NASA Announces a Single Star Is Home to At Least 7 Earthlike Planets

[Garnier Fructis]

Not as in "mass" mass, as the object's rest mass remains unchanged. But under special relativity, as energy increases, so must mass....inertia may be more "accurate" rather than mass, to avoid confusion.

Oh, that. Yeah, I'm one of those guys that thinks 'mass' should just be reserved for rest mass, since relativistic mass is essentially just the energy.

[Yvaelle]

Nah, we just need to get off our butts and invent FTL travel already. Or just use one of these, too bad we don't have them either.

Have you dug under all the Antarctic ice yet?

Because otherwise it's incorrect to assume we don't have a Stargate yet

[Tradewind]

Oh, that. Yeah, I'm one of those guys that thinks 'mass' should just be reserved for rest mass, since relativistic mass is essentially just the energy.

It's the inertia yeah, more energy needed for "work" (in our case, momentum) to be done.

[Deleted]

One might argue we are capable of doing so with our current capabilities. The thing is..... we don't.

Expanding forestation, decreasing pollution, taking efforts to return human population output towards past decades and centuries through new technology efficiencies, and so on and so forth we should theoretically be able to reverse changes by reverting the earth towards previous models (so to speak). But we don't and likely aren't gonna.

But we do have the technology to change all of that.

We just don't care.

[Skroe]

It is unfortunate that a bunch of bloggers and shit went crazy with it back a few years ago with the "NASA discovered warp drive!" nonsense.

At the same time it's kind of impressive that shit spread so widely lol.

Yep. It remains deeply irresponsible that they continue to do so as well, even when the papers they cite are far less optimistic than they are.

The human race has had, theoretically, the capability for interstellar travel since the 1970s. It's not overly difficult. You build a 2 million metric ton space vehicle (involving about 200 SLS flights or 1000 Delta IV heavy flights) that carries about 6000 nuclear weapons (each weighing about 300 lbs). And your space vehicle has an abblative pusher plate. You spend 3000 accelerating and 3000 decelerating. That'll get you about to 12%, maybe 15% the Speed of Light. That translates to Alpha Centauri in about 35 years.

If we want to talk science fiction, which is what emDrive is right now, I think the most salient point is that TRAPPIST-1 represents something like the home humanity will want to move to over the next billion years, as this planet loses it's ability to sustain life. We could in theory, sustain a civilization around a Red Dwarf with habitable planets for trillions of years.

[Fat Mac]

Nah, we just need to get off our butts and invent FTL travel already. Or just use one of these, too bad we don't have them either.

once we do discover ftl travel we will be excepted into the galactic community. yay

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Have you dug under all the Antarctic ice yet?

Because otherwise it's incorrect to assume we don't have a Stargate yet

that is why i use the term discover, not invent. i believe the means are out there just not discovered yet. of course then we might need to invent something to put it to use

[Deleted]

Have you dug under all the Antarctic ice yet?

Because otherwise it's incorrect to assume we don't have a Stargate yet

All we found was a frozen Captain America Popsicle & some blue glowing Die :/

[Stormspark]

once we do discover ftl travel we will be excepted into the galactic community. yay

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that is why i use the term discover, not invent. i believe the means are out there just not discovered yet. of course then we might need to invent something to put it to use

The funny thing is, the way the Stargate was described to work in the show is possible within theoretical physics. Of course, actually building one is another matter entirely, because possible or not, it's WAY beyond our technology. Unfortunately the Ancients don't exist in reality as far as I know.

But hey, I'd take a Goa'uld over Trump any day. All hail our alien overlords.

[Gref]

While I was trying to wake up this morning(after the 7th snooze), my Japanese wife with her perfect English explained to my groggy brain that;

Nasa has found that there are 7 balls looking at Earth.

I almost had a heart attack because of an incoming sudden alien invasion. After like 10 seconds I got what she meant. It was of course Nasa found there are 7 planets similar to Earth.

That 7 balls though...

[Zantos]

Fundamentally, the idea that life may have evolved in a radically different way can't be ruled out, but is essentially a useless thing to consider for anyone intending to actually do any analysis or look for life.

Purely from a time saving aspect sure. However, it is not fundamentally useless to be consdiered. Look at our own planet. We have creatures living in the water and on land. Creatures who can live in both realativly easily. Some who live in water, but must come up for air. Some who live at depths in the ocean so great that those very same depths would literally crush anyone from the service who goes there. Creatures who live near volcanoes underwater at temperatures that would again, kill most others. Creatures who live in methane fields. We have creatures so small a microscope needs to be used to see then and those who are giant.

The point I am making is that you only need to look at our planet to see how useful it is to keep in mind that life Probably did evolve in a different fashion the us. In all honesty, going by the standards of our planet is beyond ludicrous and is a massive waste of time and effort. The likelihood that any planet evolved life AND that it is identical enough to ours that we can detect it is beyond low. The only reason they are doing it this was is because it is the only starting point they really have.

[Stormspark]

I am almost certain that @Yvaelle is an Ancient disguising himself as a Shadow Priest lead on a game forum to ascertain the intelligence of the average gamer and report back to the hub.

There are others in other forums... they are trying to figure out if we are worthy of their technology, and that we won't destroy ourselves should we gain access to it... or something...

