Board index › Topical Discussion › Computers, Math, Science, and Technology

New planet discovered orbiting our nearest neighbor.

Page 3 of 3 [ 44 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3

Previous topic | Next topic

ruveyn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Age: 88
Gender: Male
Posts: 31,502
Location: New Jersey

23 Oct 2012, 8:11 pm

If we send a probe to this interesting planet it will get in between 10 and 20 thousand years and send back a report. Do you think there will be anyone to receive and decode it?

ruveyn



Fnord
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 May 2008
Age: 67
Gender: Male
Posts: 60,705
Location: Stendec

23 Oct 2012, 8:48 pm

Good question, Ruve ... in a way, it's kinda like burying a message in a bottle in your back yard and hoping that the property will stay in your family long enough for the people who find the message -- your great^10 grandchildren -- to even know who you were. You will never know if your message is found anyway, so why bury it in the first place?


_________________
 
No love for Hamas, Hezbollah, Iranian Leadership, Islamic Jihad, other Islamic terrorist groups, OR their supporters and sympathizers.


Jono
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 10 Jul 2008
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,643
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

24 Oct 2012, 9:47 am

ruveyn wrote:
If we send a probe to this interesting planet it will get in between 10 and 20 thousand years and send back a report. Do you think there will be anyone to receive and decode it?

ruveyn


We don't have to send a probe there necessarily. Just search for other planets in the Alpha Centauri system.



ruveyn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Age: 88
Gender: Male
Posts: 31,502
Location: New Jersey

24 Oct 2012, 2:03 pm

Jono wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
If we send a probe to this interesting planet it will get in between 10 and 20 thousand years and send back a report. Do you think there will be anyone to receive and decode it?

ruveyn


We don't have to send a probe there necessarily. Just search for other planets in the Alpha Centauri system.


And then? Not too much detail can be picked up at a distance of 4 light years.

ruveyn



Jono
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 10 Jul 2008
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,643
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

25 Oct 2012, 4:31 pm

ruveyn wrote:
Jono wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
If we send a probe to this interesting planet it will get in between 10 and 20 thousand years and send back a report. Do you think there will be anyone to receive and decode it?

ruveyn


We don't have to send a probe there necessarily. Just search for other planets in the Alpha Centauri system.


And then? Not too much detail can be picked up at a distance of 4 light years.

ruveyn


That depends, for example it is possible to study the atmosphere of a transiting planet since one could study the light spectrum of the starlight passing through the planets atmosphere to determine the composition of the atmosphere.



Kurgan
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Apr 2012
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Posts: 4,132
Location: Scandinavia

25 Oct 2012, 6:37 pm

ruveyn wrote:
If we send a probe to this interesting planet it will get in between 10 and 20 thousand years and send back a report. Do you think there will be anyone to receive and decode it?

ruveyn


Humans are intelligent enough to prevent their own extinction, so yes. With that being said, a mission like that would be an incredible waste of time and money, with a very low chance of success.

Maybe one day, in a few thousand years, anti-matter rockets are more than just a theory, though, and the nearest star can be reached in a matter of 40 years.



naturalplastic
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Aug 2010
Age: 69
Gender: Male
Posts: 35,178
Location: temperate zone

25 Oct 2012, 9:09 pm

Fnord wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
DeaconBlues wrote:
Actually, Kurgan, there's some evidence for the proposition that life evolved several times on this world, but was wiped out most of those times by asteroidal and cometary impacts. The early Solar system was not a very comfortable place to be...
Please provide references. Preferably from refereed scientific journals. ruveyn

What?

The History Channel isn't good enough?

:wink:


Every damned textbook, book, magazine, and TV show, Ive ever seen says "life probably started many times on earth but got snuffed out again during the asteroid bombartment phase of the solar system's infancy- but then it started for good".

Indeed it would be hard to imagine that NOT being the case.

The earth was ripe- but was in a shooting gallery.



ruveyn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Age: 88
Gender: Male
Posts: 31,502
Location: New Jersey

25 Oct 2012, 9:09 pm

Kurgan wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
If we send a probe to this interesting planet it will get in between 10 and 20 thousand years and send back a report. Do you think there will be anyone to receive and decode it?

ruveyn


Humans are intelligent enough to prevent their own extinction, so yes. With that being said, a mission like that would be an incredible waste of time and money, with a very low chance of success.

Maybe one day, in a few thousand years, anti-matter rockets are more than just a theory, though, and the nearest star can be reached in a matter of 40 years.


Don't hold your breath waiting for anti-matter propulsion or warp drive.

