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There's an Earth-like Planet With an Atmosphere Just 39 Light-years Away (washingtonpost.com)

Artem Tashkinov quotes a report from Washington Post: There are a lot of good reasons to be captivated by the exoplanet GJ 1132b. Located in the constellation Vela, it's a mere 39 light-years from Earth -- just a hop, skip and a jump in galactic terms. It's similar to Earth in terms of size and mass, and it dances in a close-in orbit around its star, a dimly burning red dwarf. And, astronomers recently discovered, it has an atmosphere. The finding, published in the Astronomical Journal, is the first detection of an atmosphere around a terrestrial "Earth-like" planet orbiting a red dwarf star -- and it suggests there could be millions more. Although the researchers call the planet "Earth-like," the term is only applicable in its broadest sense. GJ 1132b is so close to its sun that it more likely resembles Venus than Earth. Astronomers estimate its average temperature to be about 700 degrees Fahrenheit, and that's without taking into account the potential greenhouse effect of its atmosphere. It is also probably tidally locked, meaning that gravity keeps one side of the planet constantly facing the star, while the other is cast in permanent shadow. GJ 1132b would not make a cozy home for life -- at least, not life as we know it.

149 comments

  1. Translation by DatbeDank · · Score: 3, Interesting

    We found a planet let's imply it can support life! But wait it's not really able to do that since the surface is hotter than hell. But it's really close to us and orbits a geriatric star.

    Isn't that really cool guys?!?!

    Guys?

    crickets

    1. Re:Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It means "commit more funding to us and we promise we'll find the One True Next Earth!"

    2. Re:Translation by execthis · · Score: 1

      I was just going to reply and say that the surface temp is over 300C, way higher than what can support life. Not really sure why then there's any real significance to this story. Just another planet discovery. And it's not like that matters more than the fact that we're quicly destroying the only planet our species will ever live on.

    3. Re: Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If it is tidally locked, then the side facing away from the star will be ridiculously cold. There's also likely to be a zone near the day/night terminator that is temperate. On the minus side, this will be coupled with extreme weather conditions and really can't see the atmosphere lasting long.

    4. Re: Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Finding habitable planets gives us candidates that could be supporting life, maybe even intelligent life. We checked Earth already but unfortunately no intelligent life was found.

    5. Re:Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not really sure why then there's any real significance to this story. Just another planet discovery.

      Drama, feelings, trump facts these days.

    6. Re: Translation by edjs · · Score: 4, Informative

      If it has a Venus-like atmosphere, which seems likely that close to its star, the thick atmosphere might do a good job of diffusing, trapping, and spreading the heat around the planet. IIRC, despite it's nearly year-long day, Venus has a fairly uniform temperature all over the globe.

    7. Re: Translation by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

      If it is tidally locked, then the side facing away from the star will be ridiculously cold.

      Unless there's an atmosphere, in which case it will be ridiculously windy and hot.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    8. Re:Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's more important than that. We can detect planets close to their star much more easily since they have a very fast orbit time, and a lot of light hitting them. The discovery of one such planet implies that others will be found fairly soon, ones further from their stars, which need longer sampling times to detect.

    9. Re:Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Check the orbit time, 1.6 *days*. The fact is there are lot of planets out there and most do not have orbits 2 days. The ones so close to the sun are just easy to find because of the orbit sampling rate. It's just going to take longer to find ones with longer orbits that *aren't* hotter than hell.

    10. Re: Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Worst slashdot article EVER. Title says Earth-like. Everything good as you start reading, gets progressively worse. Oh, Venus-like more than Earth. Read a little more. Final sentence drops the bomb, probably can't even support life. WTF Earth-like planet is this? This is Mercury-like or Venus-like. I'm done with this site.

    11. Re:Translation by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Isn't that really cool guys?!?!

      Actually, yes. Yes it is. Very cool.

      As for the rest of your post, maybe you should go back and re-parse at least the summary.

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    12. Re:Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We found a planet let's imply it can support life! But wait it's not really able to do that since the surface is hotter than hell. But it's really close to us and orbits a geriatric star.

      Not really. Since a red dwarf will 'live' for a trillion years, it's only a little baby.

    13. Re:Translation by sconeu · · Score: 1
      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    14. Re:Translation by currently_awake · · Score: 1

      Depending on the atmosphere content and wind speed it might take long enough for heat to conduct to the other side that the temperature is livable. I would want to look for sheltered valleys away from trade winds on the cold side. Given that current engine tech tops out around 1%C with 10%C needing major R&D to achieve i don't expect any exploration within the next 1,000 years (baring FTL).

    15. Re: Translation by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      It orbits a star and it's probably made of rock. What more do you want?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    16. Re:Translation by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      700 F is well within the "lake of sulfur"-range. I'm not sure we can really claim it's "hotter than hell".

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    17. Re:Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Trashdot strikes again! This place is becoming the new buzzfeed due to shitty editors.

