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Astronomers To Announce Discovery of a Nearby 'Earth-Like' Planet (seeker.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the second-star-to-the-right dept.

astroengine quotes a report from Seeker: Scientists are preparing to unveil a new planet in our galactic neighborhood which is "believed to be Earth-like" and orbits its star at a distance that could favor life, German weekly Der Spiegel reported Friday. The exoplanet orbits a well-investigated star called Proxima Centauri, part of the Alpha Centauri star system, the magazine said, quoting anonymous sources.

"The still nameless planet is believed to be Earth-like and orbits at a distance to Proxima Centauri that could allow it to have liquid water on its surface -- an important requirement for the emergence of life," said the magazine.
It's orbiting our sun's nearest neighboring star -- just 4.25 light years away -- meaning it could someday be considered for the world's first interstellar mission.

6 of 347 comments (clear)

  1. interstellar mission by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    "meaning it could someday be considered for the world's first interstellar mission."

    This is the longest timescale for 'someday' ever. Not going to happen in the lifetime of any descendent we can imagine.

    If there was anyone on that planet, we could talk to them for sure. But no visiting is going to happen before humans cease to be creatures we recognise as the same as us.

    1. Re:interstellar mission by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Making an anti-matter powered rocket is doable with current technology

      Uhm, no. That would require:
      - an antimatter rocket engine
      - antimatter containment
      - antimatter

      None of those is "current technology". We can create beams of antimatter (particles, not even atoms), but with terrible efficiency.
      Of these, we can only trap a few dozens at a time, and not for very long. Once they escape containment, they disappear in a "puff" of gamma rays.
      If we could contain more antimatter, it would probably be used to build more powerful bombs first, so I'm kinda hoping it won't be in the near future.

    2. Re: interstellar mission by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Sorry to break this to you but solving interstellar travel will be orders of magnitude more difficult than every problem that man has ever overcome combined. Your mind is too pathetic to even imagine the scales involved.

    3. Re: interstellar mission by stevelinton · · Score: 3, Informative

      For the velocities in question (say > 10% of light speed) the sail would need to be accelerated using lasers -- sunlight isn't bright enough for a large enough proportion of the journey to be useful.

      For the same reason it would not get enough thrust from Proxima's light to brake to a stop (or slow down much as all) especially as Proxima is a dim red dwarf.

      It might be possible to do better with a magsail, but probably better to focus on recording as much data as possible during a fly-through and then transmitting it back to Earth over the succeeding years, much along the lines of New Horizons at Pluto. With a little cunning the sail can probably serve as the main antenna.

  2. Re:For values of 'nearby' that equal 'still very f by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Physics disagrees.

    http://www.space.com/32546-interstellar-spaceflight-stephen-hawking-project-starshot.html

  3. Re:Holy shitballs, all the sci-fi books were right by 110010001000 · · Score: 2, Informative

    The fastest probe we ever has built goes 0.023%. It is doubtful we will even get to 1%, ever.