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Scientists Find 'Super-Earth' In Star System From 'Star Trek' (vice.com)
In a wonderful example of truth validating fiction, the star system imagined as the location of Vulcan, Spock's home world in Star Trek, has a planet orbiting it in real life. From a report: A team of scientists spotted the exoplanet, which is about twice the size of Earth, as part of the Dharma Planet Survey (DPS), led by University of Florida astronomer Jian Ge. It orbits HD 26965, more popularly known as 40 Eridani, a triple star system 16 light years away from the Sun. Made up of a Sun-scale orange dwarf (Eridani A), a white dwarf (Eridani B), and a red dwarf (Eridani C), this system was selected to be "Vulcan's Sun" after Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry consulted with astronomers Sallie Baliunas, Robert Donahue, and George Nassiopoulos about the best location for the fictional planet.
"An intelligent civilization could have evolved over the aeons on a planet circling 40 Eridani," Roddenberry and the astronomers suggested in a 1991 letter to the editor published in Sky & Telescope. The three stars "would gleam brilliantly in the Vulcan sky," they added. The real-life exoplanet, known as HD 26965b, is especially tantalizing because it orbits just within the habitable zone of its star, meaning that it is theoretically possible that liquid water -- the key ingredient for life as we know it -- could exist on its surface.
"An intelligent civilization could have evolved over the aeons on a planet circling 40 Eridani," Roddenberry and the astronomers suggested in a 1991 letter to the editor published in Sky & Telescope. The three stars "would gleam brilliantly in the Vulcan sky," they added. The real-life exoplanet, known as HD 26965b, is especially tantalizing because it orbits just within the habitable zone of its star, meaning that it is theoretically possible that liquid water -- the key ingredient for life as we know it -- could exist on its surface.
Except isn't this one a cold dead planet? Also it has like 8X the mass of Earth and 2X as big. How would gravity be there?
Unless someone is super attached to the current name HD 26965b i think its pretty necessary that we call it vulcan
meh.
Fascinating.
When it comes to determining whether a planet has "life as we know it", there is exactly one molecule that MUST be present that is ONLY present as far as we know on Earth. We only found it here and it is absolutely mandatory to exist for life, at least for life as we know it.
Chlorophyll.
It's pretty much the only (ok, you nitpickers, there are two forms of it, but either would do, and both have only been found here, so shush) molecule that's capable of generating energy out of sunlight, and any kind of life that goes beyond single celled organisms depends directly or indirectly on being able to generate power from photosynthesis.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
What, you didn't realize they were still warlike?
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Absolutely inaccurate.
We know so little about the kingdoms Bacteria and Archaea that rely on non photosynthetic processes that you cannot logically make that statement.
Great. At the speed of our currently fastest vehicle (Parker Solar Probe is supposed to get close to 700,000 km/h as it falls into the solar well), it would only take 25,000 years to get there. Don't miss out! Book now!
Why does anyone pay ANY attention to ANYTHING from FLORIDA?
You mean that big blackhole?
Too soon?
There are all kinds of communities of organisms around geothermal vents in the deep ocean that do not rely on chlorophyll.
Andoria should be nearby to Vulcan. Time to order a case of Andorian ale.
Oxygen. To have an atmosphere consisting of large quantities of O2 means *something* is continuously cracking it free from molecular bondage. It can occur natural without life. But to do so in large quantities, and continuously so as to not be locked up with other elements can only mean one thing. LIFE!
Please see the Great Oxygenation Event.
Life is not for the lazy.
on a some older description of an alien?
Japanese billionaire Yusaka Maezawa has requested a change of destination.
Actually isn't Halo in the same system?
The needs of the many (Star Trek nerds) outweigh the needs of the few (presumptive Vulcans).
Therefore, planet of 40 Eridani, we require your planet to be Vulcan! Prepare to be named and fanly invaded!
I am surprised that a planet around a triple star would have an orbit stable enough to last long enough for the "aeons" needed for life to evolve, unless so far out that the radius of its orbit was some orders of magnitude more than the maximum distance between the stars, in which case it might be too cold for life. Is that the case here?