Ten thousand years from now will there be a human civilization on earth that can decode a report sent back by a proble launched in the current era? Very doubtful. We can't even translate Linear B fully used by the Minoan about 3000 years ago.

ruveyn



Kurgan
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Apr 2012
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Posts: 4,132
Location: Scandinavia

25 Oct 2012, 9:11 pm

naturalplastic wrote:
Fnord wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
DeaconBlues wrote:
Actually, Kurgan, there's some evidence for the proposition that life evolved several times on this world, but was wiped out most of those times by asteroidal and cometary impacts. The early Solar system was not a very comfortable place to be...
Please provide references. Preferably from refereed scientific journals. ruveyn

What?

The History Channel isn't good enough?

:wink:


Every damned textbook, book, magazine, and TV show, Ive ever seen says "life probably started many times on earth but got snuffed out again during the asteroid bombartment phase of the solar system's infancy- but then it started for good".

Indeed it would be hard to imagine that NOT being the case.

The earth was ripe- but was in a shooting gallery.


So is pretty much every young planet within the habitable zone. So how can advanced life be abundant in the universe?

There is no "standard theory" like the big bang or the heat death that's currently attached to the origin of life, allthough many believe that life arose once.



Last edited by Kurgan on 25 Oct 2012, 9:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Kurgan
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Apr 2012
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Posts: 4,132
Location: Scandinavia

25 Oct 2012, 9:19 pm

ruveyn wrote:
Kurgan wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
If we send a probe to this interesting planet it will get in between 10 and 20 thousand years and send back a report. Do you think there will be anyone to receive and decode it?

ruveyn


Humans are intelligent enough to prevent their own extinction, so yes. With that being said, a mission like that would be an incredible waste of time and money, with a very low chance of success.

Maybe one day, in a few thousand years, anti-matter rockets are more than just a theory, though, and the nearest star can be reached in a matter of 40 years.


Don't hold your breath waiting for anti-matter propulsion or warp drive.

Ten thousand years from now will there be a human civilization on earth that can decode a report sent back by a proble launched in the current era? Very doubtful. We can't even translate Linear B fully used by the Minoan about 3000 years ago.

ruveyn


If binary numbers are still used to represent information, then the answer is yes. Don't get me wrong, though; I'm not saying that we should throw an unimaginable amount of money out the window for something that MAY (given that it's not destroyed on the journey, fails to land or faces some kind of malfunctioning) yield results in 10,000 years. In less than 5,000 years, we'll probably be able to launch rockets capable of reaching 0.1—0.15c.



naturalplastic
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Aug 2010
Age: 69
Gender: Male
Posts: 35,178
Location: temperate zone

25 Oct 2012, 9:43 pm

Fnord wrote:
A few statistics:

Alpha Centauri B
  • Mass: 0.907 Sols
  • Radius: 0.865 Sols
  • Luminosity: 0.500 Sols
  • Temperature: 5260°K
  • Rotation: 47 days
Alpha Centauri Bb
  • Discovered; 16 October 2012
  • Minimum mass: 1.13 times Earth's mass.
  • Habitable Zone: No
  • Orbital Radius: 0.4 AU
  • Orbital Period: 3.236 Days
  • Surface Temperature 1200°C (1473°K)
A-Cen-Bb is too hot for liquid water and is also above the melting temperatures of many silicate magmas. This means that A-Cen-Bb is a lava world without an atmosphere -- uninhabitable by humans, and uneconomic for terraforming.



The orbital radius is not "zero point four AU".
Its "point zero four AU" ( four percent of an AU, not 40 percent).

.4 AU would put it at the same distance from its star as Mercury is from the Sun. In fact its ten times closer than Mercury!

Which makes it an even worse place to live than mercury!



Jono
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 10 Jul 2008
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,643
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

26 Oct 2012, 3:11 am

Kurgan wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
Fnord wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
DeaconBlues wrote:
Actually, Kurgan, there's some evidence for the proposition that life evolved several times on this world, but was wiped out most of those times by asteroidal and cometary impacts. The early Solar system was not a very comfortable place to be...
Please provide references. Preferably from refereed scientific journals. ruveyn

What?

The History Channel isn't good enough?

:wink:


Every damned textbook, book, magazine, and TV show, Ive ever seen says "life probably started many times on earth but got snuffed out again during the asteroid bombartment phase of the solar system's infancy- but then it started for good".

Indeed it would be hard to imagine that NOT being the case.

The earth was ripe- but was in a shooting gallery.


So is pretty much every young planet within the habitable zone. So how can advanced life be abundant in the universe?

There is no "standard theory" like the big bang or the heat death that's currently attached to the origin of life, allthough many believe that life arose once.


In order to make statements of probability about how common life is in the universe, one needs to know something about the conditions necessary in order for life to start. I don't think every planet that happens to be in the habitable zone necessarily has all the conditions necessary for life to start but it is likely to be one necessary condition and a good place to start looking.