‘Best Yet’: Another Potentially Habitable, Earth-Like Planet Discovered
- Posted on February 3, 2012 at 4:45pm by
Liz Klimas
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Artist's rendition of GJ 667Cc in its three star system. (Image: Carnegie Institution for Science via Space.com)
Last year, NASA’s planet-hunting telescope Kepler found more than 1,200 alien planets, which are still being reviewed for validity. Of these, one was labeled as a “Goldilocks planet” — or one potentially suitable for life like that present on Earth. Now, another Earth-like planet has been discovered using public data and the new Carnegie Planet Finder Spectrograph in Chile.
It is being called the best one yet.
Space.com reports that GJ 667Cc is a “Super-Earth”, sizing up at least 4.5 times bigger than our planet. The planet, which takes 28 days to orbit around its parent star, is 22 light-years away, which scientists consider our “next door neighbor”:
“It‘s the Holy Grail of exoplanet research to find a planet around a star orbiting at the right distance so it’s not too close where it would lose all its water and boil away, and not too far where it would all freeze,” Steven Vogt, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told SPACE.com. “It’s right smack in the habitable zone — there’s no question or discussion about it. It’s not on the edge, it’s right in there.”
[...]
“It’s very nearby. There are only about 100 stars closer to us than this one,” [Vogt said.]
The researchers also note that an unusual feature about this planet is that it is part of a three star system, although the other two stars are further away than its primary. The host star, according to Space.com, has less mass than our own sun because it is composed of different elements and has fewer heavy metals. The lack of heavy metals had scientists surprised at finding the planets, as these elements are what form the planets in the first place.
Space.com reports that scientists believe this discovery opens the door for more environments in space that could be home to Earth-like planets than previously expected.
The orbit of GJ 667Cc around its host star takes 28 days. Other potential planets are also shown in this graphic. (Image: Carnegie Institution for Science via Space.com)
Unlike the many exoplanets discovered last year with the Kepler telescope, this planet was discovered using data from the European Southern Observatory and observations from the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii and the Carnegie Planet Finder Spectrograph at the Magellan II Telescope in Chile, according to Space.com. Vogt said that these instruments allowed them to look at planets much closer than those being observed by Kepler, which are typically thousands of light years away. Vogt said that unlike the planets found by Kepler, which are too far away, the planets found closer in could eventually have a probe sent to them and “within a few hundred years, it could be sending back picture postcards.”
Related: Check out this Blaze article about how astronomers are now estimating that planets outnumber stars in our galaxy. Also, astronomers recently found Earth-sized planets, but they were too close to their star to be considered habitable.
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Comments (136)
GotLead
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 7:56pm“So your sayin I have a chance”
Report Post »Twobyfour
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 3:38amDoubt it. If you can’t get a date with an earthwoman (which are notoriously easy), hoping to find a date on another planet may be n exercise in futility.
Report Post »shirleyandpearl
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 7:16pmAs far as a one way excursion to this planet: add to the passenger manifest send weasel, Shmuckie-Chuckie Schumer along with them…. and don’t forget Van Jones and his pal Shabbaz, the club carrying Black Panther, Debbie Blabbermouth Schultz. Their mode of transport can be fueled non stop by all the hot air spewed from Al Gore.
Report Post »DisasterFamilyDotCom
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 7:28pmFor those of you mentioning how long it would take there, you forget about general relativity and time dilation. You would not need to go the speed of light to shorten the trip to a life time. The faster you go, the more time dilation you experience. If you went fast enough, you would experience the trip in a very short amount of time. Days, even hours. Of course, the years would tick by on earth, you can’t escape that, but if you could approach the speed of light in a ship, your trip would be literally experienced in hours. You could fly there and back again in a single week. Unfortunately, when you came home, a hundred years would have elapsed.
Report Post »oct15
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 12:10amThe universe does not operate according to your intuitions. You can’t accelerate to the speed of light instantly, for one. You can’t get to the speed of light either. As your speed approaches the speed of light, in addition to time slowing down your mass increases, approaching infinity. You would need an infinite amount of force to accelerate you further, and there’s just no way to do that.
