Nobody posts in Science, so I figured I'd share it here

Started by NeuraltNätverk, July 28, 2010, 01:09:15 AM

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NeuraltNätverk

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/kepler-earth-like-exoplanets-100722.html

The astronomer Dimitar Sasselov is claiming the Kepler telescope has found a whole bunch of terrestrial extrasolar planets. It has found a few, definitively, but of the "hundreds" he mentioned in a recent TED Talk, nearly all are still candidates. It's expected that a goodly number are going to be false positives.

Still it's pretty good news overall.
"Uhh ... we should put it out something that it likes and then when it comes to get it we can kill it."
"Oh yeah heh heh ... cool ... um heh ... what do flies like?"
"Uhh ... they like garbage and crap."
"Oh yeah yeah heh heh ... flies are pretty cool sometimes, yeah eh heh heh."

Tompa'Ivong

Its that age old question, but we know that we arent alone, have you heard the recent research about some of our own planets and moons in our solar system, Lava tubes on Mars and the moon would provide protection from solar radiation, and Jupiter's moons, mainly Ganymede and Europa are promising for sources of water, and its highly likely that Europa likely has a Liquid Ocean, this is almost completely plausible due to tidal forces acting on the water, and this could imply that some of these moons are geologically active, like Io.  The only reason Earth doesn't spin around like a crazy top is cause of our own moon, if not we would be subjected to the pull of the Sun and Jupiter


"peu to fwa tskxefa ayuti ska'a lu sìltsan? Tskxe a kllkxem ulte fpi nga ayuti ska'a.
—Toggo, goblin weaponsmith

NeuraltNätverk

#2
Not necessarily. From the book Life Everywhere by David Darling:



What's more uncertain is whether "super-Earths" exhibit plate tectonics, an element of vital importance in not turning out like Venus:

http://www.geotimes.org/feb08/article.html?id=nn_tectonics.html
"Uhh ... we should put it out something that it likes and then when it comes to get it we can kill it."
"Oh yeah heh heh ... cool ... um heh ... what do flies like?"
"Uhh ... they like garbage and crap."
"Oh yeah yeah heh heh ... flies are pretty cool sometimes, yeah eh heh heh."

Ekirä

The thought of finding a planet (or moon) that has life on it is just so incredibly thrilling I can't comprehend it ;)

It would be so cool if we could get space travel to be fast enough that we could go check out 'Pandora'. As it is now, I read that it would take 70,000 years to get to the Alpha Centauri system.......

Maybe in 2154 we'll be able to do cryogenics AND get there in only 6 years :)

NeuraltNätverk

There is actually a moon in our own solar system called Pandora but it's probably a ball of ice. Bodies eyed up for harboring at least microbial life are Europa, Titan, and Enceladus. (Give or take a few, Carl Sagan suggested that Jupiter might be populated with herds of gasbags and some think microbes are tucked away somewhere on Mars.)

When I was at the CFI Leadership Conference some weeks ago someone told me that relativity might be a limiting case of something we don't quite know yet in the same way that classical physics is a limiting case of relativity and, as such, faster than light travel might be possible somehow, but I don't know enough about it to say anything else.

ps the Centauri system will be on the shortlist for the Terrestrial Planet Finder mission come 2020
"Uhh ... we should put it out something that it likes and then when it comes to get it we can kill it."
"Oh yeah heh heh ... cool ... um heh ... what do flies like?"
"Uhh ... they like garbage and crap."
"Oh yeah yeah heh heh ... flies are pretty cool sometimes, yeah eh heh heh."

Tsa'räni

I think you should have posted this in Science.  Even if few post there, some do check it (including me) and will post when there is something to post about.  Posting this here only furthers the low usage of that section rather than helping it.

Anyway, there are plenty of theories about FTL travel.  The next big thing coming down the pipe, hopefully, will be the LHC either providing evidence for the Higgs boson or finding none.  The latter would be rather upsetting to mainstream particle physics.  We could really use some evidence that it exists, since it's the last currently remaining undetected particle in the Standard Model.

That's really the next step - does the Higgs boson exist or is the Standard Model wrong?

NeuraltNätverk

Wouldn't it make more sense to disband a rarely-used forum section but then allow posting about it in GD
"Uhh ... we should put it out something that it likes and then when it comes to get it we can kill it."
"Oh yeah heh heh ... cool ... um heh ... what do flies like?"
"Uhh ... they like garbage and crap."
"Oh yeah yeah heh heh ... flies are pretty cool sometimes, yeah eh heh heh."

Tsa'räni

If people continue to refuse to post in it, yes.  But you're perpetuating the problem rather than helping it.  What's really sad is this thread is actually capable of generating some real discussion, unlike the other threads there.  But you posted it here.

NeuraltNätverk

Woops fail. Maybe I can appeal to a moderator to move it?
"Uhh ... we should put it out something that it likes and then when it comes to get it we can kill it."
"Oh yeah heh heh ... cool ... um heh ... what do flies like?"
"Uhh ... they like garbage and crap."
"Oh yeah yeah heh heh ... flies are pretty cool sometimes, yeah eh heh heh."

Ftiafpi

Now that people know about this topic I agree, moving to science.