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NASA / msnbc.com
Planetary scientists are working on equations to assess how habitable a given planet might be.
Planet-hunters say they've developed a relatively simple method for determining how livable a faraway world might be, and they've used the formula to identify a top candidate: a super-Earth that's 36 light-years away.
The research paper was submitted to the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics just two weeks ago, but it's quickly making the rounds among those who follow the accelerating search for planets beyond our solar system. The big reason for all the interest is that the paper points to a new prospect for the short list of potentially habitable planets: HD 85512 b, a world that's at least 3.6 times as massive as Earth, circling an orange star in the constellation Vela.
The authors — Lisa Kaltenegger of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and Stephane Udry and Francesco Pepe of the University of Geneva — rank the extrasolar planet right up there with Gliese 581d, a prime prospect for habitability that is 20 light-years from Earth. "HD 85512 b is, with Gl 581d, the best candidate for exploring habitability to date, a planet on the edge of habitability," they say.
The paper uses HD 85512 b as a test case for a set of equations aimed at assessing how livable a particular planet might be, based on its orbital parameters, how much radiation it gets from its parent sun and the nature of its atmosphere. HD 85512 b's minimum mass and orbital parameters were published only recently, based on data from the HARPS-Upgrade GTO planet search. The world orbits a star that is significantly dimmer than our own sun, at a distance of 0.26 AU — which is within Mercury's orbit in our solar system. It makes one full orbit every 58.4 Earth days, the researchers report.
The researchers assume that HD 85512 b is a rocky planet with an Earthlike atmosphere containing water vapor, carbon dioxide and nitrogen. If that's the case, and if more than half the planet is covered by clouds, then it "could be potentially habitable," they say.
Is there a way to resolve those "ifs"? Comparing the planet's mass with its size could tell astronomers whether its composition is more like Neptune's or Earth's. But to study its atmosphere, we're going to need a bigger telescope.
Here's how Kaltenegger explained the challenge to Skymania News: "As to whether it is really habitable, we’ll need a spectrum to tell that — direct imaging would be the ticket. With a direct imaging mission we could detect if it looks habitable. We could detect clouds if we had a big enough telescope in space."
It could be a long time before there's a telescope (or an interferometer) big enough to take on that job. But even now, Kaltenegger and her colleagues say that their research provides "a simple set of parameters which can be used for evaluating current and future planet candidates ... for their potential habitability."
How long will it take to whip up a top-ten list for extrasolar emigration? Weigh in with your comments below.
More about habitable planets:
- Astrobiologists seek a new equation for life
- Did cosmic collisions make habitable planets rare?
- NASA spots scores of potentially livable worlds
- Case builds for habitable alien planet
- 'Dead' planets might be livable after all
- Interactive: The search for other planets
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding me to your Google+ circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
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Because at our current rate of technological advancement, speeds of much greater than the speed of light will be had in a relatively short period of time (Star Trek timeline might be fairly correct on this one).
'But you can't go faster than light...' uhh, yes you can. The restrictions on speed based on general relativity only apply with respect to a mass' velocity within its own space. If a gravity well can be generated in front of a space ship, the resulting pull on the space by the well would mean that the ship would not have to move at all in its own space, because the space itself is being pulled along. Oh yeah...this works because although the speed of gravity is not really known, it is theorized to travel instantaneously, meaning if a body of mass suddenly appeared on the other end of the universe, its gravitational pull on us would be felt immediately...in theory. In any case, it is much faster than light, so it can easily operate as an engine of movement - faster than light.
First, the speed of gravity is known to be the same as the speed of light. See the link for a reference:
Second, to bend spacetime in the way you describe would require a warp similar to that generated by super massive black holes. I doubt that it would even be possible for us to manipulate energies like that for millennia to come. Much less lug the equipment required around in a spacecraft.
Oh I forgot.
Since this super-earth is bigger than our earth, wouldn't it have a gravity exceeding a human's ability to live there?
The gravity factor is discussed above, but it comes out to about 1.5 times Earth's gravity.
I´ll say this...
I´m deeply intrigued. If given the chance to travel to other galaxies, I hope we do so with caution and the utmost respect for whom or what we find. Harmony is the key. Einstein probably didn´t release all his findings due to his understanding of human nature. For the minute instances in which he did disclose his discoveries, we certainly didn´t convince him that we were capable of using the knowledge of the universe solely for scientific discovery and the advancement of people ( and other life forms ) as a whole.
