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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.
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
Great, I'll warm up car. If we leave now, we should be there in about 700k years!
"...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.
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?
Unzervalt!
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.
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)
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.
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.
Wise young people who want to be able to earn and keep money vote conservative.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
There are earth like planets in this system too, doesn't mean we could live there
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.
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!
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.
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.
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
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.
... 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"
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"