NASA Announcement 2/22/17 Seven Exoplanets Discovered

[jllundqu]

Astronomers from NASA and the European Southern Observatory announced Wednesday that four new Earth-sized exoplanets have been discovered orbiting a star about 40 light-years away, and that three may contain liquid water and be able to sustain life.

This star's small grouping of planets now boasts the most Earth-sized worlds of any system astronomers have discovered, and the most exoplanets that may be able to support surface life and water.

A Belgian-led team was able to spy these planets using space- and ground-based telescopes as each passed in front of its host, a red dwarf star known as TRAPPIST-1. These so called transits created dips in the Jupiter-sized star's light output that helped astronomers determine the sizes, compositions, and orbits of each of the celestial bodies.

"Whether or not TRAPPIST-1 has inhabitants, its discovery has underlined the growing conviction that the universe is replete with real estate on which biology could both arise and flourish," says Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute, an expert in the search for extraterrestrial life. "If you still think the rest of the universe is sterile, you are surely singular, and probably wrong."

These four exoplanets join three others circling TRAPPIST-1 that were discovered by the same team early in 2016, after which the group said it intensified follow-up efforts.

"This is an amazing planetary system, not only because we have found so many planets, but because they are all surprisingly similar in size to Earth," said Michaël Gillon, astronomer from the University of Liège in Belgium and lead author of the paper about the discovery published in the journal Nature.

All seven planets that surround the ultra cool star — which has only about 8 percent the mass of our own sun — orbit more tightly to their host than any of the planets in our system are to the sun.

"They would fit within the orbit of Mercury with oodles of room to spare," Shostak says. "A year on any of these worlds would be less than three weeks, and in the case of the innermost planet, only 36 hours. You'd have a hard time keeping up with birthdays."

TRAPPIST-1 doesn't put out much energy, but the inner six exoplanets are in such tight orbit around their host that they have temperatures comparable to those on Venus, Earth, and Mars.

The scientists observations and measurements suggest the inner six planets have rocky compositions, and that three of TRAPPIST-1's surrounding bodies may orbit within a habitable zone that represents the "holy grail for planet-hunting" as they could be warm enough to host surface water and oceans.

The team believes this discovery could mean that similar dwarf stars are able to host Earth-sized planets in tight orbits, making them "promising targets" in the search for extraterrestrial life.

http://www.nbcnews.com/mach/space/wa...covery-n724111

[TheTexan]

OMG Aliens !

[timosman]

NASA needs more money to work on this stuff. Imagine the impact this will have on ..... on ...... can somebody help me here?

[jllundqu]

These seven planets would make a good setting for a sci-fi story. The sky scenery would be magnificent, rivaling anything you've seen in the movies. With worlds that are about the same size as Earth but separated by relatively tiny distances, you could look up and see planets that looked like round balls.

For example, on the third rock from this dim sun, the second rock would look bigger than the moon does to us. Compare that our own situation, where Venus is only a bright speck. The TRAPPIST-1 worlds would also move far more quickly across the sky than you're used to. In a matter of minutes, they would change their positions relative to background stars.

Pretty cool

[jllundqu]

39 lightyears is doable. Look at Project Starshot for example. Within a generation or two, humanity may actually reach other worlds and other systems.

[Origanalist]

These seven planets would make a good setting for a sci-fi story. The sky scenery would be magnificent, rivaling anything you've seen in the movies. With worlds that are about the same size as Earth but separated by relatively tiny distances, you could look up and see planets that looked like round balls.

For example, on the third rock from this dim sun, the second rock would look bigger than the moon does to us. Compare that our own situation, where Venus is only a bright speck. The TRAPPIST-1 worlds would also move far more quickly across the sky than you're used to. In a matter of minutes, they would change their positions relative to background stars.

Tidal action would be pretty impressive.

[timosman]

39 lightyears is doable. Look at Project Starshot for example. Within a generation or two, humanity may actually reach other worlds and other systems.

Can't wait. It will take only 240 years to get there and receive a confirmation of a successful arrival.

[timosman]

Pretty cool

Looks like we have a plot for a new sci-fi franchise.

[PatriotOne]

1963 Excerpt from the Iron Mountain report.......


POLITICAL

The war system makes the stable government of societies possible. It does this essentially by providing an external necessity for a society to accept political rule. In so doing, it establishes the basis for nationhood and the authority of government to control its constituents. What other institution or combination of programs might serve these functions in its place?

