The frustrating thing about all these planet discoveries is despite how amazing they are we'll likely never know more than this about them in our lifetimes.
The planet, called Proxima Centauri b or just Proxima b (exoplanets are given their star’s name plus a lower case letter in order of discovery, starting with “b”), orbits Proxima every 11.2 days. It has a mass of no less than 1.3 times the Earth’s, so if it’s rock and metal like Earth it’s only a bit bigger. It’s a mere 7.3 million kilometers from the star—a lot closer than Earth's distance from the Sun of 150 million kilometers!—but Proxima is so faint and cool it receives about two-thirds the amount of light and heat the Earth does. That means that it’s in Proxima’s habitable zone: It’s possible (more or less) that liquid water could exist on its surface.
Did I mention wow? Because wow.
Mars is in the habitable zone too. So I wouldn't get too excited. Just because something could hold liquid water doesn't mean it does or in the case of Mars, did for long.
So is Venus (or was, technically). All 3 are widely accepted to have had liquid oceans of water at some point. Mars lost it's due to the lack of a Magnetic Field while Venus lost it's to Rapid heating of it's atmosphere due to water vapor (A much stronger greenhouse gas than Co2) from the evaporating ocean most likely caused by the early sun increasing in brightness as it matured.
Earth still has it's ocean but there was a time with it was frozen solid.
The problem with most of those is that you have to slow them down as well. What good is sending a solar sail to check out this planet if it zooms by it at half the speed of light? Also if it hits a mere piece of dust at those speeds it'll probably get torn to shreds.
Biology is probably easier to overcome than physics. That is, it might actually be more achievable to slow down the human aging process to a degree where the time in terms of generations is shortened because we all live far longer. Given how crazy that sounds, that should give you an idea of how impractical this interstellar travel stuff all is.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
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I was born in the 60's, I tend to remember flashes of Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon, and seeing it on a crappy black and white TV (probably state of the art at the time). I also remember my old man with enormous side burns and doing the whole Steve Austin look (No not blue jean cut offs and a leather vest and yelling at my mom to throw him another Crunchweiser) but the leisure suit and the big collar stuff. I also remember my older sisters talking about it for days.
As I grew up, and hit school, it was the idea that one day soon, man would land on Mars. we'd have space stations and people would be living on them like it was just a normal thing. The moon would be colonized, and be the launching pads for trips deeper into space.
It was incredibly exciting for a kid to think that if he lived to 80, that we could see man living on other worlds and exploring beyond.
But then the whole thing cooled off. We shot some probes into space which was cool and all, but the next generation of space exploration was the space shuttle, which was basically an orbiter. and even the International space station seemed to be nothing all that exciting or romantic.
I remember watching the Apollo-Soyuz hand shake in space and how cool that was, and we all hoped that in the day and age of nuclear bombs and MAD that maybe this would be the first step to real cooperation, and a real push into space, because frankly if all of mankind could just focus on the push to space all that other shyt would take care of itself.
With a little over 30 years to go, where's my moon colony, where's my living in space? Where's are mission to mars? Where's are push beyond the outer rim of out solar system. And most importantly why can't I get some tang around here?
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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With a little over 30 years to go, where's my moon colony, where's my living in space? Where's are mission to mars? Where's are push beyond the outer rim of out solar system. And most importantly why can't I get some tang around here?
The military budget is by far the largest single cost displayed. It is almost six times larger than the 2015 education budget and it is more than 34 times the size of NASA's 2015 operating budget.
Do not take Stelara if you are allergic to Stelara.
Thanks Tips.
I'd love to see a lawyer approved monograph for peanuts or tomatoes.
May cause diarrhea. May cause stomach upset, nausea and vomiting. May cause selling of the throat including asphyxiation. May cause gastric ulcers, etc, etc, etc
Facebook is trying to deal with their biggest issue, which is the fact that there is no one left with internet access that doesn't have FB (or has had the option to get it and clearly won't). Their strategy to fix this is to give more people internet access so this satellite was supposed to provide internet to areas in Africa and the Middle East that currently don't have it.
Elon Musk @elonmusk
Loss of Falcon vehicle today during propellant fill operation. Originated around upper stage oxygen tank. Cause still unknown. More soon.
Facebook is trying to deal with their biggest issue, which is the fact that there is no one left with internet access that doesn't have FB (or has had the option to get it and clearly won't). Their strategy to fix this is to give more people internet access so this satellite was supposed to provide internet to areas in Africa and the Middle East that currently don't have it.