In fact, unless the three stars form a spinning equilateral triangle, one of the stars must be much further away than the other two are from each other for the system to be even quasi-stable, so presumably any planets must be much further away than that if they are not to be ejected from the system or lapse into a very eccentric orbit within an evolutionary timescale.
What year were we supposed to make first contact? Should we send this Vulcan-ish planet some sort of signal to let them know we're ready (though are lagging on our warp drive tech)?
Great, and once you find multicellular organisms that exist without photosynthesis coming into play, we'll talk.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Oxygen in an atmosphere can also mean that what's available to be oxidized is already in a more stable configuration, or would require a higher activation energy than is available, i.e. pressure or temperature too low to start the reaction or something else inhibiting it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
(GOTO 10)
It's actually (GO 10), you know...
Ezekiel 23:20
Isn't it possible, under certain circumstances, to get large amounts of oxygen through photodissociation of water vapor in upper layers of planetary atmospheres? Obviously some conditions have to be "just right", for example gravity has to be high enough to keep the oxygen but low enough to let hydrogen escape reasonably quickly given the mean velocities of both species. And since oxygen might combine with elements in planetary crust, there needs to be a steady state established before oxygen starts accumulating. Perhaps absence of tectonic activity would help with that?
Ezekiel 23:20
Er, you know there are communities of multicellular life built around chemosynthetic organism at hydrothermal vents, yeah?
In a wonderful example of truth validating fiction, the star system imagined as the location of Vulcan, Spock’s home world in Star Trek, has a planet orbiting it in real life.
And yet....Vulcan's copper based blood was....green? I'm thinking this star having a planet is more of an educated guess panning out than any miracle validation.
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
.... and any kind of life that goes beyond single celled organisms depends directly or indirectly on being able to generate power from photosynthesis.
No. Just no.
You also seem to be placing a lot of emphasis on "it's only found here," when "here" is pretty much the only place we've really looked.
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
Not in 21% atmospheric concentration levels.
Shit, next we're going to find out that the planet is only inhabited by smoke monsters.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Did any of you actually read The Three Body Problem? I am way more worried we lack the hiding gene rather than if we have found Vulcans.
I'm don't see how a 21% concentration limits the photodissociation rate in any way.
Ezekiel 23:20
That molecule is the one that evolved on earth. Once evolved all descendants of the original individuals then would have had similar molecules. So of course it's the one we see throughout life on earth. But you cannot make the leap that independent trees of life would all use the same molecule. There are plenty of other molecules that would be capable of converting light into energy, Solar cells use no chlorophyll as one example. On another world an entirely different molecule could easily have risen to the fore, particularly if the light spectrum on that planet is different to on Earth.
Chlorophyll is the only molecule used by current Earth life for photosynthesis, that is, it absorbs energy from sunlight and CO2 from the environment to make energy and carbon compounds. But there are other molecules that convert sunlight into energy without carbon fixing, and Chlorophyll is not necessarily the only way to do the latter - just the one that happened to evolve first and be successful enough.
creimer is beyond a nuisance, he's like a mold that lives in the walls... You think it's not there, but it is. It lurks, subsisting on the moisture in the air and the film of nutrients on the drywall, waiting, waiting, waiting eternally.
Just when you think you removed it all, a spore you missed sprouts and it's back.
And it was a toxic waste product that changed the climate and genocided most of the life on the planet. Never forget this.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
By Burning fossil fuels, we're removing that "poison". Never forget that.
Bacteria found 2 miles underground needs photosynthesis? https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10336-gold-mine-holds-life-untouched-by-the-sun/
An energy gradient and a way to store information. On earth the energy gradients are created by thermal vents and the sun. Storage of information is RNA and DNA.
Look up phycocyanin, allophycocyanin, phycoerythrin, lycopene, and fucoxanthin.
Yeah, bacteria sure are advanced life. Call when they got as far as tool use.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Actually, we've been looking in other places. Chlorophyll is pretty easy to find, if it's present.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
.... this to be prophetic. Now we must work on that warp capable drive. Live long and prosper. \/
Bach says it all.