    18. Re: Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      um, how do you know that it's hotter than hell?

    19. Re: Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, it IS really cool.

    20. Re:Translation by martinfb · · Score: 1

      It is important when you think about it:
      By the time we get to this planet, we all will evolve to tolerate 700 degree days!
      This is obviously the Republican agenda!
      WOW! Aren't those guys insightful?!

      --


      Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
    21. Re:Translation by martinfb · · Score: 1

      Another translation - of YOUR reply:

      I do not get it. I presumed the title meant that it might support life. Guess I should read the content before jumping to conclusions.
      Damn the media! Stop leading me on! Stop making me look like an idiot, and work your titles more content-relative!

      Oh, wait. The title IS accurate for the content.....

      --


      Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
    22. Re:Translation by syntotic · · Score: 1

      People do need money to see the soil under their feet, usually.

    23. Re: Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      every celestial body is "earthlike" in comparison to some other. the sun is VERY earth like, compared to the milky way galaxy. spherical, no giant areas of vacuum, no black hole at its center. hey, look, a twin earth RIGHT IN OUR SYSTEM!

  2. Just 39 light years you say?? by pablo_max · · Score: 1

    Great, I'll warm up car. If we leave now, we should be there in about 700k years!

    1. Re:Just 39 light years you say?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can count the light decades on one hand!

    2. Re:Just 39 light years you say?? by martinfb · · Score: 1

      Silly twit!
      Cars have no road there yet!
      Warm up your rocket!

      --


      Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
  3. Only 78 years ago... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... Hitler invaded Poland.

    1. Re: Only 78 years ago... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      College students are stupid enough they'd vote Hitler for president, even now. They basically have voted for Hitler by putting Trump in office. Our world is fucked now that these stupid bastards are going to be voting and entering the workforce.

    2. Re: Only 78 years ago... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Kill yourself with a gun in the toilet, faggot

    3. Re: Only 78 years ago... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LOL! Looks like a butthurt faggot college student is crying like a typical millennial snowflake piece of shit. Dear Leader Trump can't help whiny faggots like you get a job because you're lazy piece of shit. Fuck you, you pink-skirted, cum-guzzling, shit-encrusted, lazy, fatass, motherfucking fuckstick. Get off your ass and get a goddamn job, you lazy shithead.

    4. Re: Only 78 years ago... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm with Hitlery!

    5. Re: Only 78 years ago... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Remind me, are you trolls pro or anti Trump this week? I hear he did something recently that so annoyed the 4chan crowd they stopped masturbating for a whole 5 minutes, a new record.

    6. Re: Only 78 years ago... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      GRAB MY PUSSY!

    7. Re: Only 78 years ago... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      College students are stupid enough they'd vote Hitler for president, even now. They basically have voted for Hitler by putting Trump in office. Our world is fucked now that these stupid bastards are going to be voting and entering the workforce.

      When you've fucked things up enough that even Hitler looks like an improvement, what does that say about you? After 70 years of liberals calling the shots, people are starting to think Hitler is worth a second look. They may be on to something...

  4. Re: Need to go 40x faster than light to get there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah right. Look here, politics is all about the money. Young people and poor people who want money vote for liberals to fill their pockets. Old people and rich people who have money vote for conservatives to keep out of their pockets.

  5. We care...about cozy? by geekmux · · Score: 1

    "...would not make a cozy home for life -- at least, not life as we know it."

    Since we've moved on from that boring place we call the moon and are heading to Mars, I'm struggling to believe we care about "cozy" with any venture beyond our planet. Radiation isn't exactly a warm blanket to snuggle up with.

    1. Re:We care...about cozy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unicorn startup idea right there. Heated blanket powered by cosmic rays. Grab your billions dude.

    2. Re:We care...about cozy? by execthis · · Score: 1

      I really can't understand what the fascination with Mars is. Even building some kind of habitat in the middle of the ocean, or under the ocean, or under a desert, buried in Antarctica, etc. is far far preferable to what Mars will ever be. Why throw money away on it? Send robots there, yes. Live there? Just seems crazy.

    3. Re:We care...about cozy? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

      Mars can be "terra formed".
      It probably only takes 100 - 200 years to do so.
      It is in our solar system.
      It likely once had life.

      or under the ocean, or under a desert, buried in Antarctica
      In your eyes ... not in mine. Why should I live "under ground" on earth when I have a desert sky on Mars? I would love to see a sunrise or sunset on Mars ... underground in Antarctica: no chance.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    4. Re:We care...about cozy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly why go to Mars when we should find Atlantis instead.

    5. Re:We care...about cozy? by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      The only reason I can think of is that it will be a good way to practice terraforming that we can use later here on Earth.

    6. Re:We care...about cozy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just terraform the moddle east and who cares if the sandnoggers all die.

    7. Re:We care...about cozy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mars can be "terra formed"

      No. Mars has no magnetosphere and so all terraforming efforts will fail.

    8. Re:We care...about cozy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Musk will fix the magnet sphere problem when he builds a hyper loop around the Musky Planet.

    9. Re:We care...about cozy? by execthis · · Score: 2

      No way. Planetary astrobiology is a well-established science and basically Mars is not capable of supporting life. It has no atmosphere and more critically has no carbon cycle and never will have one because it has no tectonic activity.

