First Habitable Planet Confirmed by French Scientists

[kickyourass]

If anything actually comes from this, I think we will officially have to stop making fun of the French. I mean, discovering life outside of Earth sorta gives you immunity in my book.

 

[Formica Archonis]

If a planet is too hot, all water would be steam but if its too cold then it would be ice, neither of which can support life. Luckily, a group of astronomers from the National Centre for Scientific Research in France believe that the fourth planet - unimaginatively labeled Gliese 581d - is just right.

To play the devil's advocate: The idea of the Goldilocks zone is itself somewhat controversial, since it ignores things like tidal forces causing heat. (Like Europa's hypothesized oceans.) Also is rather carbon chauvinistic, as it assumes fairly Earth-ish life, built around CHON compounds.

"With a dense carbon dioxide atmosphere - a likely scenario on such a large planet - the climate of Gliese 581d is not only stable against collapse but warm enough to have oceans, clouds and rainfall," the report said.

Dense CO2? Not very habitable after all.:/

Kinda the problem with this: If it's looking for places for US to live, then the criteria are too wide. If it's looking for places for SOMETHING to live, then the criteria are too narrow and we don't have enough perspective to suss out the precise criteria anyway.

Is there any reason for why this stereotype even exists, besides the fact that it gives people who hate the French some misguided reason to make fun of them?

I thought it was more the post-9/11 unwillingness to join the "Coalition of the Willing vs. Axis of Evil" Iraq punch-up. Freedom Fries and all that.

 

[commodore96]

Gives me 300,000 years and a bowflex I will be ready for double the earths gravity. LET'S GO!!!

 

[Zeekar]

I think the bigger news is that if it could support life, it could have evolved it. The bad news: With twice Earth gravity, our future alien overlords would be built like friggin' tanks. The good news: Presumably, they wouldn't be able to breathe our atmosphere if they invade before we turn it into theirs.

Actually, thinking logically, (not scientifically; I am not sure about the science behind this claim) one would think that beings on such a planet would be built smaller. Muscle mass is heavy and in large quantities inefficient. Why do you think animals have been evolving SMALLER rather than LARGER.

With double the gravity to worry about, I'd imagine everything would be about twice as small as what we have to compensate for being twice as heavy for their size. I would have to wonder how flying animals would fare there too, by that logic -- if at all.

I'm sure there is an escapist that can chime in better than me on this.

 

[Dorian6]

Guess were stuck here til they invent the infinite improbability drive

 

[Erana]

We can calculate the size, composition and atmosphere of a chunk of rock 117572507463672 miles away. FUCH YEAH, SCIENCE.

 

[Platypus540]

I think the bigger news is that if it could support life, it could have evolved it. The bad news: With twice Earth gravity, our future alien overlords would be built like friggin' tanks. The good news: Presumably, they wouldn't be able to breathe our atmosphere if they invade before we turn it into theirs.

With double the gravity to worry about, I'd imagine everything would be about twice as small as what we have to compensate for being twice as heavy for their size.

This is most likely right. If we had suits/vehicles able to withstand the gravity, we would almost definitely be the alien overlords.


Also, for the FTL travel: two words-- warp drives. with sufficient power, it is theoretically possible to create a field around a ship which annihilates all matter in front of it and replaces matter/energy behind it. This allows for near-instant travel, as you warp space to bring the destination to you. However, you would have to be far from any planets, or you could destroy them with the field. These fields would also be the ultimate in WMD technology, able to instantly disintegrate anything.

Michio Kaku FTW!

 

[natster43]

That is pretty cool. Hope to hear more about this soon.

 

[IndianaJonny]

Welcome committee on arrival at Gliese 581d:

(Just replace "Holy Grail" with "habitable planet")

 

[FFHAuthor]

double earth's gravity.

You know, earth doesnt have that strong of a gravity to begin with, but I think our bodies would be severely hurt if we just went there and started populating.

Yes... the 'populating' part could become extremely painful at that gravity level...

 

[Reishadowen]

Wow that's stupidly close..........I mean twenty light years is nothing.

And yet, we complain when we have to drive 20 miles to someplace.

Overall, it's nice news, but as soon as we actually think about it, it's completely crushing to know that we'll never reach it unless we discover some godly technology that allows us to move faster than light. Eh, I'm sure Microsoft and and Electronic Arts will think of somethin- oh, wait...

 

[Doclector]

I wonder if tall, blue people live there.

yup.
And they hate marines.
Or they all hate spartans, whichever underhanded and slightly obvious joke you perfer.

Short blue people live there who hate the fact that their people have only one female.

Whats the chances the gravity reduces the french astronauts to bulky, armour clad forms who speak in growls and shotgun blasts?

 

[Sporky111]

double earth's gravity.

You know, earth doesnt have that strong of a gravity to begin with, but I think our bodies would be severely hurt if we just went there and started populating.

It would just take more time to get used to. Anyone going there would have to be in really good shape to start with, obviously. But weighing twice what you would on earth is really a small hurdle to overcome compared to the hurdle of actually finding a potentially habitable planet. Besides, it's a long enough journey. The people who finally land there probably won't even remember what earth's gravity felt like. They'll have been conditioned over the long trip to be used to the gravity they'll find on their destination planet.

This is cool, though I'm not a fan of life having pre-defined parameters. Aliens could be radically different from what we're used to, but we're so convinced that life can be defined by the way it's found here that we could end up passing right by a planet covered in life, just because we don't think anything can survive there

Well what else can we search for aside from what we already know works? It might seem a narrow focus, but at least it's a focus. I don't think we look for such parameters because we're convinced it's the only way for life to show up, it's because it's the only model we have to work with. We already know the circumstances that lead to life emerging on our planet, it's the most-likely scenario we know of that could spawn life elsewhere.

 

[ReaperzXIII]

Ok now start probing around Mars for some prothean technology, I mean that should be the first thing on our Inhabit Other Colonies, it goes:

1. Find planet
2. Find quick way to get there
3. Claim it as ours
4. Find sentient life
5. Do what we always do when finding new things...
6. ????
7. Well we've exhausted all the resources....lets find a new planet

Ah the future sounds great

I seriously want to live in space, especially if I can end up fighting 200 foot synthetic organic nihilistic eldritch abominations Must resist more Mass Effect references

 

[jyork89]

What about wormhole theory? Like the ability to pull two points of space together for a time so to travel between the two points would only be a short distance locally, but overall may be billions light-years. Or something like that. I dunno, the last physics I did was high school.

 

[viking97]

bad...ass...

 

[Risingblade]

Well now we know where the French will run away to when the aliens come xD

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

Ugh.

I hate how we assume ALL life requires earth like conditions.