[X15-A2]

20.5 lightyears away, orbiting a red dwarf in the constellation Libra. News account is found here:

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/4/25/75923.shtml?s=lh

Very exciting, even if only preliminary, news.


Spin-up the FTL drive...

 

[El Gato]

And get ready to go on a diet. A 150-pound person would weigh 240 pounds. Since I weigh more than that on Earth...

 

[KUROK]

That is cool.

Here some food for thought.

The New Horizons probe to Pluto will be the fastest man-made object after it swings around Jupiter. It will be going 47,000 mph.

This "new Earth" is 120 trillion miles away. A spacecraft from here going 47,000 mph would still take 290,000 years to get there. Ouch!!!

 

[Griffworks]

That's why we take Phil's advice and spin up the FTL Drive.

Very kewel news, even if it does us no immediate good. At least we're gaining more knowledge about our galaxy.

 

[Carson Dyle]

As Stephen Hawking recently reminded us, for the human race to survive over the long haul it will have to colonize other worlds. The news of a potentially habitable planet is welcome news indeed, and maybe one day we'll even call it home... but I have my doubts.

Maybe I'd be more optimistic if we were more serious about making to Mars or Europa -- or for that matter, back to our own moon.

 

[CessnaDriver]

Red sun?

Close orbit?

Possibly icy?


KRYPTON!

 

[Chuck_P.R.]

How do we know it's habitable?

Do we even know if they have cable?

 

[Chuck_P.R.]

And get ready to go on a diet. A 150-pound person would weigh 240 pounds. Since I weigh more than that on Earth...

21 years of weightless travel to arrive at a planet where gravity is almost twice as strong?

Can you say coronary?

Better drink a lot of milk on the way there!

 

[CessnaDriver]

Since any shot at going there is a long long time from now.
Plenty of time to think of solutions to such problems.


Artificial gravity, faster then light travel, genetic enhancements, and who knows what else may be possible.

A lot can/will happen between now and then.

 

[Chuck_P.R.]

I'd put my bet on artificial gravity, perhaps generated by same method as in Space Odyssey:2001 - a rotating orb spinning within a ship traveling forward.

Maybe a little genetic engineering too, but there would be definite negatives to increasing bone density and of few other tweaks that might seem desirable if you knew you were going to live your entire remaining life on a heavy gravity planet.

Artificial gravity 2001 style would probably be the most likely solution.

When I was a teenager I would have signed up for the trip instantly.

Now I don't want to go anywhere that takes longer then a day to get to and doesn't have a couch and cable TV. :lol:

 

[compucrap]

not to mention that the only thing they know is its got the right wobble to be a possible inhabitable planet. Theres still no evidence of water being present, or oxygen for that matter.

Plus it might be inhabited by a race of super intelligent apes who see the human race as inferior beings.... not somewhere I'd like to visit. but it might make a good movie though?

Josh

 

[GT350R_Modeler]

As Stephen Hawking recently reminded us, for the human race to survive over the long haul it will have to colonize other worlds. The news of a potentially habitable planet is welcome news indeed, and maybe one day we'll even call it home... but I have my doubts.

Maybe I'd be more optimistic if we were more serious about making to Mars or Europa -- or for that matter, back to our own moon.

"All these worlds are yours except Europa" (2010 - The year we make contact) We have been warned!

 

[Carson Dyle]

^I've always been a sucker for a nice, ripe apple. :devil:

 

[ClubTepes]

Exciting news,

Except that we launch a lightspeed ship and 10 years into the journey we see that the sun went Nova or something.

Something may have already happened and we're just waiting for the light to get here.

 

[CessnaDriver]

I think an imminant nova would have plenty of tell tale signs.
This star is supposed to be even more long lived then our sun.


Still plenty more places to look for planets though.
This one is just the first to be just the right temperature they have found.
Now they have a good one to keep studying,
and the technology is just getting started really finding planets, so I am certain more like it will be found eventually.

I just wish I were born a few hundred years from now.

 

[scotpens]

. . . Plus it might be inhabited by a race of super intelligent apes who see the human race as inferior beings....

Don't prejudge a species we haven't even encountered yet! For all we know, they may only want to serve man!

 

[StarshipClass]

I hope people protest any attempt at colonization in the future. Man has absolutely RUINED this planet! I don't see any use in our ruining ANOTHER planet. We should just stay where we are and go extinct as soon as possible so the other animals on the planet can survive.


:jest:

 

[Carson Dyle]

Don't prejudge a species we haven't even encountered yet! For all we know, they may only want to serve man!

If that's the case, here's hoping they look like Anjelina Jolie.

 

[Old_McDonald]

And get ready to go on a diet. A 150-pound person would weigh 240 pounds. Since I weigh more than that on Earth...

At that gravity, even the microbes would be twice as dense or twice as strong than we're used to. Humans would be relative weak beings there and they's be stronger than us here...a la Superman.

Personally, I wonder if we could really expect to immigrate to another planet and not have the same things happen to us that happened to the martians in War of the Worlds.

 

[Griffworks]

Don't prejudge a species we haven't even encountered yet! For all we know, they may only want to serve man!

LOL We talkin' the old "Outer Limits" episode (I think it was) or the "Simpsons" version...? :lol: