Slashdot Mirror
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?
That would be perfect except the IAU already had a planet named Vulcan. It was thought to orbit inside of Mercury. Turns out Mercury just had a very elliptical orbit. Since they used it once, they typically wont use it again. Bummer.
- We dream of the stars. Now let us return to them.
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!
Perhaps they can call the planet "Krill" instead then.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
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.
Why does anyone pay ANY attention to ANYTHING from FLORIDA?
Considering the state is overrun with things that want to kill me, eat me, or kill me and eat me (including the weather and the local humans) there is plenty of reason to pay attention to things that come from Florida. Now, whether or not there is any intelligent life in Florida is another question but there is definitely plenty of reason to pay attention to things that come from there.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Japanese billionaire Yusaka Maezawa has requested a change of destination.
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
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
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.
I'm don't see how a 21% concentration limits the photodissociation rate in any way.
Ezekiel 23:20
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!
Actually it is relative affects caused by the Suns gravity that makes Mercury's orbit unpredictable with Newton mechanics and originally blamed on another planet. The first test of Einstein's theory was correctly plotting Mercury's orbit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
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.
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.
That would be perfect except the IAU already had a planet named Vulcan. It was thought to orbit inside of Mercury. Turns out Mercury just had a very elliptical orbit. Since they used it once, they typically wont use it again. Bummer.
Maybe Vulcan will just end up being the Springfield of planets.
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"?
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.
Rabies works s.t. like this