    10. Re:We care...about cozy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why should I live "under ground" on earth when I have a desert sky on Mars? I would love to see a sunrise or sunset on Mars ... underground in Antarctica: no chance.

      Because, apparently, you have no idea what you are talking about. Just a naive view on a "sunset on Mars". I agree with the OP: why do so many people dream of Mars, where there is nothing and where you will be forced to spend the rest of your days in harsh conditions, costing a billion times as much (per person) as keeping our well-fitted planet in better shape.

    11. Re:We care...about cozy? by sg_oneill · · Score: 2

      Mars can be "terra formed".

      No magnetosphere. Its terraformable. Your oxygen would float odd into space, and

      --
      Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
    12. Re:We care...about cozy? by geekmux · · Score: 1

      ...Why should I live "under ground" on earth when I have a desert sky on Mars? I would love to see a sunrise or sunset on Mars ... underground in Antarctica: no chance.

      Speaking of no chance, in another 200 years we'll likely be living underground no matter what planet we're on.

      We'll fuck up the environment and atmosphere so bad on this planet we'll have no choice but to go underground, and your fantasies of a Martian sunrise will be aglow with enough radiation to ensure we'll be living underground on that planet too.

    13. Re:We care...about cozy? by Raenex · · Score: 0

      I really can't understand what the fascination with Mars is.

      Manifest destiny. To spread humanity beyond planet Earth, to other planets, and ultimately to other stars. You could ask, "Why?", and the likely answer is evolution instilled the desire for life to spread. You could be a nihilist about the whole thing, but others have loftier goals for humanity.

    14. Re:We care...about cozy? by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Other stars are too far, and going through insane amounts of trouble just to add an extremely inhospitable desert to the Earth isn't really worth it. If humanity ends here on Earth, then a Mars colony isn't going to last much longer.

    15. Re:We care...about cozy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh yes it does. Only once a year but still. Google for Amundsen-Scott sunset.

    16. Re:We care...about cozy? by Raenex · · Score: 0

      Other stars are too far, and going through insane amounts of trouble just to add an extremely inhospitable desert to the Earth isn't really worth it.

      Same could be said about explorers, and the immigrants that followed, crossing an ocean to discover and settle the Americas. But I don't think we should go crazy getting to Mars and beyond. If we just keep taking baby steps we'll get there eventually.

      If humanity ends here on Earth, then a Mars colony isn't going to last much longer.

      If a life-ending asteroid impacted the Earth, Mars could stand a chance as a backup. But even if humanity lasted on Earth until the Sun made it inhabitable, it would be a sad legacy if we never spread our wings beyond our home planet.

    17. Re:We care...about cozy? by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      it would be a sad legacy if we never spread our wings beyond our home planet.

      Yeah, well, unless the aliens are watching who's gonna know?

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    18. Re:We care...about cozy? by KeensMustard · · Score: 1

      You know the most interesting thing about manifest destiny is that it doesn't exist. It's just a made up thing.

    19. Re:We care...about cozy? by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Same could be said about explorers, and the immigrants that followed, crossing an ocean to discover and settle the Americas.

      The Americas weren't exactly an extremely inhospitable desert, like Mars is. The explorers had breathable air, potable water, fertile ground, moderate temperatures, and no deadly radiation.

      If a life-ending asteroid impacted the Earth, Mars could stand a chance as a backup

      Our ancestors have survived billions of years here on Earth, going through multiple large impacts. At least some people will survive the next big one, and if you're really desperate, we could build a huge bunker in a mountain, with supplies for a few decades, for a fraction of the price of a Mars colony.

    20. Re:We care...about cozy? by execthis · · Score: 1

      When I read your comment it makes me feel really sad. If you are so completely blind as to how sick the human species is and to how appalling the destruction that the species is causing to it's home planet that you can speak of things like some kind of higher destiny or evolution with regard to spreading to another planet, you are truly lost.

      I can only give you a hint and say that evolution and manifest destiny, for a species that was not competely fucked, would not involve mass destruction of a precious web of life which took many millions of years to evolve because it couldn't ifgure out what the fuck it was doing.

      So yeah, before the species can even remotely get it's shit together and not behave in the most abject, appalling, unnoble manner conceivable you can speak of evolution - it's clear to me that these horrible things occur precisely because of the type of ignorance you espouse here. Sad.

    21. Re:We care...about cozy? by Raenex · · Score: 1

      Yeah, well, unless the aliens are watching who's gonna know?

      And if we all decided to collectively commit suicide nobody would know, either. I don't think "who's gonna know" is a compelling argument. If your approach is a form of nihilism then there's nothing to discuss. You'll find that approach compelling, and I will not.

    22. Re:We care...about cozy? by Raenex · · Score: 1

      The Americas weren't exactly an extremely inhospitable desert, like Mars is. The explorers had breathable air, potable water, fertile ground, moderate temperatures, and no deadly radiation.

      And yet, for all practical purposes, it was extremely dangerous and "not really worth it".

      Our ancestors have survived billions of years here on Earth, going through multiple large impacts.

