Author Topic: Scientists Discover Earthlike Planet  (Read 934 times)

Offline tedrbr

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Scientists Discover Earthlike Planet
« Reply #30 on: April 26, 2007, 02:59:51 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by VooWho
Whats the reason why we can't move to Mars? I know the atmosphere is not quite like ours, but I think its somewhat close.


First part ignored.  As to the second; Mars' atmosphere is VERY tenuous.  Mostly CO2, and very thin at that.... nearly a vacuum, even at lower elevations.

Could we live there?  Yes, we have the technology to do so.  Could we terraform Mars to be more habitable?  Probably, although they would be colossal projects.

Will we ever do so?  I don't see the political or social will to do so in the foreseeable future.  Maybe 100 years after we've had fusion power available on Earth, there will be enough interest.

----
As to the search of Earth-like worlds.  
I think we'll be very limited to more guess-work than proof to their existence until we get the big extra planetary observatories into space to look for them.  Need to get above the Earth's atmosphere with many telescopes working in conjunction over thousands of miles distance form one another in co-orbit, to get the kind of optical resolution to actually see an extra solar planet.  

We could do it today, I just don't see the money being spent on it.

Offline RTR

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Scientists Discover Earthlike Planet
« Reply #31 on: April 26, 2007, 10:13:35 PM »
The laymans language answer to a previous post.

In order for the Earth to get farther from the sun it would need to speed up. this would increase the length of our year.

To get closer to the sun we need to slow the planet down.  The slower we travel around the big yellow ball, the more gravitational pull it has on us, pulling us closer in.

The faster we spin around the big guy the less pull it has on us and we get farther out.

This doesn't affect our length of day though. That is a happenstance of our rotational speed. Our day is about 24 hours because..wait for it....our world is roughly 24,0000 mile around and spins at roughly 1,000 mph. There you go. 240,000 miles around, 1,ooomph and 24 hours in each day.

pretty cool huh?

RTR
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Offline RedTop

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« Reply #32 on: April 26, 2007, 10:58:32 PM »
I made it after hours on the 7th day....I had some extra dirt.
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Offline Stringer

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« Reply #33 on: April 26, 2007, 11:04:22 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by RTR
The laymans language answer to a previous post.

In order for the Earth to get farther from the sun it would need to speed up. this would increase the length of our year.

To get closer to the sun we need to slow the planet down.  The slower we travel around the big yellow ball, the more gravitational pull it has on us, pulling us closer in.

The faster we spin around the big guy the less pull it has on us and we get farther out.

This doesn't affect our length of day though. That is a happenstance of our rotational speed. Our day is about 24 hours because..wait for it....our world is roughly 24,0000 mile around and spins at roughly 1,000 mph. There you go. 240,000 miles around, 1,ooomph and 24 hours in each day.

pretty cool huh?

RTR


I believe our days are longer due to the moon slowly moving away from us, which is causing us to spin slower.

Or so I watched on the Discovery channel.  I can't remember how far each year, but it is moving away from us.

Offline moot

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Scientists Discover Earthlike Planet
« Reply #34 on: April 27, 2007, 04:20:59 PM »
It's moving away at about 1inch a year, lengthening days here at about 1second/50k years.
As it is, the moon's orbit distance will stabilize at (if I remember right) 1.6 times its current in about 12 billion years (again off the top of my head).  That's longer than it will take the sun to either go red giant in ~5BY (possibly frying earth and/or screwing up the moon's orbit, e.g. sending it into Earth), or grow dim and spare both; although that's much less likely.
Before that happens, though, the Milky Way is due to run into a nearby galaxy (Andromeda, I think), in 2BY or so, with a possible second pass around 9MY later, depending on the first one's result.   Considering what we can see of our own galaxy in the night sky, it would make for quite a sight.
And if anyone has stuck around long enough to see it, the solar system also makes short trips outside (top and bottom-side) of the galactic disk's buffering from intergalactic rays etc, every 32MY, as it waves along its path around the center of the galaxy.

I've seen a few articles suppose G581c, the new planet, is tidaly locked to its sun, the way our moon is to Earth.  It would be pretty hot and cold on either side of it.

Has anyone heard anything about radiation hazards from the sun? It's standing pretty close it.
« Last Edit: April 27, 2007, 04:43:11 PM by moot »
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Offline bozon

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« Reply #35 on: April 27, 2007, 06:27:44 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by moot
Has anyone heard anything about radiation hazards from the sun? It's standing pretty close it.

That was my first thought so I looked into it briefly. The star is M3 aged dwarf, so it is quite cool and the near UV radiation from the photosphere is pretty weak. Even a thin atmosphere will protect you. These type of stars have very small corona and so the far UV and x-ray are normally low and insignificant. It was not detected in the ROSAT all sky (xray) survey. However, these M dwarfs have occasional coronal flares that reach similar temperatures and luminosities as our suns flares and are probably followed by large coronal mass ejections. Being so close to the star, a flare directed at the planet might make things... errr.. unpleasant to say the least. If the planet has a strong internal magnetic field protecting it, this might alleviate the problem somewhat. Still, such UV/xray flashes and ion storms will have significant effects on the atmosphere and on living creatures.
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Offline Gh0stFT

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« Reply #36 on: April 27, 2007, 07:11:01 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by tedrbr
Could we live there?  Yes, we have the technology to do so.


the latest information regarding mars atmosphere is, it is far
more dangerous then we thought in the past years.
Without a real atmosphere, radiation from the sun is killing
everything on mars. 10h on mars surface and your DNA is lost.
Mars is really a rusted death planet.

Hey the new discovered earth planet is just receiving our
radio and TV signals from 1986! :)
who knows, maybe someone is listening there.
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Offline Squire

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« Reply #37 on: April 27, 2007, 07:16:12 PM »
Now that they know they have been spotted, its only a matter of time...

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Offline Carrel

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Scientists Discover Earthlike Planet
« Reply #38 on: April 27, 2007, 08:54:44 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by Gh0stFT


Hey the new discovered earth planet is just receiving our
radio and TV signals from 1986! :)
who knows, maybe someone is listening there.


Great- the first things the aliens will see about our culture is Fonzie jumping the shark.

I am emberassed.

Offline tedrbr

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Scientists Discover Earthlike Planet
« Reply #39 on: April 27, 2007, 11:31:32 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by moot
I've seen a few articles suppose G581c, the new planet, is tidaly locked to its sun, the way our moon is to Earth.  It would be pretty hot and cold on either side of it.

Has anyone heard anything about radiation hazards from the sun? It's standing pretty close it.


Tidally locked, but possibly in the habital zone?  Sounds like a classic from science fiction:  tidally locked planet, frozen on the far side, baked sunward, but with a narrow strip of a "habitable zone" running along the terminator line like a ring around the planet.

All conjecture though at this point.

Offline Major Biggles

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Scientists Discover Earthlike Planet
« Reply #40 on: April 28, 2007, 07:38:37 PM »
did some googling about stuff yesterday, and found a site where people do a lot of photoshopped digital space art. they had some cool tutorials so i had a bash at it, and came up with this in about 1.5 hours:

all done in photoshop. what d'ya think?





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