Kepler-22b

[rasterbee]

Alu, before we start getting excited over possible ways of traveling quickly in space we have to fix the main problem Rodri pointed out, gravitational force (proper acceleration). We do not have the engineering to create a craft that could keep humans alive traveling that fast. The speed required to get anywhere cool would squish us like bugs by a shoe.


Here, look at this from Wikipedia about g-force:

Human tolerances depend on the magnitude of the g-force, the length of time it is applied, the direction it acts, the location of application, and the posture of the body.[7][8]:350
The human body is flexible and deformable, particularly the softer tissues. A hard slap on the face may briefly impose hundreds of g locally but not produce any real damage; a constant 16 g for a minute, however, may be deadly. When vibration is experienced, relatively low peak g levels can be severely damaging if they are at the resonance frequency of organs and connective tissues.
To some degree, g-tolerance can be trainable, and there is also considerable variation in innate ability between individuals. In addition, some illnesses, particularly cardiovascular problems, reduce g-tolerance.

I just want to talk to some aliens. I don't care about meeting them in person right now. We're not ready for that. Honestly, most religions would think it was some kind of hoax perpetrated by the New World Order and we'd all start fighting one another and make a terrible impression on our new alien friends.

Oh, and whoever was talking about some sort of sail, it hasn't been tested yet only theorized. The inventor build a small scale one that did something good enough to get funding from the EU and now it is being looked into for research and use by future satellites from Estonia and Finland.

http://en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/press-release/121643
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Sail

So...maybe, but again unless we can invent a g-force cancelling machine to keep the humans inside alive then all we've got is faster satellites, which is cool with me. I just want to talk to an alien. And maybe have sexy naked chat with a few of them on Skype.

[Mistress Kitti]

I think you mean galaxy or universe, not solar system Though there could be aquatic things under Pluto's icy surface, or one of Jupiter's moons that's also icy.

>.> Emm... Yes! Whatchu said

As for the test dummies, it would probably be your average middle-class citizen.

lmao @ 'test dummies' I kinda figured it would be only those rich fools out there willing to spend the money to support such travel, but that's jmho.

I think some people don't realize that we (as humans) know so little about everything, yet we try understand everything. But with Dark energy and dark matter? There is always endless possibilities to explore, but not in this life time..

Indeed. Soon after I set up this thread, I read about another great discovery. What they are calling 'Super Massive Black Holes'. Black holes are objects so dense, nothing, not even light, can escape. The two gigantic black holes, apprx 300 mil l/y away *which are relatively close in galactic terms*, their latest find, are the biggest yet in their history of discoveries. The previous black hole record-holder is as monstrous as 6 billion suns. o.o

Most, if not all galaxies, are believed to have black holes @ their center. The bigger the galaxy? The bigger the black hole. These newest finds have been 'hidden', one being 9.7 billion times the mass of the the sun; the other, slightly further from Earth, is as big or even larger. To be so massive now, means they must have grown significantly since their formation.

Scientists are suggesting these relatively 'dim' black holes may be the aged remnants of quasars (their central black holes are no longer fed by accreting gas, so have become dormant & hidden).

Also? Just to clear up any bright ideas...If you get stuck in an active black hole, you cannot escape. If any sort of material actually falls into a black hole, it gets shredded and then heats up. As it heats up, it starts emitting radiation. Sooo, there goes our leap into black holes for travel purposes, time or otherwise.

I'm assuming you mean galaxy/universe. If I remember, we've already found fossil evidence of simple bacterial life in extra-terrestrial rock samples of our own solar system.

Should we meet other intelligent life in the universe (physically, not through communications), I agree with Stephen Hawking's view that it will likely end up much like when Europeans made contact with Native Americans. Which end of the analogy we'd be on is uncertain. But I don't see this happening for a long while, at least not us visiting something else.

EDIT: Darn you eric, slipping in a post with my thoughts while I went afk in mid-posting.

LOL...Eric is slick, you gotta watch him o.O Yes, by current abilities and expolatory methods, and as Ras said? We are ultimately Earth bound. All of these latest discoveries just add to the pages for future scientists to continue study. Study and discovery. That's all we're good for!

As for contact? I believe we are further along than those individuals involved in the actual study of extra-terrestrial creatures openly admit. Maybe they'll let us in on there lil dirty secrets as time reveals more of these planet/black hole discoveries, so us lil peons can stop fantasizing 'bout the lil green people who have landed here and wanna phone home, and actually learn something truly captivating about our universe.

