Razor
Member
http://www.kurzweilai.net/new-super-earth-detected-within-the-habitable-zone-of-a-nearby-star
The alerts on my Exoplanet App keep going "ping"! It's such an exciting time for space research. And I believe there's yet another Kepler planet dump due soon - prolly add another few hundred.
Mr. G
Member
This planet is now the best candidate for intelligent life of all the exoplanets.
The new planet receives 90 percent of the light that Earth receives. However, because most of its incoming light is in the infrared, a higher percentage of this incoming energy should be absorbed by the planet. When both these effects are taken into account, the planet is expected to absorb about the same amount of energy from its star that the Earth absorbs from the sun."This planet is the new best candidate to support liquid water and, perhaps, life as we know it," Anglada-Escudé said.
There are some obvious problems however. This planet is very close to it's star so it is probably tidally locked. So, with only one side facing it's sun the other side will probably be dead. Also, because of tidal locking there would be no axial tilt and thus no seasons. This would be bad for evolution, because we all know that necessity is the mother of invention.
Also, the gravity will be significantly more than Earth. This could be a significant factor affecting the development of intelligent life. Stronger gravity could result in shorter trees. Why could this be bad news? The opposable thumb was developed in part because of the necessity of swinging through the trees. The opposable thumb allows us to manipulate the environment in ways that are inaccessible to every other creature on the Earth. Not having tall enough trees on a planet may stifle the evolutionary development of the opposable thumb.
G
Bookmark this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_terrestrial_exoplanet_candidates
Great link. Bookmarked :-)
asimov1
Member
Of greater interest to us is the millions of wandering planets not bound by orbiting suns
These true to life moon-base alphas may be our ticket to the stars
There are also millions of darkish Jupiter sized wanderers with moons ( a source of energy )
We haven't seen many of the above because they are so faint , but between here and Alpha Centuri there may be dozens if not hundreds of lone bodies and micro systems.
Think of playing a kind of cosmic frogger , all these billiard balls swirling around, every now and then they make a close pass , perhaps never again passing each other due to large differences in velocities.
Remember only the planets in our solar system have steady orbits, motion is a lot more chaotic in the milkway, its more like a very loosely bound asteroid belt. So there there is a great deal of wandering going on.
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For every star you can see with the naked eye , there are probably a dozen dark stars and wandering planets at the same distances and directions. These are interstellar greyhound coaches , being lighter in mass than giant stars it is they that get flung around in a chaotic manner. Note the stars are all moving too, constellations temporary illusions.
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Its best to think of the galaxy as a tornado, yes general trends of motion but individual systems especially rogue planets and rogue dark stars dancing around in a cosmic furball
as i write , we are also colliding with several smaller galaxies , some coming in for additional smash n grab raids so there is a great deal of turbulance and commotion. This makes colonizing the galaxy very easy indeed.....as a great deal of the galaxy will come flying past your window sooner or later !
we better get good at star hopping , cos we will collided with Andromeda in the not to distant future, the milky way will be ripped to shreds , 50:50 chance earth will be flung off into deep, and i mean deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep space with fak all around for millions of light years !
If there is life in andromeda we are going to meet each other whether we want to or not , lol
Mr. G
Member
Of greater interest to us is the millions of wandering planets not bound by orbiting suns
The ones we can't see and have no models for? They won't be of greater interest for a long time.
There are also millions of darkish Jupiter sized wanderers with moons
It is certainly food for thought.
Actually in a recent SETI talk Frank Drake talked about how the gravitational energy (geothermal) alone and a suitable atmospheric greenhouse are theoretically enough to support life.
G
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