Nearby Star System Might Harbor Terrestrial Planets (Updated)

[JLaCroix]

I'm by no means an expert in Astronomy, but I absolutely love reading about it and I try my best to learn as much as I can.

This article is almost a week old now, but it was pretty interesting to me. Apparently the nearest star system to earth might harbor terrestrial planets. (The title of the article is a bit misleading, since there's nothing in the way of evidence that an Earth twin is likely, but wouldn't that be swell?)

http://www.space.com/scienceastronom...her-earth.html

Edit:

Looks like another article on the same subject was posted:
http://www.space.com/businesstechnol...ri-travel.html
That one seems to be about theories of getting there, however I won't have time to read all of it until later.

[JPS]

Re: Nearby Star System Might Harbor Terrestrial Planets

Im sure out of the trillions of stars out there there are planets within life distance from a star, so yes, I believe theres life out there somewhere, be it less intelligent then us or moreso.

Interesting article btw.

[JLaCroix]

Re: Nearby Star System Might Harbor Terrestrial Planets

Im sure out of the trillions of stars out there there are planets within life distance from a star, so yes, I believe theres life out there somewhere, be it less intelligent then us or moreso.

Interesting article btw.

Not only that, the scope of the universe totally mystifies me. Just think, any of the stars you see at night could have planets moving around it, and any of those planets could have moons. There's so much we don't know.

Every time I look at the night sky I get thirsty, like I wish they'd hurry up and build a superly uber space telescope that would show me some really cool planets, but that's probably a long way off.

[Valkysas]

Re: Nearby Star System Might Harbor Terrestrial Planets

I think it's stupid for anyone to actually believe that out of everything in this massive universe, that earth could be the only planet with intelligent life on it.

so this has me pretty damn excited.

[JLaCroix]

Re: Nearby Star System Might Harbor Terrestrial Planets

I think it's stupid for anyone to actually believe that out of everything in this massive universe, that earth could be the only planet with intelligent life on it.

so this has me pretty damn excited.

Me too.

If I find out anything further, I'll let you all know. If you want I'll continue posting articles I find like these.

[Stormy]

Re: Nearby Star System Might Harbor Terrestrial Planets

The requirements for a planet to have carbon based life are numerous and enormously demanding. That being said, the chances that carbon based life does not exist anywhere in our galaxy besides Earth are so astronomical as to make you laugh at anyone who thinks otherwise. Much less the universe.

Some of the smart people (I can't believe I don't know how to spell intelectual...) think it is naieve to assume that life must be carbon based. They propose that Silicon is also capable of making organic molecules, and thus we should be looking for planets that could sustain silicon based life aswell.

I think they are crazy. Silicon can only form half as many compounds as carbon, and we wouldn't know what to look for in a planet that would support such life forms. We know for a fact that carbon based life is possible, silicon based life is just a theory, an idea.

... what were we talking about?

[Karr Lord of Chaos]

Re: Nearby Star System Might Harbor Terrestrial Planets

the title makes it sound like a star system planet is illegally harboring a terrestrial criminal or something. ive only seen this kind of wording applying to terrorists. go figure, the words are even close.

the crap shot needed to make earth is quite high, but we may not be the only instance where this happened, but there cant be many. though i dont think silicone life is the answer, i think the train of thought is correct. we should be looking for any kind of life, not just carbon based.

[Stormy]

Re: Nearby Star System Might Harbor Terrestrial Planets

though i dont think silicone life is the answer, i think the train of thought is correct. we should be looking for any kind of life, not just carbon based.

Agreed, we should look for silicon based life aswell, as soon as we know what to look for.

[JPS]

Re: Nearby Star System Might Harbor Terrestrial Planets

Agreed, we should look for silicon based life aswell, as soon as we know what to look for.

A planet of bouncing boobs maybe?

[Stormy]

Re: Nearby Star System Might Harbor Terrestrial Planets

A planet of bouncing boobs maybe?

Holy Crap! Why didn't anyone think of this before!? JPS your a genius!

[The_Real_Crunk]

Re: Nearby Star System Might Harbor Terrestrial Planets

Lifeforms could be ANYTHING based. Hell, theres most likely several millions of elements we havent discovered yet that are out there in other galaxies.

Reminds me of a scene on Enterprise, where they meet some aliens that show them data containing 200+ new elements from their star system. Nerd alert.

[Wavelength]

Re: Nearby Star System Might Harbor Terrestrial Planets

Most astrobiology experts agree that carbon-based life is the most likely, at least for creatures with any complexity, because of the amazingly long chains that carbon can make.

[Sampson]

Re: Nearby Star System Might Harbor Terrestrial Planets

Lifeforms could be ANYTHING based. Hell, theres most likely several millions of elements we havent discovered yet that are out there in other galaxies.

No, there probably aren't. Scientists can look at the light coming off any star they can see and calculate what its made out of based on the light it radiates; they haven't found any traces of elements they aren't familiar with. Additionally, any new elements would have to have 100+ protons in their nucleolus, and an atomic nucleolus gets very unstable past about 100 protons. The only way other elements exist, is if the laws of physics vary across the universe, in which case...well, throw everything you think you know about anything out the window.

Someone once told me that the reason Predator can use glass to heal itself in predator 2, is because the writers thought predator was a silicon based life form. Don't know much about the composition of glass though, so I'm not sure how much sense that makes.

[peachy]

Re: Nearby Star System Might Harbor Terrestrial Planets

Nearby Star System Might Harbor Terrorist Planets.

Nuke the bastards.

[Deeth Irteen]

Re: Nearby Star System Might Harbor Terrestrial Planets

I swear, it's like something out of Weekly World News, but not made up. if life does exist on other planets, there's no doubt the North American Governmrent would feel threatened by their technological prowess and:
A) declare war against them
B) attampt to convince the civilians that the aliens don't exist
C) both A and B