[Victoria123]

You do not need high acceleration, but more of a mild accelaration for a long time to reach high speeds. U can ride the solar wind or use ion rockets which are very efficient and can reach incredible speeds over a few months/years.

To escape from the Solar system you need to achieve at least like 50km/s which has been achieved by Voyager 1&2 !
On approaching spped of light, say 99%, the distances contract and YOUR time slows so you may quite well reach the destination alive within your lifetime. Of course u have to remember to start slowing down a few months early !
P.S. To understand the speed of light : It can circle the Earth 6 times in 1 second ! and 8 minutes from Sun to Earth...

U can use wormholes for even quicker and longer distances but those are a bit trickier. U need rotating black holes to survive and are not that predictable.....

[rasterbee]

You do not need high acceleration, but more of a mild accelaration for a long time to reach high speeds. U can ride the solar wind or use ion rockets which are very efficient and can reach incredible speeds over a few months/years.

True, slow acceleration yeah whatever. But slow deceleration just messes that all up. It won't get you anywhere fast because as soon as you get up to speed you'll have to throw on the brakes basically.

To escape from the Solar system you need to achieve at least like 50km/s which has been achieved by Voyager 1&2 !
On approaching spped of light, say 99%, the distances contract and YOUR time slows so you may quite well reach the destination alive within your lifetime. Of course u have to remember to start slowing down a few months early !

You don't really understand what time is and how it relates to the distance and speed. Time does not slow down for you when you move faster. Your time is your time, it doesn't change. 1 second is 1 second for you. You will age just as quickly. When traveling at those speeds, yes 1 second for you is "longer" than 1 second on Earth. The comparable measurements of time is what changes. Time is only a measurement created by humans, so when you're on Earth time will move faster when compared to time on the space ship. It's not that time is literally moving slower on the space ship, you will just be moving faster than what we understand and are able to do concrete math with and justifiably explain. We can do all sorts of tests at the molecular level but none of it relates to what would actually happen to a human traveling faster than the speed of light because we have no frickin' clue what will happen. Maybe in another thousand years.

U can use wormholes for even quicker and longer distances but those are a bit trickier. U need rotating black holes to survive and are not that predictable.....

You honestly have no idea what you are talking about. You are just repeating plot themes from sci-fi and mixing them with unprovable and wildly hypothetical physics theories.

[Alusair]

Alu, before we start getting excited over possible ways of traveling quickly in space we have to fix the main problem Rodri pointed out, gravitational force (proper acceleration). We do not have the engineering to create a craft that could keep humans alive traveling that fast. The speed required to get anywhere cool would squish us like bugs by a shoe.

I know, that's what I was alluding to about how we've not yet even made unmanned excursions to the nearest solar system, much less one 600 light years away. We have yet to make even manned flights to our nearest planet. We're making progress with the theoretics, but we're a far way from making it practical.

Also, solar sails would not be a way to travel to another solar system, at least not with current technology. Even with issues like g-force put aside, it would take much too long, even if it were faster than conventional rockets.

Oh, and whoever was talking about some sort of sail, it hasn't been tested yet only theorized. The inventor build a small scale one that did something good enough to get funding from the EU and now it is being looked into for research and use by future satellites from Estonia and Finland.

That was me, and they've already launched a solar-sail spacecraft for experimental flight. It's unmanned, of course. I didn't mean to imply that we have manned solar-sail craft yet.

I'm not expecting these things to happen anytime soon; I doubt most of it will happen in my lifetime. A manned flight to Mars, and perhaps probes sent to the moons of the outer planets or so, sure, but not much else.

[rasterbee]

First off...

Even with issues like g-force put aside, it would take much too long, even if it were faster than conventional rockets.

Ha ha.

Ha ha ha.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.



Ok, I'm done.

That was me, and they've already launched a solar-sail spacecraft for experimental flight. It's unmanned, of course. I didn't mean to imply that we have manned solar-sail craft yet.

Oh, ok. I'm not doubting you at all, but you could provide a link? I looked around when you mentioned it and did not see anything about current in space tests.