We have already pointed out that the end of the war means the end of national sovereignty, and thus the end of nationhood as we know it today. But this does not necessarily mean the end of nations in the administrative sense, and internal political power will remain essential to a stable society. The emerging "nations" of the peace epoch must continue to draw political authority from some source. A number of proposals have been made governing the relations between nations after total disarmament; all are basically juridical in nature. They contemplate institutions more or less like a World Court, or a United Nations, but vested with real authority. They may or may not serve their ostensible post-military purpose of settling international disputes, but we need not discuss that here. None would offer effective external pressure on a peace-world nation to organize itself politically. It might be argued that a well-armed international police force, operating under the authority of such a supranational "court," could well serve the function of external enemy. This, however, would constitute a military operation, like the inspection schemes mentioned, and, like them, would be inconsistent with the premise of an end to the war system. It is possible that a variant of the "Unarmed Forces" idea might be developed in such a way that its "constructive" (i.e., social welfare) activities could be combined with an economic "threat" of sufficient size and credibility to warrant political organization. Would this kind of threat also be contradictory to our basic premise?--that is, would it be inevitably military? Not necessarily, in our view, but we are skeptical of its capacity to evoke credibility. Also, the obvious destabilizing effect of any global social welfare surrogate on politically necessary class relationships
51
would create an entirely new set of transition problems at least equal in magnitude. Credibility, in fact, lies at the heart of the problem of developing a political substitute for war. This is where the space-race proposals, in many ways so well suited as economic substitutes for war, fall short. The most ambitious and unrealistic space project cannot of itself generate a believable external menace. It has been hotly argued that such a menace would offer the "last, best hope of peace," etc., by uniting mankind against the danger of destruction by "creatures" from other planets or from outer space. Experiments have been proposed to test the credibility of an out-of-our-world invasion threat; it is possible that a few of the more difficult-to-explain "flying saucer" incidents of recent years were in fact early experiments of this kind. If so, they could hardly have been judged encouraging. We anticipate no difficulties in making a "need" for a giant super space program credible for economic purposes, even were there not ample precedent; extending it, for political purposes, to include features unfortunately associated with science fiction would obviously be a more dubious undertaking. Nevertheless, an effective political substitute for war would require "alternate enemies," some of which might seem equally farfetched in the context of the current war system. It may be, for instance, that gross pollution of the environment can eventually replace the possibility of mass destruction by nuclear weapons as the principal apparent threat to the survival of the species. Poisoning of the air, and of the principal sources of food and water supply, is already well advanced, and at first glance would seem promising in this respect; it constitutes a threat that can be dealt with only through social organization and political power. But from present indications it will be a generation to a generation and a half before environmental pollution, however severe, will be sufficiently menacing, on a global scale, to offer a possible basis for a solution. It is true that the rate of pollution could be increased selectively for this purpose; in fact, the mere modifying of existing programs for the deterrence of pollution could speed up the process enough to make the threat credible much sooner. But the pollution problem has been so widely publicized in recent years that it seems highly improbably that a program of deliberate environ- mental poisoning could be implemented in a politically acceptable manner. However unlikely some of the possible alternate enemies we have mentioned may seem, we must emphasize that one must be found, of credible quality and magnitude, if a transition to peace is ever to come about without social disintegration. It is more probably, in our judgement, that such a threat will have to be invented, rather than developed from unknown conditions. For this
52
reason, we believe further speculation about its putative nature ill-advised in this context. Since there is considerable doubt, in our minds, that any viable political surrogate can be devised, we are reluctant to compromise, by premature discussion, any possible option that may eventually lie open to our government.

[TheTexan]

Can't wait. It will take only 240 years to get there and receive a confirmation of a successful arrival.

Maybe it can become the new Australia, where we dump our prisoners, degenerates, anarchists, etc

[phill4paul]

Outstanding. I've never thought Earth was a solitary entity capable of sustaining life. Space is the unfathomable. Whether or not humanity can pull it's $#@! together to get there, and under which circumstances it happens, remains to be seen.

[phill4paul]

Maybe it can become the new Australia, where we dump our prisoners, degenerates, anarchists, etc

As Earth's resources deplete, more than likely, it will be business that drives us outwards to the Expanse. A canoe, flintlock and trinkets won't get rugged individuals to the new worlds.

[timosman]

As Earth's resources deplete, more than likely, it will be business that drives us outwards to the Expanse. A canoe, flintlock and trinkets won't get rugged individuals to the new worlds.

All we need to send is AI plus some cash. No humans necessary. Maybe a few DNA samples for the museum.

[phill4paul]

All we need to send is AI plus some cash. No humans necessary. Maybe a few DNA samples for the museum.

Human's are cheap, if fragile. But, they are cheap so who cares if they get broken? All it takes is the marriage of A.I. to the human brain. In many respects it is already underway. I don't know if you have time to read anything besides this forum but the "Ancillary" series by Ann Leckie is an interesting read.

[MallsRGood]

OMG Aliens !

They'll take our jobs!

[timosman]

Human's are cheap, if fragile. But, they are cheap so who cares if they get broken? All it takes is the marriage of A.I. to the human brain. In many respects it is already underway. I don't know if you have time to read anything besides this forum but the "Ancillary" series by Ann Leckie is an interesting read.

Human brain is simply a source of entropy when coupled with a superior AI. It is simply unnecessary in such an arrangement. "Ancillary" sounds like Harry Potter. I think if we ever discover intelligence it is going to be something like Solaris or Europa Report.

[undergroundrr]

[phill4paul]

Human brain is simply a source of entropy when coupled with a superior AI. It is simply unnecessary in such an arrangement. "Ancillary" sounds like Harry Potter. I think if we ever discover intelligence it is going to be something like Solaris or Europa Report.

Sure, it's all Hogwart's. WTF dude? I just mentioned to you a book series. Take it or leave it, but don't comment on it unless you have read it.