      Yes, but that doesn't rule out the possibility that we'll encounter one we won't survive. But my ultimate argument is for humanity to have loftier goals beyond merely surviving on Earth until the Sun makes the planet inhospitable.

    23. Re:We care...about cozy? by Raenex · · Score: 1

      You know the most interesting thing about manifest destiny is that it doesn't exist. It's just a made up thing.

      It exists as I laid it out. Maybe for you evolution, instincts, and drives are just a "made up thing".

    24. Re:We care...about cozy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If a life-ending asteroid impacted the Earth, Mars could stand a chance as a backup.

      Earth will still be a better place, even after an steroid strike.

    25. Re:We care...about cozy? by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      In about 5 billion years, the sun will be a red giant with a diameter about the size of Earth's orbit. Earth will not be a good place to live then; Mars seems like a much better bet.

      Earth's moon, Mars, and Titan are the likeliest targets for extraterrestrial colonization. Why choose just one?

      In a thousand or ten thousand years technology is going to be a great deal more advanced than it is now. Setting up a civilization in one of those places isn't going to seem as terribly difficult as it does now.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    26. Re:We care...about cozy? by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      OK, how about a solar powered superconducting loop magnet around Mars' equator?

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    27. Re:We care...about cozy? by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      And yet, for all practical purposes, it was extremely dangerous and "not really worth it".

      The explorers and immigrants went back, so it was clearly worth it. On the other hand, very few people are attracted to living in Siberia, the Australian outback, the Gobi desert, or Antarctica, all much more pleasant than Mars.

      But my ultimate argument is for humanity to have loftier goals beyond merely surviving on Earth until the Sun makes the planet inhospitable.

      I suggest we wait another 1000 years. Either we've completely collapsed, in which case having a colony on Mars wouldn't have helped, or we're much more advanced, in which case a Mars colony will be easier to establish.

    28. Re:We care...about cozy? by Raenex · · Score: 1

      When I read your comment it makes me feel really sad. If you are so completely blind as to how sick the human species is and to how appalling the destruction that the species is causing to it's home planet that you can speak of things like some kind of higher destiny or evolution with regard to spreading to another planet, you are truly lost.

      And when I read your comment it makes me sad, but also somewhat disgusted, too, for your self-loathing. For you are so blind as to believe that humans are somehow unique in our desire to do what life does, which is go forth and prosper, often at the expense of other life. It's just that we're really good at it. You think the universe is some kind of sterile and pristine place that humans should not touch, or that we are "destroying" this planet.

      Newsflash for you buddy, the "planet" has gone through much worse and will go through much worse. As just one example:

      "Over geologic time sea level has fluctuated by hundreds of meters. Today's interglacial level is near historic highs and is 130 meters above the low level reached during the Last Glacial Maximum 19,000-20,000 years ago."

      I can only give you a hint and say that evolution and manifest destiny, for a species that was not competely fucked, would not involve mass destruction of a precious web of life which took many millions of years to evolve because it couldn't ifgure out what the fuck it was doing.

      Nature is cruel: "More than 99 percent of all species, amounting to over five billion species, that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct."

      It's not that I think we shouldn't strive to be better stewards to the planet, but neither should we sit around and flog ourselves for our failings.

      Sad.

      Go cry yourself to sleep then, because you typed your comment on a computer that reached my computer through infrastructure developed on an industrial scale, and there are dozens of similar modern conveniences you take for granted on a daily basis.

    29. Re:We care...about cozy? by ChrisMaple · · Score: 2

      The relevant question is "How fast would a Martian atmosphere dissipate?" If we could charge it up once and have it last a million years, that would be good enough to make practical use of the Martian surface.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    30. Re:We care...about cozy? by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      In a thousand or ten thousand years technology is going to be a great deal more advanced than it is now

      Or maybe not. Civilizations have busted before.

    31. Re:We care...about cozy? by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      The most widely accepted hypothesis for Earth's moon is that it resulted from a collision of Earth and another body. No macroscopic life survives that, probably no life at all.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
    32. Re:We care...about cozy? by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Nature is cruel [wikipedia.org]: "More than 99 percent of all species, amounting to over five billion species, that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct."

      And at some point in time, humans will be one of the 99%. Big deal.

    33. Re:We care...about cozy? by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      That happened before life developed. And it's not going to happen again, because there's no other big body around.

    34. Re:We care...about cozy? by Raenex · · Score: 1

      The explorers and immigrants went back, so it was clearly worth it.

      They had to get there in the first place without knowing it was "worth it". And other than the fact that the immigrants made the judgment to go back, looking at it from a detached perspective it's hard to make a rational case that it was "worth it" on any individual level.

      On the other hand, very few people are attracted to living in Siberia, the Australian outback, the Gobi desert, or Antarctica, all much more pleasant than Mars.

      And yet there are people living in all those environments now. It must be "worth it", then. And there are plenty of people who alive right now who would be willing and desire to be a colonist of Mars. So by your own standard, it would be "worth it".

      I suggest we wait another 1000 years.

