Earth-like planet confirmed (1 Viewer)

[Coventry La La La]

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of an Earth-like planet in the "habitable zone" around a star not unlike our own.

The planet, Kepler 22-b, lies about 600 light-years away and is about 2.4 times the size of Earth, and has a temperature of about 22C.

It is the closest confirmed planet yet to one like ours - an "Earth 2.0".

Full story - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16040655

 

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[kg82]

I just read that. Interesting stuff. Sounds promising though doesn't it.

 

[IrishSkyBlue]

it prob be blown up or dissapered by the time we get there how long would it take to get to that planet does it say?

 

[Coventry La La La]

it prob be blown up or dissapered by the time we get there how long would it take to get to that planet does it say?

600 light-years (not a chance of getting there)

 

[TheRoyalScam]

Looks like it has water, an atmosphere, and land masses. Thanks La La La, just off to read about it now.......

 

[TheRoyalScam]

600 light-years (not a chance of getting there)

We need a Warp Drive - it's possible at warp 9.9.....

 

[ICHAN]

So thats where Elvis went then so the sport were wrong all those years ago.

 

[Houchens Head]

Seeing as light travels at 186,000 miles per second and that planet is the distance that it would take 600 years to reach (going at that speed!), then I'd say the chances of anyone from earth landing there is pretty much nil!

 

[IrishSkyBlue]

600 light years is 600 years ha wasnt too sure, why dont the freeze some monkeys and shot em off to it and check on them in 600 years time lol, even at the speed of light im pretty sure it would take a good amount of time to get there.

 

[TheRoyalScam]

The images we're seeing are 600 years old.

If we start radio communication now then the transmission will reach there in 600 years.

There could be intelligent life there.

If so, it will take another 600 years for their reply to reach us!

Whether there is still a human race in 1200 years is another matter - there will still be a planet, but who knows what we might do if there's a Nuclear WW3!

Then again, haven't we just found a particle that travels faster than the speed of light?

 

[Otis]

I wonder if they have any players we could loan.

 

[dutchman]

I wonder if they have any players we could loan.

:claping hands:

 

[oldskyblue58]

I hear SISU are taking the club away from the Ricoh and making this our new home

 

[wingy]

I hear SISU are taking the club away from the Ricoh and making this our new home

Hope there'll be more atmosphere there than rowleys green.

 

[wingy]

Do you think we'll be back in the prem by the time they figure out how to colonise /Wreck this planet.

 

[guicey15]

Doing a bit of maths, the planet is 3521682633600000 miles away. That's not a joke by the way, that's genuinely what number I worked it out as.

 

[ICHAN]

Get on my bike now then guicey, we might be back in the prem by the time I get back:thinking about:

 

[guicey15]

:laugh: Yeah, if were lucky... I wonder if SISU scum will have listened to us and fecked off by then :thinking about:

 

[Marty]

The images we're seeing are 600 years old.

If we start radio communication now then the transmission will reach there in 600 years.

There could be intelligent life there.

If so, it will take another 600 years for their reply to reach us!

Whether there is still a human race in 1200 years is another matter - there will still be a planet, but who knows what we might do if there's a Nuclear WW3!

Then again, haven't we just found a particle that travels faster than the speed of light?

As the speed of sound is only a tiny fraction of the speed of light then it would take millions of years to reach this planet (can't be bothered to do the maths). When there is lightning and thunder, even over a short space (within 10 miles) you always get the flash first followed by a small delay then the bang.

If we were to send a light & sound signal at the same time, at the moment the light signal hit this new planet (in 600 light years time), the sound signal won't even be 1 millionth of the way there.

Anyway, I thought Gliese 581 D & G were the main candidates for complex life forms.

 

[dutchman]

As the speed of sound is only a tiny fraction of the speed of light then it would take millions of years to reach this planet (can't be bothered to do the maths).

I'm not sure what the speed of sound has to do wtih this? Spacecraft travel at many, many times the speed of sound and radio waves travel at the speed of light.

