| written by Zixinus on Apr 28, 2007 09:54 |
 | |  | | ![]() I wouldn't get any wild ideas of hitching a ride to Gliese. The only known for sure, is that there is a planet there in the zone where water may be in liquid form.
Whether it harbours life is another question. Whether it harbours INTELLIGENT life is yet another question. | |  | |  |
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| written by Duskesko on Apr 30, 2007 14:21 |
 | |  | | ![]()  | Raptorjedi said: | | it would take 20 years to send a message, and then another 20 to get one back... |
[2007] Earth says: hello! ^_^
[2027] Gliese says: we will devour your existence and send you to everlasting HELL
[2047] * Earth left (scared shitless) | |  | |  |
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  | | | | ![]() What amuses me is the people that think we could actually go and colonize this planet. Uninformed newspapers and such. Wether they realize it or not, 20 lightyears is a long way. That means it takes twenty years for /light/ to travel that far... Last I checked the speed of light was 299,792,458 meters per second. We would have to fund the most expensive and extensive voyage in human history, with the people on the ship spanning generations. You wouldn't get to see it, but /maybe/, if all went right, and you weren't killed by radiation, your great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren might. And then imagine finally arriving and discovering it's just another mars, barren with no liquid water to sustain human life? As far as I'm concerned, it would easier and most likely cheaper to simply teraform mars. Oh, and by the time you got there, we probably would have discovered a form of hyperdrive and beaten you there. Simply.not.worth.it. | | | | |
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 | |  | | ![]() You would have to pack a lot of food for that voyage 
If any serious attempt was ever made to travel there, I think we would at least try to confirm the existence of water on the planet...and since imaging technology currently can't tell us that, we will have to wait a while. | |  | |  |
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| | | | ![]() Imaging technology can tell us that, we just need to get a better one. They used Hubble to detect the atmosphere from a gas giant in another solar system. You just have to point at the system and use the telescope to detect what elements and things are coming from that direction. | | | | |
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| | | | ![]() | Raptorjedi said: | | Imaging technology can tell us that, we just need to get a better one. They used Hubble to detect the atmosphere from a gas giant in another solar system. You just have to point at the system and use the telescope to detect what elements and things are coming from that direction. |
True, but I imagine this is easier to do with gas giants as they are so much more massive. Then again, I'm not totally sure how large this "Super-Earth" is compared to the other two planets in the system. If I remember correctly, one is similar in mass to Neptune. | | | | |
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 | |  | | ![]() Wait until around 2012; the Terrestrial Planet Finder and other next generation space-based telescopes should be ready by then, and they should be powerful enough to both directly detect and closely analyze Earth-like worlds. For the moment, the technology to do so only exists on paper. | |  | |  |
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| | | | ![]() Terrestrial Planet Finder isn't going anywhere, they still don't have funding for it. it's safe to say that at this point it's pretty much cancelled. | | | | |
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| | | | ![]() | Raptorjedi said: | | Terrestrial Planet Finder isn't going anywhere, they still don't have funding for it. it's safe to say that at this point it's pretty much cancelled. |
From what I have read, NASA still hope to go ahead with two TPF-projects before or around 2015 (alright, I admit 2012 was a bit too optimistic), together with the proposed Darwin ESA mission which has the same goals. It is true that founding has been a problem for all projects, but none of them are officially cancelled as far as I know, so here's still hoping.  | | | | |
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| | | | ![]() Hopes and will are two different things. I don't see TPF being finished. NASA will probably just end up borrowing Darwin every once in a while. | | | | |
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| | | | ![]() Maybe NASA can convince the relevant people to build TPF around the moon, as part of the <glorious trumpets>Vision for Space Exploration</glorious trumpets>. | | | | |
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| | | | ![]() Hey, i just discovered this thread...
Nice screenshots, but I bet Alex will do better when NV will be released. | | | | |
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| | | | ![]() | Peterpaul kl h said: | | Nice screenshots, but I bet Alex will do better when NV will be released. |
Sadly, no red dwarfs seem to exist in Noctis, only red giants. I''m sure the explanation for it is right up there with the lack of black holes | | | | |
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| written by Naavis on May 16, 2007 12:55 |
| there's science to be done! |
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 | written by Yash on May 16, 2007 15:54 |
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