New planet discovered orbiting our nearest neighbor.

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I've just read this article about the possible discovery of a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B. It's unfortunately too close to the star to be in the habitable zone, however given that a planet of similar size further away would of had too small of an effect on the star to be detected by the same method, there could be other planets in the Alpha Centauri system as well. Since the Alpha Centauri system is a triple star system, I guess you could think that this planet has three suns. Although technically, Alpha Centauri B is the sun because that's the one it's orbiting. Here's the news article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/17/science/space/new-planet-found-in-alpha-centauri.html?_r=1&

With current rocket technology it would take over 10,000 years for an earth launched probe to reach this planet (about 4 light years from us) and an addition 4 years to receive any data sent back. Do you think our civilization will still exist by that time?

ruveyn

Only one way to tell, do nothing, wait and see.

It is the journey not the destination. Going anywhere is far beyond human lifespan, so we have to become Spacefaring.

Building a ship that will last 10,000 years, a closed system for water, air, food, to support several hundred, for three hundred generations or so.

The planet in the article is is not a good bet. for all the tech that has located planets, none are suitable for human life.

As practice build a ship to orbit the Moon, support several hundred, and another at the gravatational null point between. Stepping stones, and working toward orbiting Mars, other planets, and mining the Asteroid Belt.

We have to colonize space, not other worlds.

I would say the odds are this planet will become available. Species reach their greatest numbers just before vanishing forever. Might have to wait a thousand years, but this one is the right size.

Testing things like what becomes of third generation space born, is needed before sending some on long trips.

Odds on, we will find something that seems right, long before we find a faster method to get there.

Send the brightest and best, and they will reproduce their ancestors, many who were dull witted and dangerous. the ship has to run on auto pilot for 10,000 years or more, and Windows 8 is not up to the task. Self replicating computers, near organic hull repairs, and a ship that can defend it's self from the passengers.

Any Earth like planet with life, our biology will not match.

An iffy project all around.

I didn't say anything about sending a probe there. Yes, there would need to some breakthroughs in propulsion technology in order for unmanned probes to extrasolar systems to become feasible, even if it's just to the Alpha Centauri system.

Apparently the vast majority of Stars have planets orbiting them. Are you more interested in extrasolar planets than black holes?

We don't know that yet. About 2000 exoplanets have been found (by indirect means). There are 100 billion stars in our galaxy (give or take). We have not been able to examine more than a small fraction of the stars in our galaxy, and we could not detect a wobble if the star is sufficiently far away or is of low luminal magnitude.

ruveyn

Imagine how excruciating it would be to operate a rover there.

I am with inventor though. Keep on working on colonising the solar system until we figure out warp drive/ wormhole control.

Then there is the much overlooked option of cryogenics. Sure it wouldnt make a jot of difference to us here in old 2012 AD but at least we would get to spread our progeny among the stars.



It may also be needed to have a ship that can defend itself from hostile ET attacks too. Not that is statistically likely, but it would be highly unwise to venture into the heavens 'without teeth'.

Basically what we are talking about is a flying ark that can sustain a autonomous society with its own culture, government and defence force.

Don't bet serious money on that outcome. It is more science fiction than science possibility. While I would not absolutely rule such a development out, I do not seriously think any such thing will happen in the next ten generations.

ruveyn

I don't know - this paper looks rather promising (although obviously its promise hinges on the eventual outcome of the experiments that are building at APPL:E): link (caution: moderately crunchy math ahead)

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.

It might have undiscovered sister planets within the habitable zone--just like Venus has Earth as it's sister planet.

I'm not saying that there's a large chance for life around Alpha Centauri B, though. Given that life evolved once in four billion years and that eukaryotes evolved into prokaryotes only once, life must be rare.

When we talk about "life", we don't necessarily mean multi-cellular life. The eukaryotes and procaryotes were life too.

I'm well aware of that. But please bear in mind that eukaryotes developed ONCE on earth--the only planet in our solar system capable of sustaining life for a significant amount of time, which must mean that life isn't everywhere in the universe. It wouldn't suprise me if it were several hundreds of light years between every planet with eukoryotic life and more than a billion light years between intelligent life forms.

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?