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LSUAlum2001 
LSU Fan
Tier BP
Member since Aug 2003
23835 posts
| Neighboring solar system Alpha Centauri shows evidence of orbiting planet.. (Posted on 10/17/12 at 2:12 pm)
quote:
Today, planet hunters announced evidence that there's a planet orbiting one of our closest stellar neighbors. One of the three stars of the a Centauri star system shows the sort of periodic changes in brightness that are a hallmark of the presence of an orbiting planet. And, even though the new world would be far too hot to support liquid water, the astronomers who discovered it point out small planets tend to form in groups. Odds are good that there are additional planets lurking further out from the host star.
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The HARPS team (which was represented by Stéphane Udry and Xavier Dumusque of the Geneva Observatory) estimate that, based on Centauri B's habitable zone (which is roughly centered on distance that's equivalent to Venus' orbit) they should be able to spot a Super-Earth (having five to 10 times Earth's mass) in the habitable zone. And, given the probability that the system's plane is oriented towards Earth, we could also use an orbiting observatory to watch for planets transiting in front of Centauri B.
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What about visiting? Laughlin estimates that, given our current technologies, any probe we sent wouldn't arrive for about 40,000 years. So that's probably a no-go, "given our propensity for instant gratification." But there are some unproven propulsion ideas that could get us there much more quickly, and Laughlin said that, should this find ignite enough interest, we may look into those more seriously.
Get on the WARP drive design, pronto!
quote:
The warp drive broke away from being a wholly fictional concept in 1994, when physicist Miguel Alcubierre suggested that faster-than-light (FTL) travel was possible if you remained still on a flat piece of spacetime inside a warp bubble that was made to move at superluminal velocity. Rather like a magic carpet. The main idea here is that, although no material objects can travel faster than light, there is no known upper speed to the ability of spacetime itself to expand and contract. The only real hint we have is that the minimum velocity of spacetime expansion during the period of cosmological inflation was about 30 million billion times the speed of light.
LINK
GAME OVER, MAN.. GAME OVER.
This post was edited on 10/17 at 2:29 pm
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buffbraz
LSU Fan
Member since Nov 2005
1339 posts
 Online
| re: Neighboring solar system Alpha Centauri shows evidence of orbiting planet.. (Posted on 10/17/12 at 2:25 pm to LSUAlum2001)
Hopefully we can find Earth-like planets in this relatively close solar system. They've found so many now, it seems Earth-like planets are abundant in our galaxy.
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Crawdaddy
LSU Fan
Slidell
Member since Sep 2006
9632 posts
| re: Neighboring solar system Alpha Centauri shows evidence of orbiting planet.. (Posted on 10/17/12 at 2:28 pm to buffbraz)
why do we think it has to be Earth like for life?
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meauxjeaux2
Boise State Fan
watson
Member since Oct 2007
38165 posts
| re: Neighboring solar system Alpha Centauri shows evidence of orbiting planet.. (Posted on 10/17/12 at 2:29 pm to LSUAlum2001)
quote:
Alpha Centauri
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LSUAlum2001
LSU Fan
Tier BP
Member since Aug 2003
23835 posts
| re: Neighboring solar system Alpha Centauri shows evidence of orbiting planet.. (Posted on 10/17/12 at 2:30 pm to Crawdaddy)
quote:
why do we think it has to be Earth like for life?
I guess scientists don't believe life can be sustained at 2,300F.
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LSUAlum2001
LSU Fan
Tier BP
Member since Aug 2003
23835 posts
| re: Neighboring solar system Alpha Centauri shows evidence of orbiting planet.. (Posted on 10/17/12 at 2:32 pm to meauxjeaux2)
We gonna run into Zur and the Ko-dan Armada?
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AJF 
New Orleans Saints Fan
Jimmy Graham Fanclub, BRAH
Member since Jul 2008
66881 posts
| re: Neighboring solar system Alpha Centauri shows evidence of orbiting planet.. (Posted on 10/17/12 at 2:34 pm to LSUAlum2001)
quote:
The warp drive broke away from being a wholly fictional concept in 1994, when physicist Miguel Alcubierre suggested that faster-than-light (FTL) travel was possible if you remained still on a flat piece of spacetime inside a warp bubble that was made to move at superluminal velocity. Rather like a magic carpet. The main idea here is that, although no material objects can travel faster than light, there is no known upper speed to the ability of spacetime itself to expand and contract. The only real hint we have is that the minimum velocity of spacetime expansion during the period of cosmological inflation was about 30 million billion times the speed of light.
That's Jetsons shite.
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WreckinRams05
LSU Fan
Houston, Texas
Member since Dec 2005
4456 posts
Online
| re: Neighboring solar system Alpha Centauri shows evidence of orbiting planet.. (Posted on 10/17/12 at 2:37 pm to LSUAlum2001)
quote:
I guess scientists don't believe life can be sustained at 2,300F.
on this planet that would be crazy, but who is to say beings haven't sustained life on these other planets because it doesn't meet our requirement? Just because everything on Earth functions on water and light doesn't mean it has to on different planets.
