Extra-Planetary Travel; Possible Waypoints that are New

[Lionheart]

Hey all,

So with the finding of Gliese 581, we have yet another planet to possibly visit when we have travel capabilities to leave the Solar System.

For those that do not know, Gliese 581, in the Goldylocks cluster or nebulae or galaxy (I know not what or where that is), has some neat features, though odd.

First, it has no revolutions in its planetary axis. Nope. It always faces one side to its star or sun, just like the moon does with us. We only see one side of it. So this planet, if it does have life, will probably be at the edges of the light area, with full heat being at the center of the side facing the star.

Second, temps are possible that it could have or support holding water. Water seems to also be a possible universal platform material, as well as hydrogen. So the possibility exists, though they have no idea. Only that the temps allow for it.

Third, the star is a red dwarf. This means, its super small and low level light. Ours is bright yellow, nearly white, but not, so it is yielding higher light levels and heat. The Gliese 581 star is super small as well. This means that the planet Gliese 581 is pretty darn close to this cooler (literally) star that it can and does actually orbit it at 36 days. oops, lets take a step back. Day? Gliese does not have a day, as we call a day a planetary rotation, Earth that is. So perhaps the Astronomers meant 'units of 24 hours' as their time platform for one solar year for Gliese, since Gliese does not rotate, thus it has no days in the sense of the meaning.

Interesting how we created our own measures of time based on our star, the Sun (Sol) and planetary revolutions. From there, when we created time measure mechanisms, (clocks, watches, etc), we could measure the exact time.



Back a year or two ago, we had found another planet or close by solar system that had a smaller planet (smaller then Earth) that had with it also two gas giants, with one being supposed to be larger then Jupiter (if thats possible, which I am sure it is). So that is location two to visit, perhaps, when we find out how to do worm hole travel, fold space, and warp speed (or plead perhaps? ).


I hope we behave out there. I hope we do respectable things in our sojourns into new lands and oceans.


Oh to dream....

[Lionheart]

By the way, to go off topic, has anyone been watching the new Stargate Universe? Catch the newest 'Alien(s)' that can create solar systems?

Yeah... They placed a star system in the path of the Discovery. Now a Nebulae shows up near there from out of the blue. A nebulae is like.... big...

Who ever is writing scripts for this show is certainly thinking outside of the box. He or she or they are thinking some revolutionary thoughts there, like Jules Verne would have been thinking. Big....!

[Naismith]

Aha, a few factual errors in there, Goldilocks is not a place as such. It is an analogy from the fairy tail of the three bears. The Earth is in such a region where it is neither too hot nor too cold to support "our" variety of life. Mars and Venus are also in that region of sapve however Venus is waaaay to hot and its atmosphere is hostile. Mares is waaaay to cold because it has very little atmosphere, the planet was too small to hold onto it and the solar wind just blew it away.

Gliese 581 is 3 times the mass of the Earth so an unlikely holiday destination, a 120lb person would weigh 360lbs. Also they have no idea the composition of the atmosphere. This is where the news reports get things totally wrong and give false impressions.
The fact that Gliese 581 is tidally locked to its sun means that one face is very hot (in the 200 deg range) and the night side is cold. It is conceivable that there is a comfortable zone around the twilight rim, but they just do not know exactly.

Scientists are discovering planets at the rate of apporximately 3 per month and so far several hundreds have been found. Most are gas giants which make Jupiter look postiviely weedy. They are getting better and better with the detection methods and one day may find a truly Earth-like planet

Now to our sun, the common misconception is that our sun is yellow. It is white. Otherwise we would be bathed in yellow light and that is not the case. A simple experiment with a prism reveals this to be true. The yellow tinge is caused by our atmosphere.

We had better get a move on, another mosconception is that the sun is 1/2 way through its life and has roughly 5 billion years left, while this is somewhat true, it actually will live far longer but none of which will be any use for the Earth. Actually in about 1.1 billion years the Sun will begin heating up as it depletes its Hydrogen and begins fusing Helium instead. Life will become very difficult on the Earth from then on..........
In short we are doomed.

[jmig]

.... Actually in about 1.1 billion years the Sun will begin heating up as it depletes its Hydrogen and begins fusing Helium instead. Life will become very difficult on the Earth from then on..........
In short we are doomed.

Just my luck. I figure that is about the time my investments will finally bounce back to were it was before all the economic crises.

Seriously, it is interesting how much the pace of astronomy discoveries is increasing. My father was an amateur astronomer. How excited he would be.

[Dain Arns]

Other problem is, even with current technology I've heard varying estimates of travel distances of several generations for a probe to reach the closest ones, to upwards of 10,000 years for manned ships to reach the most likely candidates for habitable systems.

[Lionheart]

Other problem is, even with current technology I've heard varying estimates of travel distances of several generations for a probe to reach the closest ones, to upwards of 10,000 years for manned ships to reach the most likely candidates for habitable systems.

Dain......


Havent you been watching Star Trek, Farscape, and even Star Gate?

Really though, I am sure we will figure out new forms of propulsion or travel systems soon. I am sure we already have experimental things being tested already that are radical.

[Dain Arns]

Dain......


Havent you been watching Star Trek, Farscape, and even Star Gate?

Really though, I am sure we will figure out new forms of propulsion or travel systems soon. I am sure we already have experimental things being tested already that are radical.

Yes, except StarGate.
I never got the opportunity to watch it, but I see its streamed now on Netflix, so its on my "To Watch" list.

Yes. Hawking eventually admitted that warp travel may be possible, although probably not as depicted in Star Trek.

Ion propulsion seems to be getting better after deploying it on a few probes.
That's what ties into the multi-generational probe estimates.

But, don't know.
Mankind seems more interested in better smart phone technology, than exploring the cosmos anymore...