This happens all the time, everywhere. Its just that in our normal human experiences involve things that move very slowly compared to c. So it doesn’t make any common sense to us.
Here’s another one to fry your brain about the speed of light. Let‘s say you’re on a train, going 10 meters per second. You fire a gun from the roof in front of the train. The bullet goes 300 meters per second. So if you measure the bullet, how fast is it going relative to the ground? 310 meters per second, because it was already going 10 m/s before you fired the gun.
But let’s say it gets dark, and the engineer turns on the headlight. The speed of light is roughly 300 million meters per second. If you measure the speed relative to the ground, would you get 300,000,010 m/s? No. The speed of light is constant, and would measure the same whether it was mounted on a moving train or not. How can this be?
Well, the flaw is in our thinking that the ground is absolute, and speeds are just measures of how something’s position is changing with the ground. That is wrong. It is the speed of light that i
Report Post »oct15
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 12:12amould measure the same whether it was mounted on a moving train or not. How can this be?
Well, the flaw is in our thinking that the ground is absolute, and speeds are just measures of how something’s position is changing with the ground. That is wrong. It is the speed of light that is constant, and will always show to be c. The speed of everything that isn’t light, length, mass, and time are what change in relation to c. c never changes.
Report Post »TheSoundOf Truth
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 4:24pmNibiru! Planet of the Crossing!!!
Sitchen said that we should be able to see it in about 2100, so I don‘t think at the end of this year we’ll be having another flood…
But, hey…who says the Annunaki aren’t already here….manipulating things to prepare for the arrival of their Holy Planet.
Report Post »Physicist_In_Training
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 9:32pm@Disaster,
You’re right about time dilation. I don‘t know that it’s accurate to say that, relative to an observer on a ship traveling at relativistic speeds, that you could make the trip in “a couple weeks;” that seems a bit extreme to me, but then I haven’t actually worked out the calculation. So in theory, yes, if we can accelerate a ship to near light speeds, then those aboard could make the trip within their relative lifespans.
…However, special relativity, at the same time as fixing one problem by introducing time dilation, poses a new problem due to length contraction. If you were traveling at relativistic speeds, then length contraction would cause you to experience the ordinarily harmless cosmic microwave background radiation that permeates the universe as harmful, DNA frying gamma rays!
So, unfortunately, special relativity introduces a problem that is just as bad as the one it solves. But it’s fun to imagine anyway ^_^
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 7:14pmIf we can‘t fix where we are now we’ll just break any place else we go.
Report Post »darkrage000
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 7:30pmDont see what the big deal is… we dont even have a space program anymore.. we will never visit them.
Report Post »islamhater
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 7:41pmMaybe you should ask NASA about planet X.. That comes by earth every 3600 years. Supposed to be here december 21 2012 and leave in july 2014.. Look it up might be supprised what the jewish calender means. 2/3 of the population is to be lost..It will pass between us and the sun.Cause’ing major disruption on earth..You can already see it if you live in the southern hemisphere..They don’t know what will happen but most think a polor shift we are 30 thousand years over do..
Report Post »joetentpeg
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 8:21pmReally’d like to see you try and “break” Antarctica or the Sahara.
Report Post »Twobyfour
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 9:41amThe Monk, you were watching Cameron’s Avatar one time too many. Our ability to break hings on a planetary scale is close to non-existent.
Vogons on the other hand…
Report Post »DD313
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 6:58pmA planet in a solar system 22 light years away is quite close in cosmic terms. With a fusion or or an improved ion drive, an unmanned space probe could become feasible, although it would take several generations to arrive. At that point it would take 22 more years for signals to get back to earth. Then, if signs of life are detected, a manned multi-generational ship could possibly be sent. A planet of 4.5 Earth masses would not have 4.5 times Earth gravity (Jupiter at 318 earth masses has only 2.5 times Earth gravity, and Uranus at 14.5 Earth masses has only .9 Earth gravity). Unlike the large planets cited, a rocky 4.5 Earth mass planet would have higher gravity, but not by much. The problem is that it would be difficult launching a project which no one alive at the time would see to fruition. I’m still waiting to see the pictures from Pluto due in 2015.
