You know how you all loved that alien movie that came out last year? The one with all the blue people that sort of ripped off Pocahontas? Well, there's good news! We are now just that much closer to a real life Pandora! NASA announced just this Monday the discovery of a planet a lot like Earth, one that could possibly support life forms.
Scientists have been searching for years for a planet in what is called the "Goldilocks Zone," meaning that it is not too hot nor too cold to eliminate the possibility of liquid water. The planet, named Kepler 22b after the spacecraft that discovered it, is a balmy 72 degrees Fahrenheit and circles a star very much like our own sun. There are some differences though, Kepler 22b is more than twice the size of Earth and has 75 fewer days per year than we do.
The Kepler spacecraft has discovered 2,326 possibly habitable planets which can't be classified as real planets until it is confirmed that they aren't just stars, or asteroids, or technological mistakes. The planets are detected by the darkness that occurs when they pass in front of their stars.
12 comments:
I find this discovery very cool, but after reading into it, I don't think it will really affect us in any way. The planet is about 600 light years away, which would take 22 million years to get to, so I don't think there is really any way for us to communicate or investigate that planet. Also, many scientists speculate that Kepler-22B could be more similar to Jupiter than Earth in that it is most likely all ocean. The possibility, however, is still up that it may be all rock. I find this discovery really cool, but many articles have addressed the feasibility of people migrating over. I believe that this possibility is absurd and nonexistent.
Despite all the fanfare regarding Kepler 22b I think it's probably far from a twin Earth, even with its similar "Earth-like" aspects. Like Simone said it is twice the size, and even though the spacecraft determined the temperature to be 72 degrees Fahrenheit, given it's theoretical mass, it may well have a denser atmosphere than Earth, meaning that the true surface temperature is a lot higher than 72 degrees Fahrenheit. If the atmosphere of the planet is that dense, and somehow rich in greenhouse gasses, it's likely to be more like Venus than Earth; Venus' surface is far too hot to house liquid water. But on the contrary, NASA scientists found that the temperature as Simone stated is a "balmy 72 degrees Fahrenheit" but without the known beneficial effects of the Earth's greenhouse, the scientists believe the real temperature to be around a frigid -68 degrees Fahrenheit. Although I must say like Simone said, it's quite striking.
Unfortunately, if there is life on this planet, it won't be developing into anything we can communicate with for billions of years (not that we'd really be able to communicate with anything 600 lightyears away). What's with this obsession with finding our replacements, though? Do we feel like we've screwed up so badly that we need some other, untainted beings to take the reigns and provide some sort of hope? It's probably a deeper philosophical question than that, though. But this is still really cool and interesting. In the words of Liz Lemon, "I want to go to there."
This reminds me of a post a few weeks back that incited discussion about whether or not funding for space exploration ought to continue. While I agree that it's not the most pressing matter at the moment, and that discoveries like this probably won't affect us in our lifetime (and considerably longer than that), I still find it interesting and good to show that NASA still does have noteworthy achievements. Funding for NASA isn't lost in space (haha), as NASA does make significant discoveries. Even though interplanetary exploration won't have a direct affect on the majority of mankind as we know it for a long time, I think it's important to keep in mind that we have to start somewhere and keep the effort going in order for it to ever produce results.
This reminds me of the movie "Another Earth" (trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8hEwMMDtFY), but in this movie there is an exact replica of our planet, people and all. There are significant similarities between Earth and Kepler-22b, and this is definitely a great discovery. However, it is completely covered in water and "a bit big for life to exist on the surface." I do not think we will be able to try and find any life on it, nor does it seem like a place that humans can access.
I agree that this discovery is very interesting and that it justifies all the money we spend on space exploration. I know that many people find spending money on space exploration wasteful because there are so many other more imminent problems such as poverty and hunger. However, I agree with Anna that funding for this must continue regardless of the other more short-term benefits spending the money elsewhere would produce. Like the article states, there are endless possibilities as to what is really "out there." Who knows, maybe the next chemical compound that we need for a huge medical breakthrough will be in space. There are many other uses for space exploration than just trying to see if planets are inhabitable. Space exploration is a worthwhile endeavor I think that we should continue, regardless of it seeming like a frivolous expenditure.
As interesting as this finding is, I have to agree with everyone that says it is almost irrelevant to us now. There is not much we can do with the information besides express that it is an amazing discovery. However, it is to far away to do any real research on, and even if we were to find something of relevance, it would take millions of years to reach that planet and confirm it. It's great that we have the technology to find these things, but I think our money is much better spent right now on fixing the national debt so we can continue to fund programs like this in the future.
I agree that space exploration is worth the funding. While it may not have a direct affect on us now, who's to say it won't later? We've managed to create technology that can find this planet, so isn't there a possiblity that the technology to communicate can be created as well? And it's discoveries like this that lead to the motivation to create such technology. It's never wrong to have a goal.
On another note:
This reminded me of something I found while wasting time at this website. If, hypothetically, we could communicate and colonize, do you suppose we'd set up a democracy despite not being able to work out all our own problems? Or try something like the Seastead Institute and try a new political system? Just a thought.
This is actually a really cool discovery, however, “it’ll only take us 22 million years to reach it”. This planet is 600 light years away, and its completely possible that the planet has been dormant for the last 599 years. Despite the possibilities of life on this planet, i think we're hundreds of years away from utilizing this imformation
The whole idea of having another earth seems pretty cool. Could you imagine having another human race out there? I think earth will find something similar to us, eventually. Maybe in another hundred...thousand years there will be a way to contact other life forms, but I don't think there is anyway to know that this is "another earth" without that technology. Unless of course they contact us first. :)
As other comments have said, it seems to be a worthwhile venture that would be useful in the future. However, I would see this update in space discoveries as one of the many. I would think that such opportunities of replicant planets may just be exalted as a chance for expansion of human living space. Would travel to other planets and inhabitance of them be too much of a culture shock?
Upon the governing of other planets, away from Earth, I don't think there would be any less change than at the rate we are experiencing right now. The concept of literally traveling the distance between planets 600 light years away is mechanically impossible as well as time-consuming on the traveler's lifetime. Yet, it is the only thing that prevents our curiousity from concieving the life of people on another planet, ours or foreign inhabitants.
Finally, a planet similar to our own that we can colonize!
Too bad its 600 light years away...
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