20 light years away, the most Earthlike planet yet

[MTK]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

Speaking of, do you plan on seeing this?

Space Week

Nice, I'm all over that!

I've already seen some of those shows, if we had no moon, most of the universe is missing, and super black holes. The missing universe one really blows your mind.

[jsarno]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

Nice, I'm all over that!

I've already seen some of those shows, if we had no moon, most of the universe is missing, and super black holes. The missing universe one really blows your mind.

You sound like me...I live on the Discovery Channel.

I don't hold much stock on these planets being the next earth anyway. I jumped on that bandwagon years ago, when everyone thought Titan had water. After a closer look, it was liquid gas.

Also, as of today, we can't reach somewhere that is 20 light years away in time to actually inhabit it. Even if we were lucky enough to send a space ship in the general direction, by the time we arrived, we'd be skeletons.

It always makes me nervous that scientists are so hell bent on finding a new planet. Are they indirectly telling us our planet is doomed?

That super black hole show freaked me out. I had no idea there were so many black holes, and they implied that life derives from black holes. It was very interesting...it gets you thinking.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

Speaking of, do you plan on seeing this?

Space Week

Space Week rocks, I wish they would release all of those as a DVD collection. Have you been watching it?

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

Space Week rocks, I wish they would release all of those as a DVD collection. Have you been watching it?

Not as much as I would like

[dmek25]

is there any possibility at all we could get anywhere near this planet? or the main point is, it could be life supporting?

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by dmek25

is there any possibility at all we could get anywhere near this planet? or the main point is, it could be life supporting?

As of now, we've got the capability to reach Mars in about 8 months. Mars is 35 million miles away.

This new planet is 20 light years away, or 120 trillion miles. If we go at the same speed we go when we head to Mars, it would take us 2,285,714 years to get there.

So no we can't get near it; not until Scotty invents the warp drive.

[JoeRedskin]

Someone once said to me "Either life as we know it exists in the universe or it doesn't, either way - it's pretty mind boggling".

[Beemnseven]

You know, speaking of warp drive, it got me thinking ... it only took 67 years from the time that we first achieved flight (in a heavier-than-air machine) to landing on the moon. During that time, we also harnessed the power of splitting the atom.

Those were pretty big steps in the progress of human civilization in a fairly short time span when you think about it -- or maybe in the grand scheme of things it's not that significant of an achievement.

But to come to the realization that we aren't anywhere near non-fossil fuel or alternative forms of propulsion for space flight makes this sort of finding interesting, but frustrating at the same time. Well, for people our age anyway. My great-grandkids might see something from it.

We still have a lot to learn.

[love them hogs]

I love reading about outer space.It will completly blow your mind.I mean the speed of light is something around 140,000 miles per second.Thats right, I said a second.

Black holes are also very interesting to learn about.The force of gravity is so strong in them because it is like shoving the mass of ten of our suns into the same space as the earth and the sun is like seven times the size of the earth.(those numbers are not exact but you get the idea).Their force of gravity will suck in anything around them including light.Now thats crazy,so much gravity that it sucks in light.Black holes will also distort the time around them.Meaning there is an area around the black hole where if you could orbit in that area time would actually slow down.Everything is relative you know.

[RobH4413]

Originally Posted by love them hogs

I love reading about outer space.It will completly blow your mind.I mean the speed of light is something around 140,000 miles per second.Thats right, I said a second.

Black holes are also very interesting to learn about.The force of gravity is so strong in them because it is like shoving the mass of ten of our suns into the same space as the earth and the sun is like seven times the size of the earth.(those numbers are not exact but you get the idea).Their force of gravity will suck in anything around them including light.Now thats crazy,so much gravity that it sucks in light.Black holes will also distort the time around them.Meaning there is an area around the black hole where if you could orbit in that area time would actually slow down.Everything is relative you know.

Yeah, it's insane to realize exactly how gifted Einstein was. He predicted that gravity bent light well before anyone had any experimental evidence to prove so.

It wouldn't take long for his theory to be put to the test, because according to Einstein during a solar eclipse, we would see that the stars observed behind the sun would be out of position in relation to where the stars should be from previous observations.

Sure enough, during the solar eclipse, it was observed that the star near the sun was actually observed to be closer to the sun than it should have been.

and u like my paint skills.

and grammar skills.

[MTK]

I saw this show recently on alternate dimensions. Apparently this is a concept that's really gaining some steam amongst scientists. The show really boggled my mind.

[RobH4413]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

I saw this show recently on alternate dimensions. Apparently this is a concept that's really gaining some steam amongst scientists. The show really boggled my mind.

It's really the dominating theory in physics right now. They've recently gained a great deal of ground on something called "m theory", which unifies about 7 or 8 different "string" theories.

If you've got a lot of time, and psychedelic mushrooms, I'd strongly suggest you watch all of the series called "Elegant Universe". It's hosted by Brian Greene, who is kind of cheesy in it, but really brings to the table what's actually going on.

I'm reading a book by him called "Fabric of the cosmos" and he relates a lot of modern physics to the Simpsons and other familiar ideas. He's got great analogies, and it's definitely a good "sitting on the john" reading.

Here's the link to part 1 of "The elegant universe". You can fumble around and find the rest. YouTube - The Elegant Universe Part 1: Einstein's Dream (1/5)

A lot of these theories are being put to test by a company called Fermi-Lab. I think it's in Virginia somewhere, I can't remember off the top of my head. They have assembled a giant super collider where basically they're colliding atomic particles at close to light speed. On of the things they're looking for is a theoretical particle called a "gravitron". The theory is that gravity may possible be the strongest of the four forces, but it seems weak in our world because "gravitrons" flow in and out of different universes.

Crazy stuff, that we're actually investing a lot of time and money into to investigation of other universes with different forces altogether.

One last thing, this year in Switzerland they're opening up another super collider that's many times larger and more powerful then Fermi-Lab's. There are almost certainly going to be some mind shattering discoveries in the next 5 years.

Edit: Here is the fermilab particle accelerator.

[SmootSmack]

Imagine getting stuck in this elevator

[RobH4413]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

Imagine getting stuck in this elevator

That is nuts. I've never seen that before.

Cool shit.

[jsarno]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

Imagine getting stuck in this elevator

I just don't see how this can work. I saw previews for this, saying it would take like 3 months to travel on it.