Report Post »RepubliCorp
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 7:30pmCan we send Obama there with a cell phone camera?
Report Post »Bigliardi
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 7:35pmTwenty two light years might sound small when compared with the vastness of the entire universe, but it is still far too vast a distance for us to even contemplate undertaking…There are no ion or fusion drives, nor any such thing even being considered at this time. Such things are found in the arena of science fiction and will remain there for many many years to come…The Voyagers, some thirty years into their trip toward the heliosphere, have traveled very small distances when compared to the distance to this new planet. At the 35,000 miles per hour which they are traveling now, they will be only 12.5 billion miles from our sun by the year 2020. In another 40,000 years they will near the constellation Cameloppardalis, and in 296,000 years they will be near Sirius, which is the brightest star in our sky, and at a distance beginning to be comparable to the 22 light years this new planet is said to be from us..We need to find us a warp drive, or a wormhole or something…
Report Post »Doctor Nordo
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 8:16pm@BIGLIARDI
Actually, ion propulsion is a relatively simple technology that is well within our current level of technology and even exists in physical form.
Report Post »Neveraleftist
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 8:38pmVery interesting, but given your assertion that “…a rocky 4.5 Earth mass planet would have higher gravity, but not by much”, it is best that we don’t even bother because if there are any inhabitants in that planet, and provided they welcome us, we will soon screw things up. You see, one of the first things we will do, not being accostumed to the extra weight, is to try and convince them to give up sugar, salt, fatty foods, etc. Before you know it, we will impose it on them, and sooner or later, there will be a war. We are screwed here, and let’s face it, it is of our own doing. Therefore it is best if we leave the poor bastards alone (if there are any).
Report Post »Doctor Nordo
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 8:57pm@BIGLIARDI
If you cared to look, you would see that we have employed ion thrusters in many of our spacecraft.
Report Post »Doctor Nordo
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 8:59pmThey’re obviously nothing like you would see on a TIE fighter from StarWars (TIE = twin ion engine), but it is still a very viable form of highly efficient long range propulsion.
Report Post »DD313
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 9:20pmToo Late, the Pluto probe left in January, 2006.
Report Post »BSdetector
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 10:06pm@DD313
Report Post »The problem with your gravity thoughts, is that Jupiter(and the others) is a gas giant. Meaning it’s made of a huge cloud of gas, unlike the Earth which is a big chunk of Rock, Water, and Metals.
An Earthlike planet of that size would have enormous gravity.
DD313
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 8:04amToo late, the Pluto probe was launched in January, 2006.
Report Post »HumbleMan
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 11:29am@BSDETECTOR
Sorry bud … I did the calculation. It’s only 65% more … which is a lot, but it’s not unthinkable to live with that. My assumption was that the density of the planet is the same as ours. As they indicate, fewer heavy metals are present, it’s possible the radius of the planet is even larger and so the force of gravity at the surface would be even less.
There‘s an interesting proof from Gauss concerning the effect of the collective mass of a sphere that shows it’s equivalent to a point mass at the center. So the radius is a very important factor in determining the gravitational force at the surface of a planet. Since the volume (size) of a planet grows as the cube of the radius, and the gravitational force decreases with the radius squared, the force doesn’t go up as quickly as you might suspect.
Report Post »the wireworker
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 6:51pmnarfle the garthok
Report Post »last frontier
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 6:21pmDo we send all the liberals lawyers and lazies there? or do we leave them here and call it a day?
Report Post »williaml
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 1:06amAll ahead, Warp Factor 10, Engage
Report Post »LIBS-ARE-DINGLEHEADS
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:34pmAll we need to do to get there quick.
Tie up ROSEANNE BARR
Force her to eat 55 bags of Doritos, 27 Tacos, and make her chug a 12-pack of PBR.
Have her bend over.
Force her to hold her breath – position astrobreakwindnaut in front of her
Have Calista Gingrich Signature hairspray can and Bic lighter at the ready
When she cracks one off, spray, lite and VOILA!
He’ll be there in 20 minutes!
