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Little Texan
04-24-2007, 11:05 PM
Link (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/25/nearth25.xml)

'Super-Earth' most likely to support life
By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:12am BST 25/04/2007



Astronomers have found a planet on which conditions are the most conducive for extraterrestrial life of any so far discovered.


At 120 trillion miles from Earth, Gliese 581c is likely to be a target for future missions searching for extraterrestrial life


Gliese 581c is the first rocky, Earth-like planet to be observed where water could exist in liquid form, which is seen by scientists as a key ingredient for life.

With a radius only 50 per cent greater than Earth, it is the smallest of approximately 200 planets found outside our own Solar System, known as exoplanets.

Gliese 581c, possibly covered with oceans, is 120.5 trillion miles from Earth in the Libra constellation.

The planet was discovered by the same Swiss, French and Portuguese team that last year identified the first exoplanet in a "habitable zone", a region of space in which the heat from the nearest star is neither too hot nor too cold to sustain liquid water. However HD 69830d, as it is known, is thought to be more similar to Neptune or Uranus than Earth, and less likely to harbour life.

Most of the 213 exoplanets previously discovered have been gas giants and outside the habitable zone.

Stephane Udry, of the Geneva Observatory and leader of the team, said: "We have estimated that the mean temperature of this super-Earth lies between 0 and 40C, and water would thus be liquid."

Xavier Delfosse, a member of the team from Grenoble University in France, said:"Because of its temperature and relative proximity, this planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life.

The discovery was made using HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity for Planetary Searcher), an instrument on a 12ft Southern Observatory telescope on a mountain top at La Silla, Chile.

Little Texan
04-24-2007, 11:13 PM
Another article (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/science/space/25planetcnd.html?hp)

Seshmeister
04-24-2007, 11:24 PM
Not wanting to rain on the parade of this post but I find it a bit confusing.

Apparently it will take at least 11 months to get to Mars which is around 35 million miles away at it's closest point of orbit.

A bit of a back of a cigarette pack maths by myself works this out at 3 142 857 years travel to get to this new planet. Even allowing for me being a bit drunk and that I'm no astrophysicist I see a potential problem...

In the words of Douglas Adams 'Space is big'.


Cheers!

:gulp:

FORD
04-24-2007, 11:27 PM
Well then Zephram Cochran better get that damned warp engine finished!

Seshmeister
04-24-2007, 11:30 PM
Have you just outed yourself as a nerd?

I can't be bothered looking it up...:)

Seshmeister
04-24-2007, 11:32 PM
Fuck it!

I did and you are.

And you spelt his name wrong trekkie...:D

Seshmeister
04-24-2007, 11:34 PM
Fuck I've just realised I must be a semi nerd to have guessed the reference.:)

Panamark
04-25-2007, 12:26 AM
Great discovery if true.

I mean, who would have picked Sesh as a Star Trek Nerd ??

jhale667
04-25-2007, 12:50 AM
Originally posted by Seshmeister
Fuck I've just realised I must be a semi nerd to have guessed the reference.:)

....Takes one to know one. ;)

Seshmeister
04-25-2007, 12:59 AM
Live Long and Drink!

FORD
04-25-2007, 02:15 AM
Originally posted by Seshmeister
Live Long and Drink!

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/images/nv/NVLVEstartrek_3063.jpg

Nitro Express
04-25-2007, 02:27 AM
The Mormons have it figured out. You wear funny underwear and participate in a secret temple cerimony where you wear a Greek styled togo rob, a bakers hat, and a green apron. Once you have mastered the Five Points of Fellowship and know all the signs and tokens, you can make it to that planet after you die.

A fellow Mormon on another planet made it and when you become a God, you can travel the universe.

Man was Joseph Smith smoking some buds or what?

Coyote
04-25-2007, 08:11 AM
Originally posted by Seshmeister
Not wanting to rain on the parade of this post but I find it a bit confusing.

Apparently it will take at least 11 months to get to Mars which is around 35 million miles away at it's closest point of orbit.

A bit of a back of a cigarette pack maths by myself works this out at 3 142 857 years travel to get to this new planet. Even allowing for me being a bit drunk and that I'm no astrophysicist I see a potential problem...

In the words of Douglas Adams 'Space is big'.


Cheers!

:gulp:




Originally posted by FORD
Well then Zephram Cochran better get that damned warp engine finished!


You trekheads familiar with Terence McKenna's "Timewave Zero" theory?
(first 4 minutes)
<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Bu6WFr61I-g"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Bu6WFr61I-g" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

I have a feeling we're going to see some technological breakthroughs in the next 5 years...

