Gliese 518G

[Wood~Ant]

Did anyone watch the Stephen Hawkins Universe on Channel 4 the other night? It mentions a new planet called Gliese 518g which is 7 times larger than our own Earth, but appears to have the right conditions for supporting life, human or otherwise
The fastest thing we have ever sent out into space is the Voyager space probe, and that travels at 11 miles per second; but even at that speed it would take 350,000 years to reach Gliese, as it is 20 light years away from us, so we haven't got the technology yet. Though maybe in time we might discover how to travel at the speed of light as we have come a long way over the past 1,000 years, or even the last 200 when you come to think about it
www.channel4.com/programmes/stephen-hawkings-universe/4od

[shane]

There are really good series. his mind relay does fit a lot of puzzles together for me about the Universe.

I do wonder with space been curved and light thats 20 light years away, If you was going close to the speed of light you would slowly go off coarse as like everything, Stars revolve around galaxy's and in
wilkyway galaxy where in, like earth revolves around the sun.

Since that program was made, there was another 2 or 3 earth like planets found orbiting stars in there Goldilocks zone which means "Not too hot or cold for water" by NASA using something new that measures a stars light which if a planet orbits it and passes the star, the star would dim a bit till planet passes by star.
A bit like an eclipse the earth gets with moon but way smaller and only light sensitive telescopes can
monitor them. But them planets too are light years away.

[Kyle]

I believe this is the one you on about Wood www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hA43mkzqSSZkUClEC9-Y6IdRlmRAD9IICCCO0?docId=D9IICCCO0, It is a shame tho, even our closest star system, Alpha centauri (can't remember what one, as its a tri system) which is only 4.5 light years away, is said to take us about 70,000 years to reach with today's technology.

Just how small we are


_Kyle

[odesssus]

Professor Stephen Hawking is even more clever than lots of people think. it was his 1988 book brief history of time that got me into quantum mechanics which I studied for the best part of 15 years eventually doing an open university course on astro physics. his 1974 paper on bekenstein hawking radiation was and is a masterpiece and I could name another 7 or 8 papers just as good. he is one of the most amazing people in history.

[geektroll]

Although it may sound like a nice place, it has its flaws. Gliese 518g may have 2x gravity, so if humans stay there until earth dies, we might evolve to a short species. Plus the heart has to work harder to pump blood throughout the body. My theory is that it is very hard to get materials since the intense gravity. Very dense wood plus 2x gravity might not be a very good combo. Also, red dwarf gives out very little energy and heat, so gliese 518g is very close to gliese (the star) This means that its tidally locked, which means half of the planet faces the sun for half a gliese year and the other half faces the stars. Due to slow movements, the atmosphere goes to north and south, leaving the middle of the planet exposed to space. But if the atmosphere somehow moves through the planet without the help of the core, then you're all good. Also the atmosphere must adapt to the heat for half of the year and keep the coolness that it got from the night, and the clouds must keep the warmth from the day. I learned this from How the Universe Works. (Sorry, I get chatty when it comes to my favorite subject)

[Wood~Ant]

Hi Geektroll and welcome to the Ant Hill

The probabilities of finding other "Earth Like Planets" are increasing all the time with our knowledge of how the universe works. So in the future it isn't a case of if we can find other inhabitable planets to live on, but more a case of if will we have the means to get to them and the technology to be able to stay alive inside spaceships long enough to reach such planets?

I wonder if we will take other forms of life with us, such as ants for example. ;D

[TenebrousNova]

I've read about Gliese 518G before. When you take into account the fact that there are millions of galaxies, billions of stars in each of those, with countless planets or other objects probably them, the probability that we are alone is very low.

I'd be very happy if we even found a microscopic extraterrestrial species, because they would have the potential to maybe evolve as life on Earth did over millennia.

[geektroll]

Thanks for the welcome
Have you heard of kepler 22-b? its further than gliese but a only a little bigger than earth, also in the habitable zone with orbiting a sun like star with temperature average about 70 degrees fahrenheit. Little is known since its very far away. I'm not sure if theres a probe traveling to the planet .

[Wood~Ant]

Jan 11, 2013 21:08:45 GMT geektroll said:

Thanks for the welcome
Have you heard of kepler 22-b? its further than gliese but a only a little bigger than earth, also in the habitable zone with orbiting a sun like star with temperature average about 70 degrees fahrenheit. Little is known since its very far away. I'm not sure if theres a probe traveling to the planet .

Yes I do know of this planet. Our universe may be expanding, but in some ways it is shrinking too for us. Of course space is infinite, and if there is one universe, and like the planets it is round, then like a lot of snooker balls I believe there may be other universes out there in the vast void of space.
It is also possible there might be a parallel or alternate Earth out there too; but I doubt we will ever find out unless perhaps mankind is still around in about 3 million years or more from now.

[geektroll]

How do they think of this and where is the evidence?. BUt if parallel universes exists, and every universe is expanding, each particle in our universe and the other universe will cancel each other out. But I doubt our corpse will still exist when that happens. Plus, the sun will either eat earth or earth will be blown away by the super nova by our sun. Or we might kill earth's atmosphere by polluting it with cars, factories, etc and expose our skin to the radiation of the sun before the sun dies. But no worry we will not live before any of this happens. But I'm still not sure about the parallel universes.