Gliese 581d Confirmed as 'Habitable' Exoplanet

An anonymous reader writes "A rocky world orbiting a nearby star was confirmed (PDF) as the first planet outside our Solar System to meet key requirements for sustaining life." The "key requirement" was actually a Starbucks — astronomers were pretty surprised to find out that they like their coffee burnt on Gliese 581d too.

Comments

Re:300,000 years to get there

[spun]

You're making all that up out of whole cloth. You have no proof, because there is no proof, because it isn't true. You don't even understand what "Survival of the fittest" really means. But I'm sure you wouldn't mind if we came up with some sort of final solution to all these inferior people who are dragging down the true humans. You sick fuck.

Re:Gliese 581d in the 'Goldilocks Zone'

[PeterM from Berkeley]

Sir,

    You make it sound so simple. Are you familiar with the Biosphere 2 experiment? They attempted to set up an enclosed self-sustaining environment. They had problems keeping the oxygen balanced. They had wild fluctions of carbon dioxide. Their ecology didn't end up working as planned, with several of their original species being wiped out, and some unintended species coming to domination.

    IN THEORY, a self-sustaining colony on Antarctica is "easy", but I bet we would try 10x before we got it right.

    You're right about it NOT being a good comparison though. Antarctica is WAY easier than Mars ever could be. MUCH easier to get suitable raw materials and a nuke plant in operation, as you say, right here on Earth, rather than on Mars, and you wouldn't have the hassle of having a closed system for air.

    My original point remains: Mars is about as "habitable" as a rock is "edible." In fact, I'd argue that Mars is only marginally better to live on than an asteroid: either way you'd need a fully enclosed habitat. Mars is only better in these ways, it has gravity, and easier access to raw materials.

--PeterM

Re:300,000 years to get there

[Dishevel]

You're making all that up out of whole cloth. You have no proof, because there is no proof, because it isn't true.

Making what up? The fact that the poor and stupid breed more now. That more of them make it to breeding age?

You don't even understand what "Survival of the fittest" really means. But I'm sure you wouldn't mind if we came up with some sort of final solution to all these inferior people who are dragging down the true humans.

Never used the phrase "Survival of the fittest", but I do understand it.
Those who breed more successfully pass on their genes and that is the direction the species moves in.

You sick fuck.

Did you throw some words into my mouth and then get massively offended at what you wanted me to say?