For life as we know it, it's pretty much mandatory if you want to go beyond fairly primitive life forms.
A silicon based life form that uses solar cells probably would not qualify as life as we know it, and the life that forms around black smokers on the bottom of oceans doesn't exactly qualify as something we'd expect to build spaceworthy transports.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Really? Where are these other places we've been looking for chlorophyll? Hell, where are the other places we've actually been to look for any organic molecules? A few spots on Mars... a couple spots on the moon... and where else in this unfathomably large universe? And then, assuming we find organic material, how again are we going to tell what it is? Are we packing a full IR in every probe.... an NMR... mass spec... gas chromo.? Knowing we've found organics is one thing, knowing what a complex organic actually is is another; simple things, sure, but at some point the complexity starts becoming an issue.
I think you are significantly overestimating the ability of the few probes/rovers we've actually put places to discern complex organics from each other, and vastly overestimating "where we've looked" in comparison to EVERYTHING, or even "just in this solar system;"wehaven't even gotten to the potentially fun moons yet.
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
Sure, but we're talking about oxygen levels at over 20% concentration levels. That's a lot of O2! Accumulation stayed at 3% between 2.5 billion and 700 million years ago. After that, it started rapidly accumulating before 600 million years ago reaching a peak concentration of 35% 300 million year ago before dropping back down to present levels..
Basically, O2 would immediately sequester and bind up with iron in the soil and other elements. Only until saturation was reached, did the concentration levels rapidly rise. Those levels must be maintained, that's the key. Should life die out on Earth, eventually the O2 levels would drop rapidly. So again, *something* has to be cracking O2 free and maintain that activity for a very long time to reach such concentration levels.
I'm not suggesting that life can only be identified through the presence of O2, but I am suggesting that should be the #1 focus when looking for life harboring exoplanets. The problem is getting enough of the scattered light from the atmospheres to measure the concentration; assuming we even have such sensitive instrumentation to make it feasible.
Life is not for the lazy.
Multicellular organisms don't need photosynthesis - they can eat the single-cell organisms that collect energy. Doesn't matter if the energy is harvested by clorophyll or by some other photochemical that works better on a different world with different chemical composition, different pressure, and a different spectrum of light from a star of a different class than the sun.
Was Star Trek so parochial and small minded that the next humanoid race was only 16 light years away???? In the Star Trek Universe is every Goldilocks world "habited"?
> it is absolutely mandatory to exist for life, at least for life as we know it
We are looking for any life, "as we know it" is "no true Scotsman".
> It's pretty much the only molecule that's capable of generating energy out of sunlight
It doesn't generate anything, it converts energy. There are other sources of energy then sunlight. "Pretty much" - you mean there is something else? Doesn't it make your claim pointless?
"the only molecule" - you claim this based on single data point you have. This is ridiculous. There is absolutely no reason for it to be the only possible mechanism. It can be inefficient in different atmosphere. Plant life could evolve completely differently in different circumstances.
If you think we are able to determine presence of complex molecule like chlorophyll light years away (and not even in atmosphere) you are so wrong it is not even funny.
As noted by the AC there are millions of such colonies where non-photosynthetic life is fed by Archaea thermophiles up to an including multi-cellular animal life that survive by feeding on the archaea processing sulfur that we already know about and study.
You should look into this a little more rather than relying on your ill-informed assumption that photo-synthesis is required for life as that hasn't been accepted theory for more than 20 years. The Bacteria and Archaea domains are almost entirely unstudied and we barely know anything about them yet we've learned enough to know that Archaea based communities of life exist all over the planet and represent entire ecosystems where archaea is producing the energy the entire ecosystem relies on. And we know about 100X more about Archaea than we do about the domain Bacteria which often live in oxygen and light free environments.
Life is far more complex than you realize.
OP is full of **it and he knows it.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
isn't there a bacteria/virus/something that makes rats unafraid of cats so that the rat can get eaten by the cat, passing the organism on to the cat, which then poops it out to be ingested by rats, continuing the cycle. Controlling another, much larger organism like a robot I would consider pretty advanced tool use.
--XYZZY--
Rabies works s.t. like this