      I suggest we make continual baby steps instead of sitting on our hands. In a 1000 years time we might have already terraformed Mars by then.

    35. Re:We care...about cozy? by Raenex · · Score: 1

      And at some point in time, humans will be one of the 99%. Big deal.

      To quote myself from elsewhere in this thread: "You could be a nihilist about the whole thing, but others have loftier goals for humanity." And: " If your approach is a form of nihilism then there's nothing to discuss. You'll find that approach compelling, and I will not."

    36. Re:We care...about cozy? by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      They had to get there in the first place without knowing it was "worth it"

      Columbus mistakenly thought the Earth was smaller. He wasn't exploring new land, he was taking a shortcut to the East. After they realized what happened, they decided it was worth it to go back.

      And there are plenty of people who alive right now who would be willing and desire to be a colonist of Mars. So by your own standard, it would be "worth it".

      They haven't tried it yet. I'm pretty sure the novelty will wear off quickly once they get there. But hey, as long as they're using their own money to get there, I'll be cheering for them.

    37. Re:We care...about cozy? by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      We're almost the same. You're a nihilist regarding 99% of the species. I include the other 1% as well.

    38. Re:We care...about cozy? by Raenex · · Score: 1

      You're a nihilist regarding 99% of the species.

      No, as I said, I believe we should strive to be better stewards of the planet. I'm just putting things into perspective, and don't believe we should flog ourselves into paralysis over it.

      I include the other 1% as well.

      Congratulations, and good bye.

    39. Re:We care...about cozy? by Greyfox · · Score: 1

      I've been wondering if you could just push a bunch of mass from the asteroid belt to it and start one up. Granted, we won't be pushing mass around like that any time soon, and the hippies would still complain that we're "disrupting the planet's natural ecosystem", but that sounds like a fun project to me.

      --

      I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    40. Re:We care...about cozy? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Yo Mama!

      (sorry)

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    41. Re:We care...about cozy? by Camel+Pilot · · Score: 1

      Mars can be "terra formed"

      No. Mars has no magnetosphere and so all terraforming efforts will fail.

      You mean it requires a DIY magnetosphere... A superconducting coil around the equator coupled with a nuclear power plant... switch on.

    42. Re:We care...about cozy? by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      But it isn't going to happen. You cannot live on Mars. In fact, we cannot live anywhere else than Earth. Everything within traveling distance is not habitable. You can have all the goals you want, but that won't make them happen.

    43. Re:We care...about cozy? by currently_awake · · Score: 1

      Slam an asteroid into Mars and the outgassing will make you an atmosphere and melt ice for water. Add a magnetosphere and a large mirror orbiting the sun to increase sunlight and it's livable.

    44. Re:We care...about cozy? by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      "In a thousand or ten thousand years technology is going to be a great deal more advanced than it is now."

      And this is the crux of the Space Nutter argument. They have seen technological progress in their lifetime due to the advent of digital computers. They then project that progress to everything. Why, in a thousand years my iPhone will be smaller than a pin and contain 2 billion pentabytes of memory! We will be traveling at lightspeed, or even faster. Why wouldn't we? Things always progress forever, right?

    45. Re:We care...about cozy? by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Sure, lets just order a magnetosphere from Home Depot. Classic Space Nutter.

    46. Re:We care...about cozy? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      It takes millions of years to strip the atmosphere ...
      And you can create an artificial magnetosphere. There was an article/story about it here on /. a few weeks ago.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    47. Re:We care...about cozy? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      One impact extinguished the dinosaurs.
      If the next impact is big enough no person or land living mamal as big or bigger as a human will survive.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    48. Re:We care...about cozy? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      How do you come to the idea that the collision that formed the moon happend befor life developed?

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    49. Re:We care...about cozy? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      You are wrong.
      Actually most scientists believe that Mars once harbourded life.
      The atmosphere has more CO2 than Earth (in total, not in percentages) ... no idea about what magical carbon cycle you are talking. Tectonics has nothing to so with life on earth.

      Heat up mars by 20 degrees C, and I guess life evolves by itself.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    50. Re:We care...about cozy? by KeensMustard · · Score: 1
      You've just asserted something is true without proof.

      Manifest Destiny is a faith - a faith that I, and many others, do not share.

    51. Re:We care...about cozy? by execthis · · Score: 1

      OMG HTF can you even speak of prospering when this is happening? If you think it's some minor thing now, check back in .2K years when the human population has quintupled and every conceivable thing that can be burned will have been burned, not to mention the unimaginable social chaos and mass suffering that will no doubt exist.

    52. Re:We care...about cozy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean it requires a DIY magnetosphere

      No, I mean all terraforming efforts will fail due to the lack of a magnetosphere.

      A superconducting coil around the equator coupled with a nuclear power plant... switch on.

      Don't be stupid.

    53. Re:We care...about cozy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good luck. You're going to need it.

    54. Re:We care...about cozy? by execthis · · Score: 1

      You are wrong. Carbon cycle/plate tectonics is necessary for life. Read "The Life and Death of Planet Earth" which was co-authored by the founder of planetary astrobiology (or whatever it's called, I can't remember the exact name).