A manned flight to Mars

I want to see that happen so bad. If I die before they accomplish that I will be so disappointed. Yeah, the moon is cool and all but another planet? And a planet we could potentially occupy? Oh god the possibilities. We could all move to Mars and then just suck all the resources out of Earth and start all over again. Round up all the shiftless lazy people and make them toil away in our sugar mines on Earth while we kick back and relax on Mars playing video games and chatting it up with our new alien friends.

I think that's what the aliens are waiting for. Earth is like our room and they won't knock and interrupt us, they're waiting for us to come downstairs and have breakfast on another planet before they initiate contact.

[Alusair]

First off...



Ha ha.

Ha ha ha.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.



Ok, I'm done.

If you think solar sails would be a way to travel to solar systems, you'd be silly. A million years or a hundred thousand years makes no difference to the practicality of a human lifespan.

Oh, ok. I'm not doubting you at all, but you could provide a link? I looked around when you mentioned it and did not see anything about current in space tests.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKAROS

I want to see that happen so bad. If I die before they accomplish that I will be so disappointed. Yeah, the moon is cool and all but another planet? And a planet we could potentially occupy? Oh god the possibilities. We could all move to Mars and then just suck all the resources out of Earth and start all over again. Round up all the shiftless lazy people and make them toil away in our sugar mines on Earth while we kick back and relax on Mars playing video games and chatting it up with our new alien friends.

I believe there's plans to make it happen within the next 50 years or so, if not a bit sooner. A manned flight, that is. Actual habitation of Mars will take longer. Biodomes would make a much quicker colonization process than terraforming Mars, but either scenario I think is beyond our practical ability at the time being.

[rasterbee]

No, Alu I was laughing at your terrible grammar.

Oh, wait. Ok I went and reread it. I'm dumb. I don't know what I thought I read at first but it was hilarious. I wasn't attacking anything you said, I thought I was mocking your grammar.

[Lucas101]

You do not need high acceleration, but more of a mild accelaration for a long time to reach high speeds. U can ride the solar wind or use ion rockets which are very efficient and can reach incredible speeds over a few months/years.

To escape from the Solar system you need to achieve at least like 50km/s which has been achieved by Voyager 1&2 !
On approaching spped of light, say 99%, the distances contract and YOUR time slows so you may quite well reach the destination alive within your lifetime. Of course u have to remember to start slowing down a few months early !
P.S. To understand the speed of light : It can circle the Earth 6 times in 1 second ! and 8 minutes from Sun to Earth...

U can use wormholes for even quicker and longer distances but those are a bit trickier. U need rotating black holes to survive and are not that predictable.....

Why dont we just ask the Andalites to help us out?

[deadlysage]

Nasa has confirmed the Kepler spacecraft's discovery of its 1st alien world which has the possibility to sustain an average surface temp of 72 degrees and has the ability to allow liquid water to exist. This potentially habitable alien world orbits a star very much like our own sun. Kepler-22b is located apprx 600 light years away with a radius 2.4 times that of our Earth.

According to scientists, the $600 million Kepler observatory was initiated specifically to 'hunt' for Earth-size alien planets where liquid water, perhaps life, might be able to exist. Since Kepler 1st set out upon its quest, there has been 1,235 planet candidates (54 in the habitable zone - a just-right range of distances that could allow liquid water to exist & 68 that are roughly Earth-size).

Of the 2,326 candidate planets Kepler has found so far, 207 are apprx Earth-size. 680 are a bit larger, putting them in the 'super-Earth' category. 48 of which are within habitable zones of their stars. Over 24 of the potential exoplanets have been confirmed, but Kepler scientists estaimated that at least 80% of Kepler's discoveries should end up being the real deal.

This is cited as a major milestone of finding Earth's twin. o.o

Now, this all being said...it would be grossly egotistic and assumptious for any of us 'Earthlings' to think we could possibly be the 'only' living social structure in our solar system.

What say you? Do you feel we are getting closer to finding 'other' life forms? What happens if/when we do 'make contact'? Who's willing to play planetary hop scotch and try out this new world once determined life can be sustained upon a planet such as Kepler-22b?

I believe that one of the most important question for humanity is, does the alien planets inhabitant PLAYS EVONY?

Then all the tax dollars used to fund this program would have been worth it.

The next question is, can we farm them?

I forgot to add, what sort of Evony advertisement would work for this new solar system.
Get working Evony, microsoft already planned something just for this occasion.