NASA and NSF-Funded Research Finds First Potentially Habitable Exoplanet

I'm actually from andromeda. it's a hell of a drive.

  On 10/1/2010 at 12:26 PM, slightlydrybeans said:

 

In essence that pretty much means that humans will never leave this galaxy. Even if we left now at the speed of light we would not be human any more when we arrived due to the forces of evolution. Even if we could travel that fast, there is virtually zero energy in the space between galaxies, meaning no stars, very little matter, and nothing to capture power from. There is no way to possibly carry enough energy for a 2 million year trip haha.

 

Technically not true, there is this so called vacuum energy, as vacuum isn't really empty as there are virtual particles doing their stuff constantly. The hurdle would be to somehow harness this energy.

20 light years away, I head off soon then.

we need a warp drive now wheres johnny cockran

  On 9/30/2010 at 9:14 PM, kaini said:

  On 9/30/2010 at 7:31 PM, Gary C said:

  On 9/30/2010 at 7:16 PM, kaini said:

  On 9/30/2010 at 4:54 PM, Obel said:

I wonder what would be the best way to have faster communication between galaxies? Right now it'd take days or weeks or something for something as simple as an email surely..

 

I wonder if they'd "drop" satellites from the ship as it flies or something?

 

if something is 20 light years away, the absolute minimum for information to make a round trip is 40 years regardless of method. information cannot travel faster than light. there's thoughts you could use quantum entanglement for instantaneous communication, but it's very very theoretical stuff.

 

I've always figured quantum entanglement could lead to an astro morse-code. If two people in different places watch the same atom and measure the changes maybe you could compose a message.

But yeah, that's insanely difficult to put into action, but when you do it does open up the ability to instantly communicate and travel.

 

some of the more interesting ideas on what to use quantum entanglement for are actually coming out of sci-fi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansible

Holy shit. That article raises a mind-blowing point.

"The theory of special relativity predicts that any such device would allow communication from the future to the past, which raises problems of causality. For this reason, most physicists believe that they will eventually be proven impossible."

If we were to instantly communicate across massive distances it would be akin to time-travel. Unless instant teleportation existed at the same time; you'd read a message from a distant star and by the time you got there it'd be XXX million years too late.

Well, I dunno actually. But there's definitely scope for some sort of sappy sci-fi about long-distance relationships.

  On 10/1/2010 at 3:18 PM, Gary C said:

Well, I dunno actually. But there's definitely scope for some sort of sappy sci-fi about long-distance relationships.

Hoshi no Koe (english title - Voices from a Distant star)

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  On 10/1/2010 at 1:49 PM, sup said:

we need a warp drive now wheres johnny cockran

lol! best dupe ever

I want no part in this and you better not too!

Outer space sounds satanistic!

  On 10/1/2010 at 3:24 PM, delet... said:

This picture is quite amazing.

Unubtanium or GTFO.

no, sup was right, best chance of faster than light travel is the warp drive. miguel alcubierre has theoretically worked out the initial maths (look up alcubierre warp drive), but his calculations require an almost infinite amount of energy which is obviously not really feasible. there has since been revisions to his theory which achieve the same warp bubble with just the energy of a few solar masses which is obviously still way beyond our reach at the moment, but much better than the infinite amount previously needed. his warp theory also negates any causality problems as you are travelling in a warp bubble in real space in real time. anyway, we need to work out a matter/antimatter reactor for this kind of shit.

*works on it*

Don't come out till your done BCM, K? Thx

avatar ftw.

holy shit dear god that is a fucking ridiculous avatar I didn't more than glance at it. haha wow

  On 9/30/2010 at 5:19 PM, Rambo said:

  On 9/30/2010 at 4:44 PM, Hoodie said:

i've heard that the problem with long term freezing is that it makes most of your cells burst. i don't see how that could be fixed.

 

Wait, is that the thing where ice crystals form? I remember reading that certain creatures have been discovered to have evolved in a way (cant remember the details) that ice crystals didn't form in their cells when they are frozen. So in effect, the could be frozen indefinitely. So it's not unheard of. I'd imagine this is an area they are going to study. Freezing people to do operations or to do other wacky treatments seems to be a bit of a hot area of research at the moment i've noticed. Seems to be a fair bit happening.

So, it turns out there's already been some progress here since this thread was made, they're not fucking around. Naturally they are using fucking magnets of course. That's right, they're using fucking magnets.

Food Freezing Technology Preserves Human Teeth. Organs Next?

Looks like another "Goldilocks" exoplanet just discovered: http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/newly-discovered-alien-world-tops-the-list-of-closest-most-earth-like-exoplanets/30290/

The OP made reference to Zarmina (Gliese 581g), but from what I understand it may not be inhabitable after all because it is tidally locked, so one side's constantly facing its star (which could be too hot for human survival), while the rest is basically ice. This temperature difference could also create very strong winds. This is also supposedly why it would look like a giant eyeball in space.

On tidally locked planets, what would the border between the dark and light side be like? It would be cool if it would be somehow habitable and there would be just a thin ring around the planet where life would exist.

double post

my girlfriend freaks out at me every time i say i would love to go in to space. like its ever gonna happen!

i offered myself up to richard branson as a test passenger for his space flight thing, sadly never heard back :(

Tip: if you want to keep your gf you should stop giving hints you would leave this planet the first opportunity you can get. Saying that basically says: "FU GF! I don't give a f#ck!".

  On 9/30/2010 at 8:15 AM, Oscar said:

watmm meetup?

yes!

  On 6/26/2014 at 11:27 AM, azatoth said:

On tidally locked planets, what would the border between the dark and light side be like? It would be cool if it would be somehow habitable and there would be just a thin ring around the planet where life would exist.

check this paper out: http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~rtp1/papers/Gliese581gPalletesApJL2011.pdf

it introduces you to some possibilities for gliese's atmosphere and composition and then determines which of these planets would be the most habitable.

The only way this will happen is if we tell Congress it's necessary to prevent terrorism.

  Quote

Given its mass, it has a much higher gravity (around 18 times what we experience here on Earth), and thus it would likely retain a much thicker atmosphere.

And would also mean it would be a bit harder to go for a walk...

  On 6/26/2014 at 11:27 AM, azatoth said:

On tidally locked planets, what would the border between the dark and light side be like? It would be cool if it would be somehow habitable and there would be just a thin ring around the planet where life would exist.

I thought about that too. That "ring" on Zarmina is more or less like our Equator, but could have enough temperature balance to support life. But the rest of the planet might have too extreme of a climate, so only that small percentage would be inhabitable.

http://www.universetoday.com/112925/a-brief-history-of-gliese-581d-and-581g-the-planets-that-may-not-be/

the planets aren't real. oh well. i'm sure there's a bunch of earth-like planets in the universe considering how many star systems there must be.