Report Post »USAMEDIC3008
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:43pmAnd if he cant find a taco stand there I guess he is stuck there
Report Post »right-wing-waco
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:59pmThat was funny. I can picture it now… v a r o o m. Very good.
Report Post »Ender0183
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 6:14pmI don‘t care who you are that’s funny
Report Post »Bigliardi
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 7:39pmWhy do you think you would have to FORCE her to eat 55 bags of doritos, 27 Tacos and chugalug a 12 pack of PBR? Sounds a lot like her daily diet to me….
Report Post »asybot12
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 5:57amThanks you made me laugh, and that ain’t easy these days. Maybe The Blaze can have one site just for funny comments, you read an article on The Blaze that automatically diverts you to the comedy section. Just a thought, thanks again, Asybot
Report Post »classicalgas
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:28pmIsn’t that the planet that Obama is from?
If only we could send him back!
Report Post »Damn_Lucky
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:47pmIt’s only imposable until you try.
Report Post »SIXFRIGATES
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:27pm4.5 times bigger = 4.5 times the OIL! MoaAAaArrRrR!!
Too bad no vehicle will ever exist to get there. Mars is the only possibility people. we should be focusing on the doable and inevitable and not on the impossible.
Report Post »Lambo
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 6:39pmColonize the moon!
Report Post »finky555
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 1:10amHang in there, Voyager (Vger) should be running into the machine planet any year now.
Report Post »Twobyfour
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 7:34amMoon is a harsh mistress. You forget to close a door when getting out of a suite and wheeeezzzz… you don’t get a chance to correct your mistake. At least on Mars, you can look for that alien built atmospheric generator. Your descendants, after 100 generations, would be these 12ft tall stick figures, all limbs, praying mantis look.
Report Post »Twobyfour
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 7:49amWhich brings me to something that bothered me for a while. Wile watching the TV series Terra Nova, the concept of traveling backward in time… suspended my disbelief… but I am having trouble with dinosaurs. Not with the pigsqueaks velociraptors and similar sized critters, but sauropods like brachyosaurus are stretching my credulity. Or quetzalcoatlus (40ft wingspan, 350lb) flying about. I‘ve seen the limb bones of brachyosaurus inside out and they aren’t built like elephant bones. If elephant bones had that internal structure, it would be a quadruplegic. How come these massive 50ft H x 80ft L giants did not collapse into a puddle of meat and broken bones?
Explanation?
Report Post »HumbleMan
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 3:09pmI have heard of one plausible theory; because as you say, their skeletal strength for the size and probable mass just doesn’t work in our current environment. Is it possible that during the Jurassic age, these animals actually lived in water for the most part, submerged most of the time … and so supported by buoyancy? Or was the atmosphere radically different?
One things for sure … it wouldn‘t work in today’s world.
Report Post »tiredofprogressives
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:20pmAll this money being spent for this nonsense. Who cares if there is another hospitable planet when it’s 22 light years away? Do you understand what that means? If we can travel at 186,000 miles per second it would take 22 years to arrive at that planet. LOL. This is stupid. And these bozo’s have to give you something for taxpayer money for this “research”. Let’s keep our money for ourselves and to spend locally benefitting our communities rather than the Federal Government stealing it from us by unlawful taxation and dispersing it out to these clowns. Terrible return on our “investment” Mr. Obama.
Report Post »hidden_lion
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:58pm22 lights years is doable. Maybe we won’t see the results, but we can start the colony out now and after we blow up our own planet, the seed humans will have landed. Then the battlestar galactica story may seem like prophecy..LOL!. If only we hadn’t faked the moon landing, we could be sunning ourselves on this planet already.
Report Post »Twobyfour
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 8:02amI think that space and related programs aren’t a waste at all (provided that they are managed well). There is always a chance of some spin-offs. Can you imagine your life without velcro? Ball point pen? An insight into the nature of he universe may give us, one day, free and abundant energy.
NASA outreach to muslims so they feel good about themselves—that is a different story.
Report Post »qpwillie
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:17pmGreat!!! All we have to do is come up with a vehicle that will travel at 186,000 miles a second and we can be there in 22 years.