Personally I'd rather have one of these than a Stargate, even though it's not (normally) FTL capable, Rodney hacks aside.


Or better yet, this

[Puupi]

Oww I got so triggered by those Atlantis screenshots. Damn I miss that show.

[Stormspark]

Oww I got so triggered by those Atlantis screenshots. Damn I miss that show.

Yeah, me too. It's being continued in book form though, as is SG-1.

Universe is getting a third "season" also, via comics. Some of the original writers are doing it. https://twitter.com/MarkHaynes/statu...50704828350464

Looks like Atlantis is getting a new "season" via comics too. http://www.blastr.com/2016-1-25/star...s-comic-series

[Puupi]

Yeah, me too. It's being continued in book form though, as is SG-1.

Universe is getting a third "season" also, via comics. Some of the original writers are doing it. https://twitter.com/MarkHaynes/statu...50704828350464

Bleh... it's not the same. I want it on my TV! I don't understand how SG:U got canceled, the series was good! Stupid Syfy!

[Stormspark]

Bleh... it's not the same. I want it on my TV! I don't understand how SG:U got canceled, the series was good! Stupid Syfy!

MGM went bankrupt and could no longer finance the show. Sadly. And the "sci fi" channel (used very loosely as they don't air sci-fi anymore) wanted to make room for more wrestling and reality TV so they weren't willing to pick it up.

[Auxora]

The insane distance of space is pretty mind blowing. From what I've read, the fastest theoretical probe-type craft (no human crew) we might be able to do now with either huge solar sails or laser propulsion is .1 to .2 the speed of light. And neither of those are proven techs. The other issue is slowing down the probes once they get there so they don't just zip by. But even at those unproven speeds, and those craft are probably 15 years from being launch-ready, you're talking around 200-400 years of travel to get there. So this is a generational thing for our great-great-great-grandkids to hopefully see results from if nothing goes wrong along the way.

That's the irony of space travel and technology. We have to try now, but most likely in 50 years if travel just doubles in speed to .4 the speed of light, a craft launched then would actually pass the earlier launched one and reach the planets much sooner.

Within our lifetimes, we can just hope to speed it up as much as we can and maybe get the ball rolling on a probe, even if we know it will likely get passed up and be moot. For us, the best we can hope for is that and some more concrete information on things like water, atmosphere, oxygen, maybe life-hinting chemicals, etc. from telescopes like the James Webb telescope.

[Garnier Fructis]

The point I am making is that you only need to look at our planet to see how useful it is to keep in mind that life Probably did evolve in a different fashion the us.

The likelihood that any planet evolved life AND that it is identical enough to ours that we can detect it is beyond low.

How can you even begin to quantify this probability?

In all honesty, going by the standards of our planet is beyond ludicrous and is a massive waste of time and effort.

The only reason they are doing it this was is because it is the only starting point they really have.

The reason we are doing it this way, and the reason why it's not 'beyond ludicrous' or a 'waste of time and effort' is that you cannot search for something if you have no idea what you're looking for. We look for life like ours because we understand it well enough that we'll know it when we see it. Astronomical research isn't just looking at pictures, it requires data and interpretation of that data in light of what we know.

[Blobfish]

Who Knows.. In 500 years we may have a real "Miss Universe" contest.

[Stormspark]

The insane distance of space is pretty mind blowing. From what I've read, the fastest theoretical probe-type craft (no human crew) we might be able to do now with either huge solar sails or laser propulsion is .1 to .2 the speed of light. And neither of those are proven techs. The other issue is slowing down the probes once they get there so they don't just zip by. But even at those unproven speeds, and those craft are probably 15 years from being launch-ready, you're talking around 200-400 years of travel to get there. So this is a generational thing for our great-great-great-grandkids to hopefully see results from if nothing goes wrong along the way.

That's the irony of space travel and technology. We have to try now, but most likely in 50 years if travel just doubles in speed to .4 the speed of light, a craft launched then would actually pass the earlier launched one and reach the planets much sooner.

Within our lifetimes, we can just hope to speed it up as much as we can and maybe get the ball rolling on a probe, even if we know it will likely get passed up and be moot. For us, the best we can hope for is that and some more concrete information on things like water, atmosphere, oxygen, maybe life-hinting chemicals, etc. from telescopes like the James Webb telescope.

Space is unimaginably vast. The speeds you have to go to get anywhere are mind boggling. The Asgard O'neill class ship was shown travelling over 200 light years *per second* while towing an Earth ship (Prometheus) in season 6 of SG-1. That works out to over 6 billion times c. It was implied that towing slowed them down significantly too. The Asgard have been shown to be able to go between galaxies in an hour before in the series. That's just mind bogglingly fast. Granted, they don't move in real space (their ships go through hyperspace), but still.

I talked to someone once that believed the plot of Star Wars would work if the Millenium Falcon's top hyperspace speed was 0.5c.

[SirCowdog]

How many light years away and how long would it take for us to get there using current tech?

Good thing you qualified your statement with "current tech", because there's a LOT of very interesting stuff coming in the near future. Google:

Solid Hydrogen
Quantum Drive

also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive

and some of the other stuff that quantum physics are going to make possible Soon(tm).

EDIT: This is what I get for responding after reading only the first page. You guys are already discussing these things. xD