Which have been around since the 50's. :D

bueno bob
04-25-2007, 08:36 AM
Norma Cenva'll figure it out. No worries.

We'll be fine getting all over the universe instantly so long as we all make it through the jihad. Still up in the air, but we may actually do alright, considering.

There, nerd yourselves out on THAT one...

Seshmeister
04-25-2007, 10:34 AM
Originally posted by Coyote
You trekheads familiar with Terence McKenna's "Timewave Zero" theory?


Poor man, I wonder if he's now being treated...

Coyote
04-25-2007, 11:32 AM
Originally posted by Seshmeister
Poor man, I wonder if he's now being treated...

McKenna? six feet under since 2000.

Me? The doctor said I'll be released just in time for summer. :hitch:

knuckleboner
04-25-2007, 03:17 PM
Originally posted by Seshmeister
Not wanting to rain on the parade of this post but I find it a bit confusing.

Apparently it will take at least 11 months to get to Mars which is around 35 million miles away at it's closest point of orbit.

A bit of a back of a cigarette pack maths by myself works this out at 3 142 857 years travel to get to this new planet. Even allowing for me being a bit drunk and that I'm no astrophysicist I see a potential problem...

In the words of Douglas Adams 'Space is big'.


Cheers!

:gulp:

nah, you're going REALLY, REALLY slowly. something like 4,000+ mph. way too slow for a probe.

figure we get a smaller, nuclear ion-powered probe up and running. give it 2 years to reach top speed. it'll be going way faster than 4,000 mph. assume we pump the probe up to 50,000 mph. in that case, it'd only take like 274,000 years to reach that planet. and from then, just a scant 20 years for the probe to radio back to earth on what it found...

MUSICMANN
04-25-2007, 04:04 PM
Wormholes, haven't you guys ever watched Stargate. Really though, for a planet to possibly be able to substain life, lord knows what type of screts it may hold.

Little Texan
04-25-2007, 05:19 PM
Originally posted by Nitro Express
The Mormons have it figured out. You wear funny underwear and participate in a secret temple cerimony where you wear a Greek styled togo rob, a bakers hat, and a green apron. Once you have mastered the Five Points of Fellowship and know all the signs and tokens, you can make it to that planet after you die.

A fellow Mormon on another planet made it and when you become a God, you can travel the universe.

Man was Joseph Smith smoking some buds or what?

The scary thing is there are many people who actually believe that horseshit!

bastardog
04-25-2007, 05:36 PM
That is good news!
we can keep destroying our planet and then send our baby sons to that planet in a homemade spaceship that looks like a rock.

Remember to include some kind of video for him o remember you. (DVD, Blueray or some strange cristal stik)

Seshmeister
04-25-2007, 07:07 PM
Originally posted by knuckleboner
nah, you're going REALLY, REALLY slowly. something like 4,000+ mph. way too slow for a probe.

figure we get a smaller, nuclear ion-powered probe up and running. give it 2 years to reach top speed. it'll be going way faster than 4,000 mph. assume we pump the probe up to 50,000 mph. in that case, it'd only take like 274,000 years to reach that planet. and from then, just a scant 20 years for the probe to radio back to earth on what it found...

About 4000mph is the speed of the proposed Mars mission.

It's funny to see the phrase 'only 274 000 years'...:)

Just in time for a Van Halen reunion!

knuckleboner
04-26-2007, 01:07 PM
yeah, that was my whole point of using the "ONLY." :D

i thought the same thing as you when i read the article, "likely to be a target for future missions." ...what?! it's 125 TRILLION miles away. that's not a target.


and i think the mars mission is projected at 4,000mph because 1) it's a HELL of a lot bigger: it's supposed to be including a number of humans. and 2) it won't actually have a long period of time with which to accelerate.

i used 50,000 mph because the voyager spacecraft are currently moving at about 44,000mph.

Little Texan
04-26-2007, 05:19 PM
From the other linked article:


“It’s 20 light years. We can go there,” said Dimitar Sasselov, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who studies the structure and formation of planets.

He's talking like it's only a few thousand miles away, we can send a probe there. Does he have any clue how far away 20 light years is? And this fucker is supposed to be smart?

Viking
04-26-2007, 05:31 PM
20 light years. I guess I shouldn't uninstall my SETI@home software just yet....... :D

ace diamond
06-25-2007, 03:24 AM
Originally posted by Seshmeister
Live Long and Drink!

:guzzle: :dork: :lol:

agreed!

Hardrock69
06-25-2007, 09:13 AM
I say Live Long And Toke!
:D
http://www.blogstudio.com/woodgnome/SPOCK.jpg