

I'm not entirely sure.

Did we do this to the last planet we invaded?

being in the habital zone really doesn't mean much. its just one of a laundry list of requirements for life.

1) Does it have a molten iron core so it can have a stable magnetic field to block harmful solar radiation?

2) Does it have water?

3) Does it have an atmosphere at all? and is said atmosphere not filled with compounds toxic to life? The same goes for the surface.


The first reason is why mars presents a potential problem for colonization. Solar Radiation, even accounting for the greater distance between the sun and Mars, would be encountered in amounts that are harmful to life. All the other problems with Mars can be potentiall fixed, but not this one. Temperature can be raised by releasing all the CO2 locked in the polar ice caps, Plants can create a breathable atmosphere, but the Solar Radiation will be a problem.

purplefood wrote:

FabricatorGeneralMike wrote:

purplefood wrote:Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure...

Come on my friend, sholdn't we get there first. Rape it for all the natural resorces it has, inslave or wipeout the indigious population, then convince them that only Jesus can save them first? Then nuke it from orbit to be shure.. isn't that the usual way things go with humans?

...to be sure it's an Earth like planet.

Yea I see his point, if we nuke it and everything survives, well then, they certainly ARNT human like in any way possible. But yea, the smart thing first, would be to drop from the heavens in our awesome space ships of coolness, proclaim ourselves the creators, and tell them to give us anything we ask for! Such as incredibly valuable fossil fuels buried deep beneath the ground!

And if they seem to be too advanced for that....well then......NUKE FROM ORBIT!

Consider this, the last major extinction event on this planet was about 65 million years go. No species over 25 kg survived. Let's say for the sake of argument that Earth 2.0's last major extinction event was 100 million years ago. They'e got a 35 million year evolutionary head start on us. We're fethed.

Even if we wanted to live there we probably would not be able to, there would probably be a different ammount of gases in the air for a start.

So if there were say a advance life form already there.....could their crusade be on its way towards us?

olympia wrote:Consider this, the last major extinction event on this planet was about 65 million years go. No species over 25 kg survived. Let's say for the sake of argument that Earth 2.0's last major extinction event was 100 million years ago. They'e got a 35 million year evolutionary head start on us. We're fethed.

Consider this, what you just said, but in reverse! Now WE have the 35 million year head start on THEM. Your mind, just been blown


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Jihadin wrote:So if there were say a advance life form already there.....could their crusade be on its way towards us?

By crusade you mean, giant super "men" in power armored suits, finally coming to include us in their ways? Then yes, bring it on. I want to be a commissar

KingCracker wrote:




Consider this, what you just said, but in reverse! Now WE have the 35 million year head start on THEM. Your mind, just been blown