Phil Plait has the stats: it's 1.5 earth diameters, 5 times the mass, 2¼ Gs, and probably has a surface temperature between 0°C and 40°C. It's big, it could be wet, and it's only 20 light years away. You know what I'm thinking? It could be the Planet of the Squid.
Somebody get cracking on that transluminal drive.
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Somebody give Richard Dean Anderson a Blue British Police Box, a chewed stick of gum, a paperclip, a sheet of notebook paper, and an oversized scarf, and within an hour we'll have our first working TARDIS. Squid planet here we come...
I read a news story about that. They said it could possibly be a target for future missions to explore other planets.
Uhhuh... even at the speed of light, that isn't possible, most people don't want to wait their whole lives for it to get there and transmit the data back at the speed of light. Another 20 years. The guys that launched the missions may be diseased- and that's assuming the data is worthwhile too.
Well our science fiction can do it with ease...
Been there, it's a dump.
You mean Mon Calamari? I thought that was in a galaxy far, far away!
You mean Mon Calamari? I thought that was in a galaxy far, far away!
Hate to break it to you son, but George Lucas is a very, very bad man and a filthy liar to boot... Star Wars actually takes place in our next door neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, and it took place between about 1930-1970AD on our calendar.
I bet the people of Squidulon are already halfway finished. What with the extra arms and all...
Presumably aquatic life could easily survive at 2 or higher G. It's just going to affect the water-pressure and we know that aquatic life can survive at enormous pressures.
Somebody give Richard Dean Anderson a gou'ald cargo ship and within hours we'll have our answer.
Can I live there?
-- Well, we don't know the damned place could be coated with acid, and have an atmosphere easily able to crush you so bad you wish you lived on Venus.
That is a long time ago. Decades before I was even born!
That is far, far away. Much to far to swim!
What's your beef, man?!?
Lucashater! *fume*
Awesome news. Nothing really to say otherwise. Awesome, awesome news.
Oh, and I hope many of those possible things turn out to be true, of course. Except for Star Wars. That'd be a bit weird to idolize Lucas as a guru...
That couldn't be that planet where all the intelligent humans are living that George Shollenberger was talking about, could it?
;)
First they announce that an extrasolar planet that orbits a red star, is larger and more massive than Earth with over double the surface gravity, is in the star's habitable zone, and is possibly even a rocky world with water oceans, and this comes two days after it was announced that sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide, otherwise known as Kryptonite, has been discovered in Serbia.
Put the pieces of the puzzle together, folks. Kal-el is watching us...
Relax. Sagan returned home some time ago.
I, for one, welcome our new intergalactic squid overlords.
Kseniya, thanks a lot for that Google Maps link! ROTFL!!!
When will the guy be born who'll invent the warp drive?
I vote we call the planet "Eden" - and talk the fundies into moving there.
Hm, this reminds me somewhat of Asimov's book Nemisis
I've been perfecting my FTL drive in my garage for a while now. I should have it fired up and ready within the next few weeks, as soon as I move some old bicycles and yard toys out of the way (I need extra room for the fusion plant cooling system). I'll keep you posted.
David, that IS funny, isn't it? But I can't take credit for thinking to use it. I included it as a back-reference to an earlier joke someone had made, using the same link, in a comment on the "Start Driving" thread. I figured it was good enough to use twice. ;-)
(I always wondered how "directions" software would handle intercontinental trips. Now I know. LOL.)
Methinks you've been reading a little too much Kornbluth...
FTL drives, tardises, transluminal, hah! You're all wrong, quantum tunneling is how we'll break out of Einstein's cage. We'll jump from proximity of one gravity well to another! You'll see... you'll all SEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!
A bloke in the Bad Astronomy comments asked how long it would take to get there, so I ran the numbers for a relativistic rocket (accelerating at 1 g the whole way, as measured by the passengers). The answer lives here.
What it it's a little drier than expected and turns out to be Arrakis?
Mmmm ... spice.
Apparently, for a Venus-like albedo, the equilibrium temperature is around 0 degrees C, which is rather warmer than the equilibrium temperature of the REAL Venus, which is somewhere around -10 to -20 degrees C. I'd guess that Gliese 581 c is probably under moist or runaway greenhouse conditions - if it has oceans, they may be either boiling or supercritical. I wouldn't want to spend my holidays there.
I'm continuing work on my improbability drive, but the damn thing will only calculate the odds of my having arrived somewhere AFTER I'm already there.
Sounds like we need to spend some more time and effort exploring Heim Theory and get those FTL field drives online.
http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg18925331.200/
http://forum.physorg.com/index.php?showtopic=6143
I read a news story about that. They said it could possibly be a target for future missions to explore other planets.
Uhhuh... even at the speed of light, that isn't possible, most people don't want to wait their whole lives for it to get there and transmit the data back at the speed of light.
That doesn't preclude a mission. A 'mission' might be to put a scope in Earth orbit, optimized to study the object. Such a thing could be in space in ten years, with results following shortly. I might vote for it - if i could.
All this talk about visiting our new neighboring planet reminded me of a song from the first album I ever bought ... before I was even a teenager. It was 'A Night at the Opera' by Queen and the song was '39' by Brian May. Brian abandoned his doctorate in astronomy to play the guitar when Queen started making real money.
