Closest non solar planet

[Thinking Aloud]

http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1241/

An Earth-mass planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B has been discovered!



Do you really want to know what I want? Do you really want to know the truth? I want my people to reclaim their rightful place in the galaxy. I want to see the Centauri stretch forth their hand again and command the stars. I want a rebirth of glory, a renaissance of power! I want to stop running through my life like a man late for an appointment, afraid to look back or look forward. I want us to be what we used to be! I want... I want it all back the way it was. Does that answer your question?

Yes. Yes it does.

[Ian]

I for one welcome our new alien overlords...

[That Alien Guy.]

Ah yes. Gerbiun. It's a fuel port run by eight foot long black worms known as the Fristy. They are best avoided unless necessary since they are a deeply anti-Semitic race, which did not make sense to anyone until we discovered this dump.

[That Alien Guy.]

Ah yes. Gerbiun. It's a fuel port run by eight foot long black worms known as the Fristy. They are best avoided unless necessary since they are a deeply anti-Semitic race, which did not make sense to anyone until we discovered this dump.

[Bella Fortuna]

That Alien Guy must be Cormac!

[klr]

That Alien Guy must be Cormac!

Took the words straight off my keyboard.

Anyway, I hear Alpha Centauri-B Prime is nice this time of year*. All together now: "We're all going on a ... summer holiday".

*For some extremophiles.

[Blind groper]

A new discovery.
An Earth size planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B.
This is the closest planet yet discovered, outside our own solar system, at about 4.3 light years distance. This planet is close to its star, and will be far too hot for life, but is a promising start for finding other planets in the Alpha Centauri triple star system.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 184436.htm

My view is that the first planet to be colonised by humans outside our own system, is likely to be a cold mass, perhaps similar to Mars. The odds against a planet being in the 'goldilocks zone' are pretty small. However, humans can cope with cold, if we have nuclear power for heating and lighting, and well insulated underground homes.

[JimC]

It is a magnificent reflection on the ability of H. sapiens to explore the universe...

Tell me, where in the bible was that planet mentioned?

And yet half the planet seems to depend on the wisdom of bronze age goat herders...

[Thinking Aloud]

http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=40031

[Blind groper]

And yet half the planet seems to depend on the wisdom of bronze age goat herders...

It will be a totally different kind of wisdom that will get humanity to the stars. Give us another millennium.....

[mistermack]

If we could use a hot Earth-sized planet for anything, we've got one. Venus.

This one is detected by the wobble. But the wobble is big, because the planet is so close to the star.

It's perfectly possible that these stars have more Earth-sized planets. actually in the Goldilocks zone.
The wobble would be a lot less magnitude, so we wouldn't be able to detect it yet.

This one, only just detected, going round such a close star, seems to indicate that there is a very good chance of Earth sized planets, not so far away, just waiting to be detected.

[Blind groper]

If so, Mistermack, that would be a great candidate for the first extrasolar colony.

[mistermack]

If so, Mistermack, that would be a great candidate for the first extrasolar colony.

And it would need to be something that close.
This alpha centauri is the nearest star system, at about 4.4 light years away.

At the same speeds as the Mars curiosity mission, it would take 14,000 years to get there.
By my rough calculation.

The next star is about six light yrs, then next about eight. So that would take 20,000 and about 28,000 yrs.

So they're going to have to speed up a bit.

[Blind groper]

Agreed.
There was a Scientific American article about 10 years ago, written by a couple of NASA scientists, who predicted that, within 500 to 1000 years, humans could build a star ship capable of accelerating to between 0.1c and 0.2c. That would do it.

[mistermack]

Agreed.
There was a Scientific American article about 10 years ago, written by a couple of NASA scientists, who predicted that, within 500 to 1000 years, humans could build a star ship capable of accelerating to between 0.1c and 0.2c. That would do it.

It would need the same amount of energy again to slow down the other end.
And hopefully, not hit anything on the way. At those speeds, even a grain of dust would create a collision like in the Hadron Collider.
Over that kind of a distance, even just normal cosmic rays would amount to a huge total, when you total up the distance you're travelled through.
It might destroy the shielding, long before you get there.
It's like travelling through light rain. You hardly notice it when you're stood still, but at 100mph it really stings.