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More on the Waterworld Goldilocks Planet

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the wouldn't-wanna-live-there dept.

goldilocksmission writes with this snippet from Goldilocks Mission: "News spread recently about a super-earth-sized planet that has been recently discovered to contain one of the most essential compounds for life to exist in the universe: water. ... GJ1214b is a massive planet that can house about six earths and is about forty light-years away from us. ... The significant discovery leap of detecting Gliese 581d to the more goldilocks planet oriented GJ1214b is a testament to the advances in the technology of detecting earth-like exoplanets."

29 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. Goldilocks? by Reason58 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't get the Goldilocks reference. Is it because this planet is "just right"? If so, shouldn't it be called the Baby Bear planet?

    1. Re:Goldilocks? by Scrameustache · · Score: 3, Funny

      I don't get the Goldilocks reference. Is it because this planet is "just right"? If so, shouldn't it be called the Baby Bear planet?

      If you find a baby bear planet you're probably about to be mauled by a mama bear planet.

      --

      You can't take the sky from me...

    2. Re:Goldilocks? by Aeros · · Score: 2, Insightful

      still them? As in use all their resources to make all kinds of spirits? Good idea!

    3. Re:Goldilocks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      As a serious answer, the Goldilocks zone is the orbital distance that lends itself to an earth-like amount of incident solar energy and (potentially) a higher likelihood of life friendly conditions existing.

      The porridge isn't too hot or too cold... it's just right.

    4. Re:Goldilocks? by Grishnakh · · Score: 2, Informative

      Not necessarily. It depends on the planet's density. Of course, given that it's 6 times larger than Earth, it's most likely its gravity is significantly higher, but not necessarily, and not necessarily proportional to its larger size.

    5. Re:Goldilocks? by HappyHead · · Score: 4, Informative

      Surface gravity isn't just determined by density either - there's also the distance from the center of mass to be considered. I got the impression that the planet's mass was measured at 6 times earth, but it's actual diameter was not determined. Technically, it could be anything from a ball of Uranium half the diameter of earth to a loose saturn-like cloud collection the size of Neptune. (Saturn's average density is less than that of water.) The surface gravity of the Uranium-ball planet would be much higher than that of the cloud, mainly because of the distance from the center of mass, since gravity falls off fast with greater distance. With a mass of 6x earth, there technically _should_ be a diameter at which the planet actually has a surface gravity similar to earth.

    6. Re:Goldilocks? by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Not necessarily. It depends on the planet's density. Of course, given that it's 6 times larger than Earth, it's most likely its gravity is significantly higher, but not necessarily, and not necessarily proportional to its larger size.

      Its density is less than 2g/cm^3.

      Its surface gravity is about 0.9g.

      It is probably a small rock surrounded by hundreds or thousands of miles of ice.

      In other words, the temperature may be "just right", but the planet is iffy, at best.

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    7. Re:Goldilocks? by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 2, Insightful

      We're Goldilocks; we're looking at the porridges and beds... er, planets, and finding ones that are too cold, too hot, too hard, too soft...

      and then we find one that's juuuust right.

      A planet that's (relatively) close that wouldn't require terraforming? There are no languages that have the words to describe how incredibly valuable such a find would be if we could get there. Humans forever -- even destroying Earth wouldn't stop us.

      I've always called Frankenstein's monster a Flesh Golem, but that's just me.

      --

      ---
      ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
    8. Re:Goldilocks? by ncohafmuta · · Score: 2, Interesting

      except that they estimate the surface temp. of the planet is 200 deg. C. how is that in the Goldilocks zone?

      -Tony

    9. Re:Goldilocks? by anon+mouse-cow-aard · · Score: 3, Informative

      python says: 6**0.5 = 2.449... So if a planet with 6 times the mass has 2.45 times the diameter at the surface, It's juuussst right!

  2. Re: one of the most essential compounds for life by ibsteve2u · · Score: 4, Funny

    I thought it was going to say beer.

    --
    Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
  3. something I could not figure out about waterworld by ravenspear · · Score: 4, Funny

    How did they get fuel for the fricking jet skis?

  4. nothing new here by dumuzi · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you RTFA there is nothing new here. In fact this is more of an advertisement for some wackjob organization called Goldilocks Mission. "The Goldilocks Mission is sending an open invitation to men and women around the globe between 18 and 34 years of age, healthy in every way and in top physical and psychological condition, and who have read the book, GOLDILOCKS MISSION: Man’s Next Migration." They are looking for "Skydets" who will live in a "Space Center" "in a corner of Southwestern New Mexico" to research humanities next migration to the stars. It has the feel of a new cult.

    1. Re:nothing new here by east+coast · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It has the feel of a new cult.

      That's exactly what the Vatican told Galileo!