Report Post »Noonien_Soong
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 8:23pmWhat is needed is a vehicle that can expand space behind and compress space ahead so said vehicle would ride a wave of space-time aka warp drive.
Report Post »Twobyfour
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 6:27amI was looking for a firefly class in a scrap yard recently, but as my luck has it, someone must have beat me to it. No ships whatsoever. I’ll buy a warp drive and get a ship later, Noonien_Soong, if you can tell me where.
Report Post »cmark
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:12pmBeam me up Scotty.
Report Post »RightPolitically
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:09pmOf course, what they don’t tell you is that at four and a half times bigger than earth, the pressures of such great mass would undoubtedly crush an earthling.
Report Post »ModerationIsBest
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:20pmTo be fair, they usually talk about “supporting life” not necessarily “human life.”
If you accept evolution, then you could then make the leap that since the planet is in the “goldilocks(meaning life can exist)” zone, that evolution over a period of time would develop life that can be sustained on that planet.
Report Post »TH30PH1LUS
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:25pmExactly. Multiply your weight times 4.5 then add 100 lbs for the protective suit, then another 200 for the life suppoprt pack.
Add ALL of that up, and you’d weigh almost as much as Michael Moore.
Report Post »hidden_lion
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 6:07pmWouldn’t that depend on the type of atmosphere and speed of rotation? Maybe there is less pressure per sq ft on the surface.
Report Post »TH30PH1LUS
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 6:38pm@ hidden_lion:
nope. the sheer mass of the planet would render you a paralyzed mass of broken bones. you would suffer an agonizing death.
Report Post »ModerationIsBest
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 6:47pmRight, but you would also have to think that hypothetically if we have the advancement in technology to actually travel far distances that we might have also the ability to create some kind of suit to withstand the pressure.
Then again, I know very little about this stuff haha.
Granted it’s all sci-fi talk, but I find it interesting sometimes.
Report Post »Physicist_In_Training
Posted on February 6, 2012 at 9:41pmThe acceleration due to gravity on a planet actually depends both on mass and size. The exact equation is:
g = -GM/(r^2)
where G is a constant, M is the mass of the planet, and r is its radius. So, as you can see, the size of the planet (how big its radius is) actually matters a lot more than how much mass it has, since mass is linear in that equation, but radius is squared. If you quadruple the mass but keep the radius the same, then gravity quadruples; but if you quadruple the radius and keep the mass the same, the gravity is 1/16 what it was before! So whether the planet has “crushing gravity” cannot be determined from the information given in the article.
And no, it has nothing to do with rotational speed, atmospheric pressure, etc. The only variables are mass and size.
Report Post »RightPolitically
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:07pmThis is great news. Quick, round up all the Democrats and put them on a very big rocket. And, one more thing, take that twit, John McCain along for the ride. In fact, ol‘ John probably still has his pilot’s license, why not put him in command…… he likes working across the aisle, it would be a match made in heaven.
Report Post »Jenny Lind
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:16pmOh heck no, they do not deserve a beautifull planet to start over, they all deserve to live in sewers like they have worked-sheer gutter rats, all of them
Report Post »Twobyfour
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 10:03amPluto then?
Report Post »heavyduty
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:05pmI really can’t see the reason to go there. I mean after all the technology that we have today, it would take something like several million years to visit to see if it might be habitable. It’s a nice dream but we will never see it. Heck we can’t even stay in space for more than six months at a time.
Report Post »Chuck Stein
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:12pmActually, it is “only” 22 light years away. If a spacecraft can travel at 10% of the speed of light (which is not beyond reason), then the trip is “only” 220 years — not millions of years.
Report Post »ModerationIsBest
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:18pmI think it’s fun to think of, and over time we will likely try further space travel.
None of us will be alive to see any of it, but it’s fun to think of.
Report Post »Bigliardi
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 7:46pmWouldn’t ten percent of the speed of light be 18,600 MILES PER SECOND..? OR over a million miles per minute, or almost 67 million miles per hour…?