 

[Marty]

I'm not sure what the speed of sound has to do wtih this? Spacecraft travel at many, many times the speed of sound and radio waves travel at the speed of light.

Do they?? I thought they traveled at the speed of sound and not light. learn something new everyday.

 

[kg82]

I'm not sure what the speed of sound has to do wtih this? Spacecraft travel at many, many times the speed of sound and radio waves travel at the speed of light.

Think he said it because radio transmission was suggested, in which case it would take a lot longer than 600 years to get there. Radio waves travel at the speed of sound, because they are sound waves. A lot, lot slower than the speed of light.

Now, my theory is, they actually already have the technology to get there within a fraction of that time. This 2012 - the world is ending, has got me thinking. I didn't buy into it at all. But now this year they've discovered these particles, neutrinos (I think), that can (apparently) travel faster than light particles or, at least, shortcut the routes taken by light particles. Taking this technology and implementing it onto something that could carry people surely cannot be far away. Now, lo and behold, they find a planet that, in theory, can sustain life. Both of these are HUGE discoveries! And VOILA, the means to wreck another planet is ours!

So, tongue in cheek post?! You decide!

 

[TheRoyalScam]

Radio waves are not the same as sound waves.

The speed of sound is much slower - remember we can 'break the sound barrier' in supersonic ('faster than the speed of sound') aircraft - hence the 'sonic boom' of Concorde when it reached the speed of sound.

Radio waves travel at the speed of light - they're all part of the electro-magnetic spectrum - from infra red through visible light and then ultra violet.

We could communicate using radio transmissions which would travel at the speed of light, taking 600 years to reach the planet.

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

 

[kg82]

Radio waves are not the same as sound waves.

The speed of sound is much slower - remember we can 'break the sound barrier' in supersonic ('faster than the speed of sound') aircraft - hence the 'sonic boom' of Concorde when it reached the speed of sound.

Radio waves travel at the speed of light - they're all part of the electro-magnetic spectrum - from infra red through visible light and then ultra violet.

We could communicate using radio transmissions which would travel at the speed of light, taking 600 years to reach the planet.

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

You are, in fact sir, quite correct! I apologise for my temporary brainlessness (been saying that for a few years now... when does it become not temporary?)!

 

[TheRoyalScam]

You are, in fact sir, quite correct! I apologise for my temporary brainlessness (been saying that for a few years now... when does it become not temporary?)!

Absolutely no apologies required my friend! A lifetime of reading Arthur C. Clarke, Asimov, Carl Sagan and countless others has reduced me to a Sci-Fi Anorak, for which I myself apologise!

 

[kg82]

Absolutely no apologies required my friend! A lifetime of reading Arthur C. Clarke, Asimov, Carl Sagan and countless others has reduced me to a Sci-Fi Anorak, for which I myself apologise!

As a Sci-Fi fanatic then, what did you make of my "theory?! Sci-Fi orrrrrr.... Sci-FACT?!?!

 

[TheRoyalScam]

As a Sci-Fi fanatic then, what did you make of my "theory?! Sci-Fi orrrrrr.... Sci-FACT?!?!

Well the 'faster than light' particles theory hasn't been proved yet I'm afraid. Even if it's true, then just because we've discovered them doesn't mean they haven't existed for hundreds of billions of years already. At the moment Einstein's theories of relativity still stand as the 'benchmarks'. As far as I can guess, the problem is that we can't put 'matter' into a 'light-beam' yet, and we're still bound by the laws of Physics - so interstellar travel looks impossible at the present time.

However, I would never discount any 'theory' - to quote Arthur C. Clarke's first law: When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

What annoys me is that we do have communication technologies that could and should transform the way we do business and live our lives, yet the ConDems would prefer to waste over £50b (that's £50,000,000,000) of our money on HS2 which will let us travel from Brum to London 30 minutes quicker. This would cost the average tax-payer £1,700.