      --
      Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
    2. Re:nothing new here by Snarkalicious · · Score: 5, Funny

      This KoolAid is juuusssst right.

    3. Re:nothing new here by Nutria · · Score: 2, Informative

      It has the feel of a new cult.

      Not only that, but they have the inane thought that a planet 1/40th of the distance from Mercury to Sol might actually be habitable because "a red dwarf ... is significantly more than three hundred times cooler than our own", neglecting the inverse square law, and that it would be red light, not the rainbow spectrum we require.

      --
      "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
    4. Re:nothing new here by FooAtWFU · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No, it isn't. First, his employing university told Galileo that teaching this sort of bleeding-edge science, some of which was outright wrong (including, for instance, his theory of the tides, and his characterizations of pendulums), and furthermore wildly contrasted with the current philisophical-scientific consensus. If you were the dean and your faculty started teaching the Electric Universe, you might be concerned too, even if those kooks ended up being right in another 200 years. Then when he wrote a book on the matter and Urban VIII asked him to try and go for a neutral point of view on things (a la Wikipedia's design standards, perhaps) he called the Pope's geocentrism guy "Simplicio" and made him look like an idiot. Bad political move. Then Urban acted like a typical 17th-century Italian nobleman - if anything, probably he was somewhat mild for that archetype.

      A tragedy of politics and underdeveloped notions of scientific rigor in the extant culture, but cults hade nothing to do with it.

      --
      The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
  5. Higher Ice Phases by mbone · · Score: 2, Informative

    A "waterworld" would actually have a fairly shallow ocean, on the order of 75 to 100 km deep for an Earth size planet, as other ice phases would form at the bottom of the ocean at depth.

    1. Re:Higher Ice Phases by mbone · · Score: 2, Informative

      Depends on your point of view. The 6 Earth-mass planet modeled by the Léger et al. paper I referenced has a 5000 km thick water mantle, but only the top 100 km of that would be liquid, which seems pretty shallow to me, considering. All of the higher phases of ice are denser than liquid water, and they form under pressure, so this conclusion seems pretty robust to me.

    2. Re:Higher Ice Phases by Daxx22 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Still, speaking in purely human concepts of scale, that's bloody deep.

  6. Re:something I could not figure out about waterwor by NevarMore · · Score: 2, Funny

    Peeing into a Mr. Coffee shouldn't have yielded drinkable water either.

  7. Re:something I could not figure out about waterwor by PPH · · Score: 3, Funny

    Peeing into a Mr. Coffee shouldn't have yielded drinkable water either.

    Evidently you've never woken up the morning after a frat party.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  8. Inaccurate article by plavchan · · Score: 5, Informative

    Contrary to what the article states, MEarth is not an amateur astronomy group. MEarth is headed by the former Discover Magazine's Scientist of the Year, Harvard professor David Charbonneau. The business of identifying tiny changes in the brightness in the star from among an ensemble of thousands of carefully selected targets is no easy task. That being said, many amateur scientists have been able to follow-up and confirm transiting planets. I say amateur, but many have telescope rigs and detectors costing upwards of $50k (USD). In that sense, the amateur community has contributed greatly to the follow-up of transiting planets. Also, the article mentions GJ 1214 to be 300 times "cooler" than the Sun. It's 300 times less luminous, not cooler (although the stellar surface is cooler by a factor of a few). I will wait for the confirmation of water from transit transmission and absorption spectroscopy.

  9. I'll say it... by shaitand · · Score: 4, Funny

    The real question on everyone's mind is when can we start having sex with the exotic natives?

  10. Re: one of the most essential compounds for life by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    There should totally be an x-prize for discovering a beer planet.

  11. Actually... by sycodon · · Score: 3, Funny

    With six times the mass of earth and subsequently higher gravity, any bi-pedal life from that evolves there will most certianly be able to kick your average human's ass.

    UFC will never be the same.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    1. Re:Actually... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Or find themselves unable to perpetuate itself on a planet with as weak a gravity as ours.

      It's also worth noting that "potential for life" thought excercise that went on a couple years ago where a nice sampling of biologists were speculating that a super-earth would have a large number of flying creatures as their atmospheres would be much thicker and thereby be more easily able to move about their environment.

    2. Re:Actually... by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 3, Informative

      With six times the mass of earth and subsequently higher gravity, any bi-pedal life from that evolves there will most certianly be able to kick your average human's ass.

      Umm, no. That particular planet has a surface gravity of 0.9g. Six times Earth's mass, but only 1/3 Earth's density....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    3. Re:Actually... by c6gunner · · Score: 2

      You're blaming them because your joke wasn't funny?

      A couple things you should know before you go any further:

      1. Slashdot is not a comedy club.
      2. It's narcissistic in the extreme to blame others for your personal failures.