FSTDT Forums
Community => Science and Technology => Topic started by: Star Cluster on February 07, 2013, 02:56:04 pm
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As technology advances and search parameters refine, smaller and smaller planets circling other stars are being found nearby. An earth-size planet has been detected only 13 lightyears away. (http://news.discovery.com/space/alien-life-exoplanets/kepler-exoplanet-second-earth-next-door-130206.htm#mkcpgn=emnws1) While still an insurmountable distance with our current technology, it is still exciting for these other worlds to be found.
Who knows? Maybe soon we will be able to detect if another civilization is out there. Contact may not be possible, but could you imagine the implications if we were to positively conclude that we are indeed living in a populous universe? I would love it.
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Or if space travel technology advanced ebought to cross that distance in less than a generation. We could colonize another planet!
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Or if space travel technology advanced ebought to cross that distance in less than a generation. We could colonize another planet!
We'd also need to be able to analyse the ecology of the planet in great detail from all the way over here if that's ever going to happen. Doesn't seem very likely to me.
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If we got some MAJOR advances in our space technology this could be really cool to have viable planets or maybe even other civilizations as pretty much galactic next door neighbors.
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It
would will still take a lot of work to make colonization practical. We're likely to start off sending probes to get a look at the planet itself, then likely use something more in the line of a robot to start terraforming remotely, and only start sending colony ships once the brute work is done. We're talking centuries of work.
Hell of a payoff, though.
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... wow. Science does amazing things.
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Why would we colonize another planet? I can't think of another planet that's done anything to us.
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Why would we colonize another planet? I can't think of another planet that's done anything to us.
You good sir have earned a "fuck yeah".
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It would will still take a lot of work to make colonization practical. We're likely to start off sending probes to get a look at the planet itself, then likely use something more in the line of a robot to start terraforming remotely, and only start sending colony ships once the brute work is done. We're talking centuries of work.
Hell of a payoff, though.
Barring some major catastrophe that kills a large chunk of the human population, yet leaves the Earth still largely habitable, we're gonna have to go to other planets, eventually. Even if we completely cut our dependence on all non-renewable fuels and can make food out of energy, we're gonna reach a point, population-wise, where one of two things will have to happen: we spread to other planets, or we enforce population control like what's seen in Ender's Game, perhaps even worse.
Personally, for the simple sake of freedom, I much prefer the former over the latter. Plus, space travel kicks ass.
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It would will still take a lot of work to make colonization practical. We're likely to start off sending probes to get a look at the planet itself, then likely use something more in the line of a robot to start terraforming remotely, and only start sending colony ships once the brute work is done. We're talking centuries of work.
Hell of a payoff, though.
Barring some major catastrophe that kills a large chunk of the human population, yet leaves the Earth still largely habitable, we're gonna have to go to other planets, eventually. Even if we completely cut our dependence on all non-renewable fuels and can make food out of energy, we're gonna reach a point, population-wise, where one of two things will have to happen: we spread to other planets, or we enforce population control like what's seen in Ender's Game, perhaps even worse.
Personally, for the simple sake of freedom, I much prefer the former over the latter. Plus, space travel kicks ass.
This also SPACE NAVY come on people do not deprive me of the chance to captain a star-ship into the unknown!
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The universe is our oyster, people.
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Reading closer, we haven't actually found any planets within 13 light years. It's just that statistic analysis suggests that there's at least one in the goldilocks zone within 13 light years of Earth. Which means that one could be closer. Or there might not be any that close at all.
Of course, that's just looking at a single type of star. Other stars, including ones more similar to our own star, are not included in this analysis. So it's looking good for the presence of nearby planets.
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STill hoping for something around Alpha Centauri. Just the main issue is that the sun is like this huge big, blinding source of light that blocks out signals from planets, which doesn't help that their light signals come from light from their sun bouncing off them.
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The majority of planets are gas giants. We are much more apt to find hospitable moons than planets, imho.
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The majority of planets are gas giants. We are much more apt to find hospitable moons than planets, imho.
When exoplanets were first being discovered, you are correct. The large gas giants were easier to detect with the then availible methods. But that was 15 or so years ago and detection methods have improve to the point that smaller and smaller rocky worlds are being found.
The article in the OP is about small rocky worlds that have been found in the habitable zone of their star which are, by astronomical distances, quite close. Still way to far away for us to get to them any time soon, but exciting none-the-less. As I said earlier, perhaps it won't be too long before we find undeniable evidence of life on one of them. THAT would be monumental.