Report Post »Chuck Stein
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 4:39am@ bigliardi
Report Post »You math looks fine to me.
Also: “the top cruise velocity that can theoretically be achieved by a thermonuclear Orion starship, assuming no fuel is saved for slowing back down, is about 8% to 10% of the speed of light (0.08-0.1c). An atomic (fission) Orion can achieve perhaps 3%-5% of the speed of light. A nuclear pulse drive starship powered by matter-antimatter pulse units would be theoretically capable of obtaining a velocity between 50% to 80% of the speed of light.”
operatorbob1
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:04pmbeam me up scotty no intelligent life here
Report Post »jeezpeeps
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 2:51amBigliardi
Report Post »I did not bother to put the figures together but 1/10th the speed of light would be 18,600 ft per sec. But I think your probably pretty close to correct on the 67 million MPH. Thats funny stuff… I’ve got a cousin that has this yugo that……
disenlightened
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:03pmThe really sad thing is, these government-paid scientists can tell us anything they want us to believe and we can’t prove them wrong. And because of government grants to universities and the scientific “community”, we really can’t trust them anymore. This field is so ripe for big lies.
Report Post »anewme
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:40pmAmen to that. Ever notice every time their funding is threatened, they make a amazing discovery? Total BS
Report Post »Bigliardi
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 7:49pmAnd everything is guesswork…It isn’t like they can take a look at something that is trillions and trillions of miles away…
Report Post »ModerationIsBest
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:02pm“which scientists consider our “next door neighbor”:
Would hate to have to borrow a cup of sugar from that “next door neighbor”
Report Post »ModerationIsBest
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:02pmSo amazing to think of.
Report Post »Bigliardi
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 7:54pmIf you are feeling sad to know that mankind will never see this “Eden..,” Maybe you should feel glad that maybe the seven thousand pound hideously ugly, and eternally hungry carnivores who live there will never see the Earth…
Report Post »seattleguy13
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:01pmCool. Let’s ship the Occupy movement and the 99% crowd there.
Report Post »piper60
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 4:56pmPerhaps this would be better than the moon colony that Newt spoke of.
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 4:54pmif light is warped by time and space, how can we be sure of anything we see without physically being there, to see it up close, with less space and time between us and the object?
just asking…
Report Post »Polarized America
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:05pmActually, when you see something like this you are looking into the past, in this case 22 light years ago. The Planet/Solar system may no longer be there.,,,strange ain’t it
Report Post »hidden_lion
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 6:03pmPolarized-
Report Post »how do you know it isn’t looking into the future instead of the past? We don’t exist at the end of a timeline, we are somewhere along the line, maybe the middle, maybe still near the beginning. Which direction is the past? Which part of the universe is the beginning, and how could they really know?
Polarized America
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 6:39pmHidden-
now you have me thinking of Clinton … “ depends on what your definition of” Is Is ” lol
seriously though, we all know that light has a speed as does sound, when you see lightning you may not hear the sound for a few seconds depending on your distance from the lightning source, so you are hearing a sound from the past .
I don’t think it matters where we are in the universe, we can only measure an object as it is in relationship to us. Or one object and it’s distance to another.
Report Post »jeezpeeps
Posted on February 4, 2012 at 2:58amPolarized America If there is a possibility that that solar system is no longer there I don’t think I can get Vinnie to take the Yugo on the trip.
Report Post »Theodwulf
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 4:51pmSadly no way to get to it before one is a pile of dust
Report Post »democritusoilder267
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 4:50pmCan you imagine living on another planet in a different solar system in a different galaxy? Life is full of mysteries. I wondered how all the different life forms evolved on different planets.
Report Post »Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:01pmI don’t mean to make fun of you, but I haven’t heard of anybody finding any evidence of any other life forms other than us Earthlings, so far. What it would be like to wake up to three different suns? They don’t mention moons. We are so connected to our moon in so many different ways.
Report Post »ModerationIsBest
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:01pmSo crazy to think of. Very very interesting.
Report Post »democritusoilder267
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:08pmI understand. But these are planets that are most likely to be able to sustain life.
