Time to Start Listing These Habitable Planets "Close By"

[M.D. Holloway]

One of many I would imagine - just have to figuer how to travel faster than light to get there in a reasonable time frame...


Potentially Habitable Planet Found Very Nearby
February 3, 2012


An artistic conception of the two planets reported on in this paper: b and c. Planet c is the one that lies in the habitable zone of the star. Planet b is too hot to be habitable. Images: Guillem Anglada-Escudé.

Source: Carnegie Institution


An international team of scientists led by Carnegie’s Guillem Anglada-Escudé and Paul Butler has discovered a potentially habitable super-Earth orbiting a nearby star. The star is a member of a triple star system and has a different makeup than our Sun, being relatively lacking in metallic elements. This discovery demonstrates that habitable planets could form in a greater variety of environments than previously believed. Their work will be published by The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The team used public data from the European Southern Observatory and analyzed it with a novel data analysis method. They also incorporated new measurements from the Keck Observatory’s High Resolution Echelle Spectrograph and the new Carnegie Planet Finder Spectrograph at the Magellan II Telescope.

Their planet-finding technique involved measuring the small wobbles in a star’s orbit in response to a planet’s gravity. Anglada-Escudé and his team focused on an M-class dwarf star called GJ 667C, which is 22 light years away. It is a member of a triple-star system. The other two stars (GJ 667AB) are a pair of orange K dwarfs, with a concentration of heavy elements only 25% that of our Sun’s. Such elements are the building blocks of terrestrial planets so it was thought to be unusual for metal-depleted star systems to have an abundance of low mass planets.

GJ 667C had previously been observed to have a super-Earth (GJ 667Cb) with a period of 7.2 days, although this finding was never published. This orbit is too tight, and thus hot, to support life. The new study started with the aim of obtaining the orbital parameters of this super-Earth.

But in addition to this first candidate, the research team found the clear signal of a new planet (GJ 667Cc) with an orbital period of 28.15 days and a minimum mass of 4.5 times that of Earth. The new planet receives 90% 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 would allow surface temperatures similar to Earth and perhaps liquid water, but this extreme cannot be confirmed without further information on the planet's atmosphere.

“This planet is the new best candidate to support liquid water and, perhaps, life as we know it,” Anglada-Escudé says.

The team notes that the system might also contain a gas-giant planet and an additional super-Earth with an orbital period of 75 days. However, further observations are needed to confirm these two possibilities.

“With the advent of a new generation of instruments, researchers will be able to survey many M dwarf stars for similar planets and eventually look for spectroscopic signatures of life in one of these worlds.”

[dtool242]

Shoot, we need to figure out how to travel anywhere near the speed of light let alone beyond it.

[GH85Carrera]

Yep all we need to do is figure our faster than light speed. That will done right after we achieve permanent peace in the middle east, end world hunger and men fully understand the female brain. It is good to have a goal!

[scottmandue]

Others beat me to it...

"habitable planet"+"close by"=oxymoron.

[M.D. Holloway]

A thousand years ago, standing on the shore and looking out over the ocean you would think it impossible to go past the horizon. Many people said that you would fall over and edge. You heard that the ancient greeks thought the world was round but how? It just didn't seem to make sense. You heard of large sailing ships venturing out but few ever were heard from again. You certainly could not take your small boat to explore and swimming was not an opinion. You just didn't have an opportunity. But it was possible becuase you heard it was done.

Now, what about that first crew that sailed the Atlantic? Or the Pacific? It wasn't a paradigm shift in technology that got them there it was a slow progression of materials and techneques. Something had done it previous - not man but maybe plants of animals floating to shore. No different than a metiorite...

What needs to be understood and discovered is something that (in physical form and not photons) that can move faster than light and not be distroyed in the process.

I give it 20 years.

[lane912]

there are very good theories on the how part of faster than light, the energy source is the big puzzle. once that is in human hands the how will be very evident.

[M.D. Holloway]

Got to get to the stable element with an atomic number of 120+ and a neutron number of 178+. Once you hit that 'island of stability' theoretical physics suggests that a directed energy source at such a mass will allow space time to bend alowing that material to move instananiously into a new region where another energy source is focused. Tough to beam that energy to a new place unless it was already there...hello neutron star! Fancy meeting you here. Dial in the proper frequency and bing bang boom you just traveled over zillions of miles instantaniuously.

And you guys are wonder what the heck CERN is up to! Silly billys....

[scottmandue]

Getting the next possible habitable planet isn't like sailing across the Atlantic or pacific ocean... it is more like swimming across either ocean.

Too much star trek for you boyz

And if man were meant to fly he would have wings!!!!

[RWebb]

if humans were meant to fly they would have the ability to invent wings

[M.D. Holloway]

Actually I have very little to no interest in space exploration. I think our planet holds some pretty interesting places to still understand i.e. oceans and subterranian worlds. I would have loved to take all the zillions of dollars that went to explore space and instead explored the earth and oceans...

[Joe Bob]

Go faster than light would be interesting....slowing down from that speed would be a better idea.

That would be a pretty gud "ah fuch" moment....

[RWebb]

yeh - you'd need Big Reds for that

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by LubeMaster77

Actually I have very little to no interest in space exploration. I think our planet holds some pretty interesting places to still understand i.e. oceans and subterranian worlds. I would have loved to take all the zillions of dollars that went to explore space and instead explored the earth and oceans...

Stop reading my mind!!!!

[Scott R]

Speed of light and faster travel is still not really fast enough. Twice the speed of light would still be an 11 year trip, and then of course you have to be able to stop. You want to be able to pass through space without accelerating at all, that is the answer to interstellar travel.

Now, since it's been 20+ years since college physics am I wrong in saying that a planet 4.5 times the mass of earth would mean we would weigh 800lbs on the surface? Adding to that what would be the required lift to get back off the planet? If it takes us one Saturn V rocket to escape our gravity it would take almost five to leave this planet.

(4.5)^(1/3) = 1.65

I think..

[M.D. Holloway]

Moot point if you can travel X times the speed of light gravity is chicken feed....then again can you imagine the size of chickens on that planet!

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by LubeMaster77

Moot point if you can travel X times the speed of light gravity is chicken feed....then again can you imagine the size of chickens on that planet!

Time dilation sucks though.

[M.D. Holloway]

I wonder what that does to your bladder? I mean just the anticipation of a landing would make me wanna pee so what happens if you pee going that fast?

[Joe Bob]

[Hawktel]

People who don't support space exploration most likely don't understand the following :

Extinction event - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What is the meaning of 'Don't put all your eggs in one basket'

[szyzygy]

research at CERN has led to some interesting results...neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light.

Also, the other planet might be made of different "stuff" than our planet, so even though it is bigger it may not have more gravity. Right?