I hope I live to see another break through.
Thanks...
:)
Why is money of any concern???????????????
Finance??????????????
What about this... JUST DO IT !!!
i see alot of people saying that light speed will never be broken, i seem to remember a few years back it was, we made light go faster than light, and if einstienian physics where the absolute rule of the universe then it wouldnt be possible, i think past the speed of light they are shrugged off. light was accelerated by shooting it thru a glass tube filled with a noble gas. this made the curvature of the light lessen and made it travel in a straiter line. thus speeding it up. if its an object or light by it moving faster than light it proves that light speed is not the fastest speed in the universe.
That's an illusion. Imagine this thought experiment.
You are standing at the centre of a circular walled-room of radius 1 light-second (distance light travels in one second) with a torch in your hand. You point the torch on the wall and press the switch on. It takes 1 second for the spot to light up on the wall. Now, swivel on your heels in a 360 degree full circle in 1 second. You will see the spot of light "move" approx 6 light-seconds (circumference of the room) in one second. That doesn't mean the light barrier is broken. The "spot of light" is nothing. It is neither matter, energy nor information. So also, I am certain there is an equally good explanation for your experiment.
The speed of light as the ultimate speed of the universe is well tested/established. Otherwise, causality would be violated. Those hoping we can surpass the light barrier, just as we did with sound barrier have a lot of work ahead of them.
I always saw this a bit differently. To me it makes little sense discussing going somewhere we can't really get to. By the time your mode of transport gets half way there, something will pass it by from the future earth. Doesn't it really make more sense that we as humans are really searching for an intelligence other than our own out there. Life somewhere else. Who knows the outcome of this?
Assuming the goal post up ahead is the speed of light, any travel outside our solar system will take one of the following forms:
1) Generation Ships
2) Sleeper Ship
3) Data Transmission (requires a receiving device)
I think eventually we will see all three methods come into play. The technologies are rapidly maturing to a point were all three methods will be possible.
The only real question is if we will have the will and desire.
At some point, we are going to have to find another "Earth" to screw up after we're done destroying this one with man made global warming.
I love the idea of finding a new habitable planet, but do you believe we wouldn't do the same exact thing there as we did here? Lets see, send a group of people, let them live off the land, and they procreate. Those children will tell tales of how their parents lived, those tales will turn into writings, which in turn will speak of a "Great One". They will fight amongst themselves as to who the real Great One is. Mean time some will invent technology to make life easier at the expense of damaging the environment. Groups will separate according to belief.
Seen this before. It's human nature. We can only change so much. If we were to pick people to travel to a new planet, they would have to be hand picked and a certain type. The "Normal" human would destroy the planet within a few hundred years.
So Many 'IF' qualifiers that it makes this whole discussion absurd. If the planet is habitable, IF we could travel at the speed of light, IF the planet could sustain life, IF we could find persons willing to travel for 36-360 years of their lives, only to find that by the time they got there the star explodes and destroys the planet and their Trillion Dollar spaceship!
This is just a special case of Drake's Equation. There are other factors to consider for habitability, too: Earth has a large moon to counterbalance its rotation, so the poles don't flip over periodically (like Mars does, say). What about tectonic activity? Does this planet have a magnetic field? Is it carbon-rich? Is it bombarded by meteors? Does it have an atmosphere, and if so, what is it made of? How eccentric is its orbit? Is it tidally locked with its star, or does it rotate? That's just for beginners.
Of course those things would be considered once the time comes, but the time isn't now
Lukey,
Never say never. Our current technology definitely does limit our ability to travel distances even approaching one light year and a Mars mission still takes years, but there are new discoveries at quantum levels and experiments in particle accelerators that challenge whether there may be things possible we can't even conceive of yet. We won't be making multiple light year journeys in our lifetimes, but people never thought man would fly and it was once believed by medical experts that if the human body moved faster than 35 mph (they were talking about proposed locomotives) that people would suffocate from their lungs collapsing. At the time somewhere around 30mph was the fastest anyone had ever be clocked on a horse at full speed (although currently bred race horses are pushing their speed records around 37 mph).
There are already some suspected cases of particles than can travel faster than the speed of light and our concept of three dimensional space may be imposing limits that may no longer apply considering additional dimensions and the extent that spacetime is warped.
I'm sorry but... so what. I'll bet mankind never gets within 35 light years of it. And that's optimistic.