 

[kg82]

Well the 'faster than light' particles theory hasn't been proved yet I'm afraid. Even if it's true, then just because we've discovered them doesn't mean they haven't existed for hundreds of billions of years already. At the moment Einstein's theories of relativity still stand as the 'benchmarks'. As far as I can guess, the problem is that we can't put 'matter' into a 'light-beam' yet, and we're still bound by the laws of Physics - so interstellar travel looks impossible at the present time.

However, I would never discount any 'theory' - to quote Arthur C. Clarke's first law: When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

What annoys me is that we do have communication technologies that could and should transform the way we do business and live our lives, yet the ConDems would prefer to waste over £50b (that's £50,000,000,000) of our money on HS2 which will let us travel from Brum to London 30 minutes quicker. This would cost the average tax-payer £1,700.

Not proven, but haven't CERN said that they've run the tests enough times to prove to themselves that these particles exist? They just need confirmation from the other centres around the world that can perform similar tests, right? Now, I'm not that much into conspiracy theories BUT, say this technology has been known about for a while but the data hadn't been released (I mean, isn't that the theory with the communication technology you were talking about) so that any sort of construction of a "neutrino-craft" could be kept secret! Now they discover this planet! Yeah, they definitely, haven't done the craft, kind of joking there! But what I find strange is that these 2 discoveries have been made in the same year. Basically, a place which could in theory sustain life (and 4 times bigger at that) and the technology that could, in theory again, get us there in the future (or Past!!)

 

[Houchens Head]

Doing a bit of maths, the planet is 3521682633600000 miles away.

YepThat's exactly what I worked it out to.
Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. Therefore 60x60x24x365=seconds in a year 31,536,000 x 186,000 =

5,865,696,000,000 miles in a lightyear. Multiply that by 600 = 3,521,682,633,600,000 miles. (3,521 trillion, 682 billion 633 million, 600,000 miles. (give or take a few feet!)) Seeing as the moon is only 235,000 miles away and it takes DAYS to reach that, god knows how long it would take to reach this "new" planet earth!

 

[kg82]

YepThat's exactly what I worked it out to.
Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. Therefore 60x60x24x365=seconds in a year 31,536,000 x 186,000 =

5,865,696,000,000 miles in a lightyear. Multiply that by 600 = 3,521,682,633,600,000 miles. (3,521 trillion, 682 billion 633 million, 600,000 miles. (give or take a few feet!)) Seeing as the moon is only 235,000 miles away and it takes DAYS to reach that, god knows how long it would take to reach this "new" planet earth!

Now, is that an American or a British trillion/billion?!

 

[Houchens Head]

Dunno kg82. (Is that your weight btw?) Just count the noughts and decide for yourelf! All I know is that it's a bloody long way!

 

[wingy]

With the distance to the moon 240,000 mls,taking approx 2 days for a conventional craft ,that gives a speed of around 6000 mph or 1.6 mps =116250 times slower than light x600 LYs
=69,750,000 yrs.Shoot me down if its wrong,probably about 0. 5% of the time since the whole shebang went off or around a million of our lifespans.phew!!!!!

 

[kg82]

Dunno kg82. (Is that your weight btw?) Just count the noughts and decide for yourelf! All I know is that it's a bloody long way!

82? Alas, it is not - DoB unfortunately. Meaning in 4 weeks today I will become 30 - only in body though!

 

[Houchens Head]

82? Alas, it is not - DoB unfortunately. Meaning in 4 weeks today I will become 30 - only in body though!

Damn! I wish I was 30 again! (just coming up to double that!) and my weight is 107kg (16st. 12lb) ! Fat bar steward ain't I?!! I could say it's all muscle, but at my age, unfortunately it ain't!

 

[kg82]

Damn! I wish I was 30 again! (just coming up to double that!) and my weight is 107kg (16st. 12lb) ! Fat bar steward ain't I?!! I could say it's all muscle, but at my age, unfortunately it ain't!

The worst thing about turning 30 next year is that I have not seen my sky blues in the prem at all in my 20's. I find that really uncomfortable considering I grew up with them in the top division and it only seems like yesterday since I was heading in to the dressing room on my 16th birthday to meet the likes of Dublin, Huckerby and McAllister. My teens - THAT'S where I want to be!