Earth sized planet found in nearby star system

[red321]

http://www.nature.com/news/earth-sized-planet-around-nearby-star-is-astronomy-dream-come-true-1.20445

Proxima Centauri, the star closest to the Sun, has an Earth-sized planet orbiting it at the right distance for liquid water to exist. The discovery, reported today in Nature¹, fulfils a longstanding dream of science-fiction writers — a potentially habitable world that is close enough for humans to send their first interstellar spacecraft.

[gotbeer]

Arod already has plans to move there.  So that he could truly be a Centaur. 

[Ray McKigney]

Humans can't even get [back] to the moon. Proxima Centauri may not happen for a few years, at least.

[Slegnaac]

Water, okay. But are there any petroleum reserves? 

[Tank]

30 minutes ago, Slegnaac said:

Water, okay. But are there any petroleum reserves? 

hopefully there's a couple of good third basemen prospects out there, too.

[fan_since79]

Some bad news: at a speed similar to that of the Voyager probes (35,000 mph), it will take about 81,000 years to reach this planet.

That's how vast interstellar space is.

We'll have to figure out a much faster method of space travel in order to get there in a reasonable time.

 

 

[Vegas Halo Fan]

Arte Moreno is already scouting potential stadium sites.

[Tank]

2 hours ago, fan_since79 said:

Some bad news: at a speed similar to that of the Voyager probes (35,000 mph), it will take about 81,000 years to reach this planet.

That's how vast interstellar space is.

We'll have to figure out a much faster method of space travel in order to get there in a reasonable time.

why aren't we using warp speed? 

or maybe put han solo on it with his historic 12 parsec run to akjbdvpiug24;lfr

[Docwaukee]

3 hours ago, Vegas Halo Fan said:

Arte Moreno is already scouting potential stadium sites.

but not the foreign talent.  

[ten ocho recon scout]

7 hours ago, fan_since79 said:

Some bad news: at a speed similar to that of the Voyager probes (35,000 mph), it will take about 81,000 years to reach this planet.

That's how vast interstellar space is.

We'll have to figure out a much faster method of space travel in order to get there in a reasonable time.

 

 

Thats insane

[ten ocho recon scout]

7 hours ago, Tank said:

hopefully there's a couple of good third basemen prospects out there, too.

Theyll probably get an INO before nate

[Tank]

#poornate

[red321]

18 hours ago, fan_since79 said:

Some bad news: at a speed similar to that of the Voyager probes (35,000 mph), it will take about 81,000 years to reach this planet.

That's how vast interstellar space is.

We'll have to figure out a much faster method of space travel in order to get there in a reasonable time.

 

 

The article talks about using a concept of solar sails/ground based lasers to speed probes up to 20% of the speed of light...think the estimate was the voyage would be 20 or so years in that scenario. That technology is still under research.

[JAHV76]

17 hours ago, Tank said:

why aren't we using warp speed? 

or maybe put han solo on it with his historic 12 parsec run to akjbdvpiug24;lfr

Or better yet ludicrous speed

 

[IEAngelsfan]

On 8/24/2016 at 0:45 PM, cezero said:

By "spacecraft", it's a pretty safe bet to assume it will be a probe of some sort. Extremely small if you go by what Stephen Hawking has been planning to privately fund. 

So what you're saying is that we humans would be the ones probing on other planets........yeah, payback time aliens! 

[ten ocho recon scout]

14 minutes ago, IEAngelfan said:

So what you're saying is that we humans would be the ones probing on other planets........yeah, payback time aliens! 

"We want to know all about you...through your butthole"

[Schildog]

this thread has delivered. well played fellas.

[Stradling]

I'd say the chances of us naming this planet "Planet McPlanet Face" are pretty good.  

[Mark68]

On 8/24/2016 at 9:40 PM, Vegas Halo Fan said:

Arte Moreno is already scouting potential stadium sites.

Will his yacht make it there?

[Mark68]

17 minutes ago, cezero said:

The solar sail for even getting a tiny object up to that speed would be HUUUUGGGGEEEE.  Can't wait to see what happens over the next 20 or so years with space propulsion research. 

Not knowing the physics of solar sails, would they even be feasible for interstellar travel? I would imagine you'd have to be in/near a solar system for solar sails to be of much use.

[Tank]

38 minutes ago, cezero said:

The solar sail for even getting a tiny object up to that speed would be HUUUUGGGGEEEE.  Can't wait to see what happens over the next 20 or so years with space propulsion research. 

will they use cloth or canvas for that?

asking for a friend.

[red321]

without being a physicist either...and I haven't hung out at the Holiday Inn in awhile...from reading it my thought is they would just use the laser pulse/sails to push the probe up to a speed, it wouldn't be continuous through the life of it's journey. Once it reached, say 20% of light speed, it would just continue at that speed and they would not need to continue to propel it.

I guess the issue would be if you needed to make course corrections, there would be no way to do it. 

[Taylor]

On 8/24/2016 at 8:15 PM, fan_since79 said:

Some bad news: at a speed similar to that of the Voyager probes (35,000 mph), it will take about 81,000 years to reach this planet.

That's how vast interstellar space is.

We'll have to figure out a much faster method of space travel in order to get there in a reasonable time.

Easy:

[Spirit]

As long as there's wine, bacon and coffee, I'm in.

 

 

 

[Spirit]

These things always reminds me of this Queen song.  One of my favs.