I think the song is a great fusion of art and science. Anyone else know of a song by a big name band about time dilation and its impact on a loving couple? :)
39 by Brian May
In the year of '39 assembled here the Volunteers
In the days when lands were few
Here the ship sailed out into the blue and sunny morn
The sweetest sight ever seen.
And the night followed day
And the story tellers say
That the score brave souls inside
For many a lonely day sailed across the milky seas
Ne'er looked back, never feared, never cried.
Don't you hear my call though you're many years away
Don't you hear me calling you
Write your letters in the sand
For the day I take your hand
In the land that our grandchildren knew.
In the year of '39 came a ship in from the blue
The volunteers came home that day
And they bring good news of a world so newly born
Though their hearts so heavily weigh
For the earth is old and grey, to a new home we'll away
But my love this cannot be
For so many years have gone though I'm older but a year
Your mother's eyes in your eyes cry to me.
Don't you hear my call though you're many years away
Don't you hear me calling you
All the letters in the sand cannot heal me like your hand
For my life
Still ahead
Pity Me.
As anyone knows, the secret is not to build an FTL drive, but to increase the speed of light.
Heim theory? Please tell me you're joking!
Jeff ... I like the idea ... If our current technology only allows us to travel at a few percent of the speed of light, then dramatically increasing the speed of light would make our travel times significantly lower.
it's the neo-con's home planet!
a.k.a. Bizarro World
What a fascinating discovery!
I hope the SETI people turn their radiotelescopes there just in case.
Blake Stacey-
Thanks for that. I had done some reading on Heim and his theory, but I hadn't yet gotten to reading any of the criticism of his ideas. The main problems I had heard about were more the inscrutability of his work itself - only ever being published in German, his discomfort in working with anyone, etc.
Time for more reading and more information gathering on my part. :)
Twenty light years? Lets see, are they are getting "Laverne and Shirley"? No, but on TV Ollie North has pulled his uniform out of moth balls, and testified. On the good side everyone is listening to Graceland on the radio.
Ths Squid Overlords have come to the conclusion That Earth's leader is a smi senile-actor (they have been getting "Bedtime for Bonzo" on the afternoon Dialing for Dollars movie for decades.)
They are preparing their trans-C tempura missles for launch. We will all be battered.
Strange Forces:
You're welcome! I just tend to get a little antsy when people post links to the New Scientist to support anything — see here for details.
Perhaps. In the preprint it is - 3 Celsius at a Venus albedo, so I guess an ice world is marginally possible. The news release seems to have rounded the numbers fitting a certain "frame".
But the really good news is perhaps that smaller planets (Neptunes or smaller) seems to be much more frequent around M stars, and that such planets are now modeled to be much more likely to be found in the habitable zone. (Of course, the planetary statistics are wobbly yet, and this discovery was adding a 'giant' set of two Earth analogs to the rather unresearched M stars.)
M stars are much more frequent than larger stars at 78 % of all stars. For example, our closest star Proxima Centaurus is an M star.
Exciting, isn't it?
The net is fast - on the Wikipedia page for Extrasolar planets it is noted that SETI programs have surveyed the star two times. IIRC the press release on richarddawkins.net mention it was 1995 and 1997.
Still no such link on the planets Wikipedia page, though. OTOH the page is marked as a "current event". :-)
markk #14 LOL
no indication it's wet, yet, folks. It just has a temperature range conducive to liquid water. It might yet be a rock.
The biggest significance is really in showing that Sol system isn't a complete fluke. Other roughly earth-sized planets do exist in other inner orbits, and the chances are now good that they are not as horribly unlikely as a single example makes possible.
Whatever happened to the old caveat that habitability zones around red dwarfs would be so close to the star that any planet in that zone would be subjected to significant effects from flare activity?
Another point to temper the enthusiasm is that Mars qualifies as "habitable" under the criteria being used to speculate about this new planet.
Me, I'm hoping I live to see a manned mission to Mars. That would be too cool.
-JJR
Just amazed, would like to know much more! For one are there any beings living there? What sort beings are they. Would really like to know much more.
Anyone wanting 'squid planet' should read "Time" by Stephen Baxter. PZ, you would be overjoyed.
Kseniya, thanks a lot for that Google Maps link! ROTFL!!!
When will the guy be born who'll invent the warp drive?
Perhaps. In the preprint it is - 3 Celsius at a Venus albedo, so I guess an ice world is marginally possible. The news release seems to have rounded the numbers fitting a certain "frame".
But the really good news is perhaps that smaller planets (Neptunes or smaller) seems to be much more frequent around M stars, and that such planets are now modeled to be much more likely to be found in the habitable zone. (Of course, the planetary statistics are wobbly yet, and this discovery was adding a 'giant' set of two Earth analogs to the rather unresearched M stars.)
M stars are much more frequent than larger stars at 78 % of all stars. For example, our closest star Proxima Centaurus is an M star.
Exciting, isn't it?
The net is fast - on the Wikipedia page for Extrasolar planets it is noted that SETI programs have surveyed the star two times. IIRC the press release on richarddawkins.net mention it was 1995 and 1997.
Still no such link on the planets Wikipedia page, though. OTOH the page is marked as a "current event". :-)