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manwich 
UCF Fan
You've wanted my
Member since Oct 2008
51172 posts
| re: Neighboring solar system Alpha Centauri shows evidence of orbiting planet.. (Posted on 10/17/12 at 2:37 pm to meauxjeaux2)
quote:
meauxjeaux2
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Crawdaddy
LSU Fan
Slidell
Member since Sep 2006
9632 posts
| re: Neighboring solar system Alpha Centauri shows evidence of orbiting planet.. (Posted on 10/17/12 at 2:38 pm to LSUAlum2001)
quote:
I guess scientists don't believe life as we know it can be sustained at 2,300F
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LSUAlum2001
LSU Fan
Tier BP
Member since Aug 2003
23835 posts
| re: Neighboring solar system Alpha Centauri shows evidence of orbiting planet.. (Posted on 10/17/12 at 2:39 pm to Crawdaddy)
quote:
I guess scientists don't believe life as we know it can be sustained at 2,300F
..and we would definitely come to an end rather quickly if we ever met a species that does.
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Sophandros
New Orleans Saints Fan
R'Lyeh
Member since Feb 2005
40301 posts
| re: Neighboring solar system Alpha Centauri shows evidence of orbiting planet.. (Posted on 10/17/12 at 2:39 pm to LSUAlum2001)
quote:
We gonna run into Zur and the Ko-dan Armada?
Most of these youngsters don't know what you're talking about.
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meauxjeaux2
Boise State Fan
watson
Member since Oct 2007
38165 posts
| re: Neighboring solar system Alpha Centauri shows evidence of orbiting planet.. (Posted on 10/17/12 at 2:40 pm to manwich)
figured a couple of you would get it.
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graychef 
George Mason Fan
Broussard
Member since Jun 2008
13576 posts
| re: Neighboring solar system Alpha Centauri shows evidence of orbiting planet.. (Posted on 10/17/12 at 2:42 pm to meauxjeaux2)
Can't forget about Grig
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buffbraz
LSU Fan
Member since Nov 2005
1339 posts
Online
| re: Neighboring solar system Alpha Centauri shows evidence of orbiting planet.. (Posted on 10/17/12 at 2:42 pm to Crawdaddy)
quote:
why do we think it has to be Earth like for life?
Life doesn't necessarily have to exhibit carbon based organic molecules in the temperature range that we generally think of on Earth, but in the temperature extremes (+/- thousands of Kelvin), in most scientists opinions life is unlikely, organic or otherwise, but who really knows? We are just going off the biochemistry that we know of.
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gjackx
LSU Fan
Red Stick
Member since Jan 2007
10526 posts
| re: Neighboring solar system Alpha Centauri shows evidence of orbiting planet.. (Posted on 10/17/12 at 3:00 pm to LSUAlum2001)
This shite is so fascinating.
They are out there man! 
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etm512
LSU Fan
Madisonville, LA
Member since Aug 2005
11443 posts
| re: Neighboring solar system Alpha Centauri shows evidence of orbiting planet.. (Posted on 10/17/12 at 3:07 pm to LSUAlum2001)
quote:
The warp drive broke away from being a wholly fictional concept in 1994, when physicist Miguel Alcubierre suggested that faster-than-light (FTL) travel was possible if you remained still on a flat piece of spacetime inside a warp bubble that was made to move at superluminal velocity. Rather like a magic carpet. The main idea here is that, although no material objects can travel faster than light, there is no known upper speed to the ability of spacetime itself to expand and contract. The only real hint we have is that the minimum velocity of spacetime expansion during the period of cosmological inflation was about 30 million billion times the speed of light.
I feel really dumb now.
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buffbraz
LSU Fan
Member since Nov 2005
1339 posts
Online
| re: Neighboring solar system Alpha Centauri shows evidence of orbiting planet.. (Posted on 10/17/12 at 3:11 pm to etm512)
quote:
The warp drive broke away from being a wholly fictional concept in 1994, when physicist Miguel Alcubierre suggested that faster-than-light (FTL) travel was possible if you remained still on a flat piece of spacetime inside a warp bubble that was made to move at superluminal velocity. Rather like a magic carpet. The main idea here is that, although no material objects can travel faster than light, there is no known upper speed to the ability of spacetime itself to expand and contract. The only real hint we have is that the minimum velocity of spacetime expansion during the period of cosmological inflation was about 30 million billion times the speed of light.
I'm pretty well read and educated on physics, astronomy, string theory, time travel, etc....but can someone explain what this statment means?
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Prominentwon 
North Carolina Fan
...that's where TOTS come from!
Member since Jan 2005
64505 posts
| re: Neighboring solar system Alpha Centauri shows evidence of orbiting planet.. (Posted on 10/17/12 at 3:15 pm to graychef)
quote:
Can't forget about Grig
That's just a human in makeup.
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TigerinATL
New Orleans Saints Fan
Member since Feb 2005
26192 posts
| re: Neighboring solar system Alpha Centauri shows evidence of orbiting planet.. (Posted on 10/17/12 at 3:35 pm to buffbraz)
quote:
I'm pretty well read and educated on physics, astronomy, string theory, time travel, etc....but can someone explain what this statment means?
It made news about a month ago. Basically you warp time and space around yourself and zoom around the galaxy like a hamster in a ball although you'd crush whatever was in your path. The key "advance" is previously Warp speed had been thought to need more energy than we could ever produce, but recent calculations reduced the energy requirement to just a shite ton.
This post was edited on 10/17 at 3:36 pm
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