    55. Re:We care...about cozy? by Raenex · · Score: 1

      OMG HTF can you even speak of prospering when this [Holocene extinction] is happening?

      I already told you.

      If you think it's some minor thing now, check back in .2K years when the human population has quintupled

      Current projections show populations starting to level off.

      not to mention the unimaginable social chaos and mass suffering that will no doubt exist

      Conditions have generally improved for people as technology has increased. Anyways, you can wail and gnash your teeth all you like, I'd prefer to see humanity go beyond planet Earth and try and make the best of it.

    56. Re:We care...about cozy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It takes millions of years to strip the atmosphere

      While you get irradiated in the mean time.

      And you can create an artificial magnetosphere

      Unmitigated bullshit.

    57. Re: We care...about cozy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not necessary for any life, it was just an important part of this life arising on this planet.

    58. Re:We care...about cozy? by HanzoSpam · · Score: 2

      In theory, Mars could be terraformed. It practice, we just don't have the technology to do it yet.

      I suspect we have the technology to establish a laboratory base there, but the effort and overhead required to just stay alive there would make accomplishing any actual research a side project. And it certainly wouldn't be self-sufficient. The soil is poisonous to any earth crops, the radiation levels are fatal and the atmosphere is so thin that the lack of air pressure would kill you even if it was breathable. True, establishing an artificial magnetic field would address the atmosphere issue, but again, we don't have sufficient technology to do that. We just aren't ready yet.

      The more we learn about Mars, the less I'm convinced colonizing it would be practical, at least with our current state of technology. And I suspect there are a lot of things we don't know about ourselves, and about living in the Martian environment, that we're only going to find out the hard way. For example, we didn't know that we're dependent on certain kinds of bacteria living in our intestines to digest our food until fairly recently. What else are we dependent on that we're not yet aware of?

      I support the effort, because you don't learn without trying, but I expect we're going to pay a high price for it. Both financially and in terms of lost lives.

      --

      Progressivism: Parasites helping parasites to help themselves - to other people's stuff.
    59. Re:We care...about cozy? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Mars is not Earth.
      Mars has more CO2 in total in the atmosphere than Earth has.

      Life on Mars does not "need" a carbon cycle. Perhaps it will die when all the CO2 is "consumed" as in deposited somewhere. But, plate tectonics per se is not needed to have a life cycle or carbon cycle. Actually plate tectonics is sucking away CO2 ... but only in the sense that limestone etc. gets sucked down into the earth. It is not necessary to "replenish" the CO2 levels.

      I doubt the current earth "needs" a carbon cycle. It was perhaps necessary to develop life, but it is not plausible that it is necessary to keep earth "alife".

      Anyway, an interesting read. I read something similar 20 years ago.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    60. Re:We care...about cozy? by martinfb · · Score: 1

      Seems to me that Mars has possibilities. Even terra-forming seems potentially possible.
      Such an endeavor would take a long time, so the sooner we start, the better!

      --


      Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
    61. Re:We care...about cozy? by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      I've been wondering if you could just push a bunch of mass from the asteroid belt to it and start one up.

      There is a limit to how fast you can deliver mass to the planet. The arriving mass heats the atmosphere and removes appreciable amounts of it. Between deliveries (impacts larger than the Chixulub impact), you need time for the heat to dissipate.

      Which blows, if you'll pardon the pun, Mr Angel's couple of centuries time scale out of the water. The time to collect a large proportion of the asteroids and get them onto courses that would intersect with Mars' is non-trivial too.

      We'll colonise the asteroids dozens to hundreds of human generations before the first "human" walks 100m on the surface of Mars in their bare skin, before collapsing into the arms of pressure-suited paramedics.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    62. Re:We care...about cozy? by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      On the other hand, very few people are attracted to living in Siberia,

      I can put some numbers on that.

      The price that my wife was paid to move to work in Siberia was a 50% pay increase (compared to the same job in European Russia), and the possibility to retire on 3x normal pension at 50, to anywhere else in Russia. Both her mother and several friends had followed precisely that track. It's a price (for central government) to pay to get people to live there, but not exactly a massive price.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    63. Re:We care...about cozy? by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      In about 5 billion years, the sun will be a red giant with a diameter about the size of Earth's orbit.

      True. But irrelevant.

      In another billion years, the Sun will be some 5% brighter than presently (something it has done every billion years for the last 4 billion years). Some time about then, the amount of water vapour that puts into the atmosphere will reach a point of feedback that will boil the oceans in a few million years. Because the largest part of the greenhouse effect that makes the Earth habitable is due to water vapour, and only a fairly small amount to the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    64. Re:We care...about cozy? by painandgreed · · Score: 1

      No way. Planetary astrobiology is a well-established science and basically Mars is not capable of supporting life. It has no atmosphere and more critically has no carbon cycle and never will have one because it has no tectonic activity.

      You are explaining why Mars would have to be terraformed, not why it couldn't be. However, the energies, materials, and times needed to do so are what one would expect on remodeling a planet. If we gather the needed material to give Mars an atmosphere from ridiculously nearby comets in the oort cloud, the energy needed to do that in a century is measured in days total energy output of the sun. Once you're working on those scales, restoring the atmosphere or even creating some sort of shield to prevent its loss, along with making the surface habitable are pretty much doable. Even mining nearby moons of Saturn for an atmosphere would still be on the same scale. A better way might be to just build factories on Mars and smelt iron for building things there and thus create industrial release of gases such as we are currently doing with burning fossil fuels. Still, you'd be looking at jump starting the project by building a city sized space station on Mars with support mines and then having to deal with the lack of H, N, and C we find so useful. Even then, I suspect the timetable would be based in centuries.

    65. Re:We care...about cozy? by painandgreed · · Score: 1

      Mars can be "terra formed".

      No magnetosphere. Its terraformable. Your oxygen would float odd into space, and

      Once you're bothering to create an atmosphere to terraform it even on a time table of centuries, the losses due to such are trivial. With the energy requirements to build such an atmosphere, creating some sort of magnetosphere or block from solar wind would also be doable.

    66. Re:We care...about cozy? by painandgreed · · Score: 1

      Slam an asteroid into Mars and the outgassing will make you an atmosphere and melt ice for water. Add a magnetosphere and a large mirror orbiting the sun to increase sunlight and it's livable.

      Thing is that we'd essentially need about a thousand comets the size of Halley' Comet to give Mars a thin but breathable atmosphere. Where to find such comets and how to move things that big, is one hell of a problem.

    67. Re:We care...about cozy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      VERY well said. we NEED to explore beyond this planet... we need to journey outward and explore for many reasons, not eh least being the solutions it may give us to KEEP this planet pristine for humanity and the other species living here... and manifest destiny, and to use the intelligence we have, and to do ANYTHING other than sit here with our sob stories about "oh god we humans all need to die, we are so horrible."

  6. Re: COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE LAZY ASSHOLES by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was fucking the bitch when it died too. I'm going to get me a new dog as soon as I can find a pug in the pound.

  7. Re: COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE LAZY ASSHOLES by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The pound? No way, they're goverment, you need to find a good street dog with slutty eyelashes.

  8. Tidal lock means a hot side and a cold side... by doug141 · · Score: 0

    There might be a goldilocks zone, plus temperature differentials are a source of energy.

  9. Sounds like that prison planet in Riddick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Crematoria is a harsh planet with 52 hour days, the surface of the planet is not habitable, as the temperatures are in the wild extremes; One would be incinerated if in the sunlight, or frozen solid at night.
    http://riddick.wikia.com/wiki/Crematoria

    1. Re:Sounds like that prison planet in Riddick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You don't have to invoke any sci-fi; instead just look at our own solar system. Mercury is tidally locked and has surface temperatures of 800F/430C on the day side, and -280F/-170C on the night side. Where do you think they got the idea from?

    2. Re:Sounds like that prison planet in Riddick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      You don't have to invoke any sci-fi; instead just look at our own solar system. Mercury is tidally locked and has surface temperatures of 800F/430C on the day side, and -280F/-170C on the night side. Where do you think they got the idea from?

      Mercury is not tidally locked to the Sun. Mercury's rotates exactly three times for every two times it revolves around the Sun.

    3. Re:Sounds like that prison planet in Riddick by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      Mercury is not tidally locked to the Sun. Mercury's rotates exactly three times for every two times it revolves around the Sun.

      ... and people (outside the original AC's environment, it seems) have known that since approximately 1962. do try to keep up, ACs.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  10. BULLSHIT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1x light speed will do just fine; we can leave now - what happens after we leave doesn't matter. Duh!

  11. Excellent - Kristoff Morgan approves this message by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The fact that the planet is tidally locked with Venus like conditions might potentially allow for a regions of the planet to have different thermal characteristics that might be more suitable for colonization. Similar gravity characteristics, atmosphere for resource extraction (fuel, life support), high potential for water vapor possibly pooling water in certain thermal regions and radiation suppression due to atmosphere and static position due to no spin. The tidally locked aspect brings about interesting dynamics to the calculation of achieving colonization

  12. Vela - it must be... by BlueLightning · · Score: 1
  13. Not Earth Like! by jwhyche · · Score: 1

    Please stop calling it "earth like" when it isn't.

    --
    I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    1. Re:Not Earth Like! by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      It's Life Jim! But not as we know it.

    2. Re:Not Earth Like! by Chelloveck · · Score: 1

      Yup. "Rocky and roughly the right size" is a long way away from "Earth-like". Let's reserve that term for when we find something that is, you know, like Earth. As an absolute minimum requirement I'd propose that an "Earth-like" planet must have conditions somewhere on the surface that allow an open pool of water to remain a liquid. Ideally I'd reserve the term to be used for a planet on which you could stand naked and take a deep breath without dying, but until we find a planet like that I'll go with "liquid water stays liquid".

      --
      Chelloveck
      I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
    3. Re:Not Earth Like! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why do we have to read your idiotic crap then?

