1 PM EST: NASA to Host News Conference on Discovery Beyond Our Solar System

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-host-news-conference-on-discovery-beyond-our-solar-system

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maybe move to space thread if it's nothing huge (like life in a another planet)

speculate!

ALIENS!

Neil Tyson said on Joe Rogan it could be the discovery of oxygen in the atmosphere of one of the planets on the alpha centauri system

Could be someting.

Or nuttin.

I hope they found my will to live

it starts now!

they've found 7 earth size planets orbiting a star 40 light years away (trappist 1) and 3 of them are in the habitable zone.

  On 2/22/2017 at 6:53 PM, Kidrodi said:

I hope they found my will to live

That's pure science fiction

  On 2/22/2017 at 6:53 PM, Kidrodi said:

I hope they found my will to live

sad lol.

the windshield is a lot bigger than the rear view mirror kid.

It would be neat if we could start sending drones or rovers to these exoplanets. But I can't imagine how one would go about funding that kind of venture. Currently it seems that most of the wealth necessary to fund it has wound up in the wrong hands.

jk jk

This is really cool though. Elon better get on that shit and take us there while I'm alive

all of the planets have nicknames of belgian beers. i like these scientists

this is probably just the early trickle of a discovery before the floodgates really open in the coming decades, we'll have discovered hundreds of systems with habitable planets before too long.

one weird thing about this system is how close all the planets are to each other, a couple times the distance between the earth and the moon between them, so they'd be massive in the sky from each planet. they probably won't have any moons, but because they're so close to each other will have tidal forces from the planets themselves (assuming any of them have water of course). 

also, SETI has already listened in, and found no artificial signals.

  On 2/22/2017 at 7:29 PM, ambermonk said:

It would be neat if we could start sending drones or rovers to these exoplanets. But I can't imagine how one would go about funding that kind of venture. Currently it seems that most of the wealth necessary to fund it has wound up in the wrong hands.

It's 40 light years away.  If by sheer magic you or I could drop a rover one of them tomorrow, you're still waiting 40 years for the first picture back.

really cool stuff, good to see the good side of humanity once in a while 

  On 2/22/2017 at 7:37 PM, megapussi said:

all of the planets have nicknames of belgian beers. i like these scientists

abbey ale specifically - monk made beer

  On 2/22/2017 at 7:52 PM, Bob Dobalina said:

 

  On 2/22/2017 at 7:29 PM, ambermonk said:

It would be neat if we could start sending drones or rovers to these exoplanets. But I can't imagine how one would go about funding that kind of venture. Currently it seems that most of the wealth necessary to fund it has wound up in the wrong hands.

 

It's 40 light years away.  If by sheer magic you or I could drop a rover one of them tomorrow, you're still waiting 40 years for the first picture back.

 

I wouldn't doubt the power of real estate ventures though - I can already picture concept art of hip condos superimposed over Avatar-esque views of Trappist-1f Coming in 2217 starting at $3,000,000,000,000

  On 2/22/2017 at 7:45 PM, caze said:

this is probably just the early trickle of a discovery before the floodgates really open in the coming decades, we'll have discovered hundreds of systems with habitable planets before too long.

 

one weird thing about this system is how close all the planets are to each other, a couple times the distance between the earth and the moon between them, so they'd be massive in the sky from each planet. they probably won't have any moons, but because they're so close to each other will have tidal forces from the planets themselves (assuming any of them have water of course). 

 

also, SETI has already listened in, and found no artificial signals.

I was thinking about how neat it would be to look up in the sky on one of these planets and see the others... talk about a breathtaking sight.

nvm

Damn too bad the administration just announced they're going to roll back all of the planets.

  On 2/22/2017 at 7:52 PM, Bob Dobalina said:

 

  On 2/22/2017 at 7:29 PM, ambermonk said:

It would be neat if we could start sending drones or rovers to these exoplanets. But I can't imagine how one would go about funding that kind of venture. Currently it seems that most of the wealth necessary to fund it has wound up in the wrong hands.

 

It's 40 light years away.  If by sheer magic you or I could drop a rover one of them tomorrow, you're still waiting 40 years for the first picture back.

 

Also, the distance would require absolute precision for its transmission to hit the Earth. A relay might be required to effectively receive it.

Also also, this rover would have to be completely autonomous as no one would be able to control it...

Wormholes maybe? Would that solve the distance issue?

But I'm no theoretical physicist.

Really interesting stuff. I still find it quite sad that we haven't heard anything from SETI yet, ala "Contact". It's like the unfavorable conclusion of Fermi's paradox (that we are all alone) is unfortunately true. Of course, the absence of evidence isn't the evidence of absence, but as Fermi's paradox states, we would expect that the universe should be teeming with life, given the abundance of organic compounds (hydrogen and carbon, in particular). 

  On 2/22/2017 at 11:56 PM, ambermonk said:

Wormholes maybe? Would that solve the distance issue?

 

But I'm no theoretical physicist.

if you travel thru a wormhole you will reappear on the other side as a stream of single atoms, not good 

  On 2/23/2017 at 1:00 AM, Deer said:

 

  On 2/22/2017 at 11:56 PM, ambermonk said:

Wormholes maybe? Would that solve the distance issue?

 

But I'm no theoretical physicist.

 

 

if you travel thru a wormhole you will reappear on the other side as a stream of single atoms, not good 

 

That could still be useful for sending a "message in a bottle"-type transmission, though, yeah?