NASA discovers Solar System full of Earth-like planets

[Fierce_LiNk]

They announced on Monday that they had an awesome discovery and were going to share it with the world on Wednesday. So, here it is!

 

Scientists have found a new solar system filled with planets that look like Earth and could support life, Nasa has announced.

 

At least three of the seven planets represent the “holy grail for planet-hunting astronomers”, because they sit within the “temperate zone” and are the right temperature to allow alien life to flourish, the researchers have said. And they are capable of having oceans, again suggesting that life could flourish on them.

 

No other star system has ever been found to contain so many Earth-sized and rocky planets, of the kind thought to be necessary to contain aliens.

 

The researchers might soon be able to find evidence of life on the planets, they have said. British astronomer Dr Chris Copperwheat, from Liverpool John Moores University, who was part of the international team, said: “The discovery of multiple rocky planets with surface temperatures which allow for liquid water make this amazing system an exciting future target in the search for life."

 

The rest of the info can be found here and it's well worth a read.

[Sméagol]

Packing my bags now. Updating my address so they know where to ship my Switch.

[Naar]

Yes, more planets to fuck up.

[Charlie]

Very interesting news. I just wish they were a little bit closer. 500,000-750,000 years at today's technology to get there is just a tad too long.

 

I can't wait for the James Webb Telescope to launch next year. This will really bring the search for exo-planets to the next level.

[killthenet]

What I find most interesting is the very short orbits of the planets, the closest planet takes 1.5 Earth days to orbit Trappist and the seventh planet out takes an estimated 20 days so the years are very, very short by our standards. It's also fascinating that the planets are tidally locked to the star like our moon is to us so that only one side of the planets ever receives daylight, it's amazing the variety that we are beginning to see across other solar systems. It's a shame that the stars early years might have been so violent that any atmosphere on the planets could have burned off, but its really encouraging that they already know so much about a system so far away, its going to be really interesting when the James Webb and other satellites can observe systems like this.

[Fierce_LiNk]

What I find most interesting is the very short orbits of the planets, the closest planet takes 1.5 Earth days to orbit Trappist and the seventh planet out takes an estimated 20 days so the years are very, very short by our standards. It's also fascinating that the planets are tidally locked to the star like our moon is to us so that only one side of the planets ever receives daylight, it's amazing the variety that we are beginning to see across other solar systems. It's a shame that the stars early years might have been so violent that any atmosphere on the planets could have burned off, but its really encouraging that they already know so much about a system so far away, its going to be really interesting when the James Webb and other satellites can observe systems like this.

 

Although it's not really anything new in a scientific manner, tidally locked planets blow my mind. I think about what it must be like to live on these planets and to only ever see daylight or darkness.

 

Permanent darkness sounds fucked up.

[Naar]

Permanent darkness probably cant sustain human life for a longer period due to lack of vitamine D [and a shit ton of other things], wich will result in the inevitable.

 

It comes in a pill, but does it work that way?

[somme]

Permanent darkness probably cant sustain human life for a longer period due to lack of vitamine D [and a shit ton of other things], wich will result in the inevitable.

 

It comes in a pill, but does it work that way?

 

Over a certain amount of time, I'm sure humans would evolve to live on the dark side. Ultimately I imagine if we colonised a tidally locked planet we'd live in the "twilight" strip.

 

Tidally locked planets may also suffer from a lot of seismic activity. Will be really interesting to find out what they're atmosphere's are made of in a few years time.

[Pestneb]

Over a certain amount of time, I'm sure humans would evolve to live on the dark side. Ultimately I imagine if we colonised a tidally locked planet we'd live in the "twilight" strip.

 

Tidally locked planets may also suffer from a lot of seismic activity. Will be really interesting to find out what they're atmosphere's are made of in a few years time.

 

I agree on the twilight strip, although the atmosphere may strip out the frequencies we need to make vitamin d, or the star may not even produce enough light in that bandwidth...

 

In any case, at the speed of light it would take us just short of 40 years to get there. Assuming the Speed of Light technology exists but is classified, and a probe is sent now, it would take 80 light years to get any information back.

If they release information that they have working warp/hyperspace or w/e drives I would be more excited, it was pretty cool seeing what they got back from that probe that passed Pluto.