Report Post »MCDAVE
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:08pmImagine what life could be like on this planet without socialism
Report Post »Polarized America
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:12pmCan you imagine living on another planet in a different solar system in a different galaxy
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I think Mormans can
ModerationIsBest
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:13pm@ANONYMOUS T. IRRELEVANT
I think he is just talking about on a grand scale.
The way most of these things are found are by scientists looking through telescopes at shadows and using math to make best guess estimates. A lot of these things aren’t actually “seen.”
If you think the Big Bang is the way this universe came about, and that the reason life on this planet was able to happen is because of where we are in relationship to the sun, then it’s not too big of a leap to assume that there is life on other planets that are a similar distance from other suns. Exactly similar to us? no, but life in the general term.
If you think that God created the universe and has a special relationship with humans, then you won’t make those assumptions/conclusions.
It‘s partly why I never got the claim that Atheists don’t think anything is bigger then them, and don’t have an imagination.
I‘m an atheist and don’t think I’m the best thing ever. It is because of science that we were told we’re not the center of the universe, and I accept that. I have an imagination and think there are things bigger then me, but I think it deals in the realm of math, science, evolution, space, etc and not in a God, especially a specific one.
We are just different types of people who focus on different things.
Report Post »Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:22pm@ModerationIsBest
Report Post »I am a Christian and I think God created all the scientific laws of the universe. It’s possible that He could have created life on other planets. I have an open mind. Heck, I even wonder if we are looking at what would sustain US (oxygen-based, carbon forms), instead of a different kind of life.
democritusoilder267
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:23pmIt is good to see others with similar views. As a deist I believe in god and feel everything is possible.
Report Post »ModerationIsBest
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:32pm@ANONYMOUS T. IRRELEVANT
I guess you are more open then other people then. I personally don’t see how you could have both views but whatever. As long as you aren’t closed to new evidence, I have no problem with it.
There were times when people thought that the sun revolved around the Earth, so much so they imprisoned Galileo for life.
They used verses like 1 Chronicles 16:30, Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, Psalm 104:5, Ecclesiastes 1:5 to defend their “beliefs.”
It wasn’t until 2000 that Pope John Paul II came out and issued a formal apology over many things, including Galileo’s imprisonment.
I just continually see people use Bible verses to defend their point and then when something disproves that Bible verse, they then say, “well God created everything, so this new evidence isn’t contrary to my belief.”
Again, if you’re open to new evidence, that’s great, just don‘t be hypocritical along the way quoting scripture and saying it’s all true because it’s the word of God and infallible, only to adjust your belief once science disproves something.
Report Post »ModerationIsBest
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 6:03pm@DEMOCRITUSOILDER267
I can understand being a Deist. I think you have to make a big leap to become a theist but oh well.
Report Post »democritusoilder267
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 6:14pmYes, it is difficult identifying as a deist. I’m secular and believe in reason and logic. Compared to having a religion. I accept all forms of science.
Report Post »Bigliardi
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 8:14pmSimply because other civilizations have not been found does not mean there aren’t any…Thre are billions upon billions of other galaxies out there, both larger and smaller than our Milky Way, each containing billions upon billions of stars. Billions of these stars have planets orbiting them…..bilions of these planets exist within the “habitable zone” of the stars they are orbiting…So…If life sprang forth on earth as scientists say it did, doesn’t it folllow that it is also possible that it has done so in other places as well ?
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 4:49pmI’ll go… get me off this Space Rock… with Insane Do Gooders!
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 4:59pmi hear ya, except they aren’t DO gooders… they are the “Well Meaning”…
there is a huge difference between doing good and “meaning well”… ;)
people who would actualy “do good” would not mess with your life unless given consent by you.
the well meaning are the opposite, they will never ask you if you need help, they will just do things that affect your life and if they mess up, oh well, they meant well. so you HAVE to so “it’s ok”…
Report Post »BBEV
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:21pmI would go also to explore the cosmos. It use to human nature to want to explore, what happen to so many people that think this is all a waste of time?
Report Post »Polarized America
Posted on February 3, 2012 at 5:23pmDo you want to go to a Space Rock with Do Badders ..O wait !!
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