    4. Re:Not Earth Like! by jwhyche · · Score: 2

      I think "earth like" should mean it has the potential to have life as we know it. It doesn't have to have life but there is enough there that we could terraform it and move in. This would include size, gravity, position in orbit as relative to star to harbor life, and liquid iron core with magnetic field. Actually having water on the surface would be a plus but not necessary. With a big enough oort cloud we could import water and even make a atmosphere.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
  14. Extremophiles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Extremophiles we have life here on Earth that lives in hotter environments.

  15. little chance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    all it takes is a shift in orbit ( thats happened many times to our own earth)

    and ROASTY TOASTY

    so ill say there is a 99.999999999999999999999999999999999 % chance of no life on such worlds

  16. Re:FUCK YOU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mom, stop posting on my websites!

  17. Re: Excellent - Kristoff Morgan approves this mess by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Colonization of a planet 39ly away is pure scifi. Not going to happen unless we develop some radically different physics. Otherwise the journey alone will take over half a million years.

  18. Re:COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE LAZY ASSHOLES by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

    Wow, kids with early 4chan accounts are now assistant professors. Let that sink in a while.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  19. It lacks the most important thing for evolution. by rew · · Score: 2

    One of the important things for evolution is cycles.

    If you have a primitive lifeform ready-to-evolve, but the food that it uses to grow is too sparse to sustain a growing population, everybody dies. Game over.

    If you have a primitive lifeform and the environment is just perfect for these lifeforms, they will explode to a uniform big soup of life, but as everybody lives, there is not really an incentive to evolve. Sure there might be competition, but the genes that are slightly better will not overpower the whole population. They might gain a bigger share than initially, but they will not take over the whole group.

    For evolution to happen, the situation needs to be "plentiful" at some points in time, and scarce in others. This is what happens when you have a moon that runs around the planet every 30 days, inducing a tide every 12 hours, causing more and less light during the night in a 30 day cycle, a slightly tilted rotation of the planet. 24hour days, seasons. 11 year solar cycle.

    This causes a large sample of individuals to arise during plentiful times. Then when things get really harsh, the better individuals survive and the others die off.

  20. Re:It lacks the most important thing for evolution by religionofpeas · · Score: 2

    If you have a primitive lifeform and the environment is just perfect for these lifeforms, they will explode to a uniform big soup of life, but as everybody lives, there is not really an incentive to evolve

    As the population grows, they'll exhaust the food supply, and the population will crash again. There are your cycles.

  21. Re: Need to go 40x faster than light to get there by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

    Wise young people who want to be able to earn and keep money vote conservative.

    --
    Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  22. Venus and Mars are alrghit tonight by rossdee · · Score: 1

    There are earth like planets in this system too, doesn't mean we could live there

    1. Re:Venus and Mars are alrghit tonight by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      We can live on 1 out of 3 earth like planets in our solar system. Not too bad.

    2. Re:Venus and Mars are alrghit tonight by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      If you mean Earth, then you are correct. If you mean Mars, you are not correct. We cannot live on Mars, no matter how hard people wish we could.

  23. Re: Excellent - Kristoff Morgan approves this mess by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

    Well, I for one, would welcome our new physics overlords.

    I'm really getting tired of the Standard Model, Relativity and Quantum Mechanics.

    Probably nonexistent cats, tensor math, horrible car analogies.

    There just has got to be a better way.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  24. Re: Excellent - Kristoff Morgan approves this mes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Standard Model has flaws and doesn't explain lots of things. I hear they were working on String Theory but the end dangled into the box with the cat in it.

  25. WTF by louden+obscure · · Score: 1

    Maybe I read the title wrong; it seems to imply some distant planet's atmosphere is 39 light years away from that planet.

    --
    Serenity now, insanity later.
  26. Re: Need to go 40x faster than light to get there by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

    Key words right there, "want to be able to earn" The problem is the self entitlement issue of our country. Nobody wants to earn anything anymore, they want it given to them for free.

  27. 39 light years is nothing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can get there in one jump in my Asp Explorer. The only problem this is clearly not an earth like planet. It isn't even worth 30 seconds of my time to scan it.

    1. Re:39 light years is nothing by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      Asps can only carry 7LY worth of Qurium for their witchspace engines like every other craft in the Ooniverse. Put more Qurium in one container, and you're going to get a big, big bang.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  28. Great news! by John+Allsup · · Score: 1

    At warp 5 we can get there in about 3 months, and at high warp perhaps a few hours. It'll be just like how it was with transatlantic travel in the 19th and 20th centuries!

    --
    John_Chalisque
    1. Re:Great news! by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Yes, because space is a lot like the ocean, and a 700 degree planet is a lot like Earth.

  29. Re: Need to go 40x faster than light to get there by currently_awake · · Score: 1

    People who vote Republican are foolish to believe the 1% will not take their money, people who vote Democrat are foolish to believe the government will hand out free money.

  30. Re:It lacks the most important thing for evolution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You realize that you just explained why Africans and Europeans are so different, right? There was no culling winter in Africa.