Finally
- Started
- Last post
- 24 Responses
- linearch
we can quit recycling:
- lvl_130
i feel like this is a claim by NASA at least once every 5 years just to keep them "relevant".
- moldero0
only 600 light years away:
http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/12…
I wonder how gravity is on a rock that much bigger than earth:
- I wonder. It all depends on the mass.monospaced
- details details...jaylarson
- I wonder if there's anyway to estimate its mass and gravity from here.Continuity
- probably notmonospaced
- set0
Sooner or later I think we'll find out that life is everywhere in the universe...
- Or more worryingly, it will find us. History tells a sad tale of when unmatched civilisations meet...mikotondria3
- I know it's all we have but I'm not sure using human references really applies...set
- if they're advanced enough to come here chances are they aren't as barbaric as we have been. Or maybe not, of course..set
- it's painfully obvious to me anyway that there's already something here, and has been for thousands of years.set
- I'm inclined to agree, set. I would think any civilisation that can explore space to the degree of, say, popping round to Earth has probably got its house in order.Continuity
- ... probably outgrown the kind of stupidity humans commit daily.Continuity
- CygnusZero40
Cool. Maybe we will find out if there is life there in about a 1000 years. Exciting news from NASA.
- Continuity0
Pity it's so far away. There's just no way of going to it and checking it out in our lifetimes.
- Even a message beamed to it from a radio telescope would take forever plus a day to get there. :(Continuity
- What's amazing is relative to the size of the universe, it's ridiculously close.CygnusZero4
- Yeah, really, that's just the sad irony of it, isn't it? So close, but yet so far.Continuity
- I wouldn't be so sure, look where we've come in the last 20 years. Development rates are speeding up.set
- CygnusZero40
I'm going to turn all numbers guy right now, to show how insignificant this news is to me.
So using the fastest unmanned spacecraft ever created (either Helios or the Galileo probe I believe), which travelled at 157,000mph, it would take 4,250 years to travel 1 light year.
So it would take that vehicle 2,550,000 years to get there.
- Hop to it!DRIFTMONKEY
- what about that voyager thing from star trek? i think they'd let us use it. looks fast.CanHasQBN
- CygnusZero40
And by the way the most powerful form of propulsion we have is ion, which I believe tops out at 200,000mph. So basically until we figure out wormholes or some sci-fi shit like that, nothing we have is getting there even remotely close to soon. We're probably talking hundreds, maybe thousands of years in the future before it's possible, if it ever will be. Who knows if humans will even still be around before we can figure this shit out.
- Continuity0
Faster-than-light travel using a drive that generates a bubble that contracts spacetime in front of it, and elongates it behind it is one hypothesis right now. It's called the Alcubierre drive:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alc…
Sadly, it seems a few holes have already been poked through it by other researchers.
- This stuff is all just theoretical. There's no way to know if it would ever be possible.CygnusZero4
- Hypotheses and theories like this are always difficult to prove, because we haven't got the technology to move the thing to a yay or nay conclusion.Continuity
- ... yay or nay conclusion.Continuity
- Meh who cares. We'll all be fossils before anyone has any clue.CygnusZero4
- I kinda care. My curious mind wants to know. :\Continuity
- But you can't know. That's the whole issue here.CygnusZero4
- BusterBoy0
"Scientists say the temperature on the surface of the planet is about a comfy 72 degrees."
What a joke...they can hardly get the temperature right here so what chance a planet millions of miles away!
- They're using math n shit to figure it out. They might actually know something like this.CygnusZero4
- That's 22∘C for everyone else.Continuity
- Not predicting exact temps, just what it could roughly be where it's at.CygnusZero4
- Continuity0
Out of curiosity, does anyone know how fast we can transmit data (as in: a message) in space with existing technology?
- inteliboy0
To even start 'testing' faster-than-light theories we need an epic source of power. So until we have that, likely cold fusion reactors or the like, we'll be still using rockets.