If you went too fast, you'd most likely end up smashing into an Asteroid or plunging into a planet or star somewhere "out there". You have to go slow enough to navigate the hazards of space. There is more out there than just "nothingness". That means Generation Ships as suggested before.
I agree...those lucky people are decades away from this horrific age of reality television...leave them to their bliss
Daily life at 4g could wear on you after a while.
.
Beam me up Mr. Scott, get me off this rock before the Republican Taliban enslave us all.
Could you imagine what types of plants and animals could be living on a place like that? Wow. Just the thought of something so different than what we're used to is enough to frighten most people, and trigger the imagination of the rest of us. I'm proud to be part of "the rest of us"!
In response to many of the posts; our generation and in fact probably 100+ generations in the future will not be able to visit or think about inhabiting other worlds we may find. It currently is just not physically or technically possible, nor will it be for quite some time, if ever. To put things is perspective 36 light years is roughly 211,165,056,000,000 miles. This is currently an incomprehensible distance to travel. The fastest space probe traveling to our outer solar system is the Voyager 1 at 38,592 mph. At that rate it would take 5,471,731,343.3 years to get there. However, that said, it is very important that we as humans continue to spend resources on the exploration of the universe and scientific research for the possibility of eventually moving our society to another habitable planet(s). It is the natural progression of our evolution.
For those that believe in evolution, we have been explorers since our beginnings. We've moved ourselves all over this planet. It is in our very nature to explore and one has to wonder why? Well it seems it has to be. Because if our destiny is to stay here, it ends with our demise. This is not a doom and gloom piece but simply a statement of fact. Just like us, the earth has a limitation on its life. So does the life giving forces of our sun. When it starts to end its life, it will consume the earth in its expanding outer layers. Death by vaporization. Now granted this will take millions of years. So, we do have a lot of time to work out the logistics of deep space travel :-). Therefore, every financial expenditure towards that end is a necessary investment in our future as a species.
So, let's not think short sided. We tend to only worry about the next few years in our lives. We worry about our children and/or grandchildren and think no further. For those that think about family and legacy; think really far down that line. That extra few hundred in whatever currency you have to pay towards the science of today might just save all humanity from extinction, with having left no trace we were even here. Oh with the exception of the random space probe hurtling through open space.
Personally when my life comes to an end, I'd like to look back and think that maybe the things that I've done will have added some benefit to my entire family - the human family. Hey, maybe I will be back some day and reap some of those benefits. Ah but that is another whole discussion. Food for thought.
Bill, that's not correct. Look into solar sails and project Orion.
Look, even without advances in tech. One project Orion using all fusion explosives would get us there in 60 years. People on the ship would likely only experience 20 years, and in hibernation most of time. Then there are solar sails. So it is possible, even discounting advances in tech that could lead to hyperspsce.
The problem is that the radical optimists of before are today's radical pessimists. They either think everything changes immediately, or never. It doesn't work that way. All of what we see in science fiction will happen if we don't go extinct, we just try to accelerate it due to our limited lifespans. Technological revolutions take time to play out, but they do play out.
Besides, our Earthly lifespan may not be so limited for very long.
No one would have believed in the middle of the 20th Century that human affairs were being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than Man's. Yet, across the gulf of space on the planet Mars, intellects vast and cool and unsypathetic regarded our Earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely joined their plans against us. Mars is more than 140 million miles from the sun, and for centuries has been in the last status of exhaustion. At night, temperatures drop far below zero even at its equator. Inhabitants of this dying planet looked across space with instruments and intelligences that which we have scarcely dreamed, searching for another world to which they could migrate.
Forgot to mention "Does this sound familiar"
"War of the Worlds 1953"
Who knows how far we will progress technologically in the next 100 years? In 1911, the fastest speed man could achieve was somewhere around 90 MPH. Now, it is several thousand MPH in the atmosphere, and even faster in space. Who knows what the speed limit will be in 2111? The idea of habitable or near-habitable worlds a comparative "stone's throw away" in galactic terms is fairly exciting. That is as good a reason to fund a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope as any. Hope we can do it before Hubble goes off-line for good.
Ron,
If we are, I wonder what they think of us...
Ummmm...... That the "Carbon Based Units" are an infestation. They have potential for good things but as a whole behave like a virus that overwhelms its host until somewhat less than good things happen.
Just a thought:)