First Habitable Planet Confirmed by French Scientists

[Jack Macaque]

Sick let`s send that monkey again and see how he does.

 

[Souplex]

In related news, the French have already surrendered to them.

I am so sick of the "the French are cheese eating surrender monkeys" stereotype, its so much bullshit.

They have a long impressive history of warfare, then get creamed in only 1 war (because they spend them self's WINNING the last one in the first place) and suddenly they just suck at war?

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?

It makes the US penis look bigger as they've only won 2 wars themselves

And by god do I hope they invent light speed travel... Or teleportation in my life time, would make everything so much easier.

As of May 4th in 05, this was the complete military history of France.
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/france.html

 

[Count Igor]

In related news, the French have already surrendered to them.

/innocentlook

(@Eleima's gonna kill me )

Wasn't Zaphod's Palace built on the Planet France in H2G2?

That... was the first thing to make me laugh out loud in weeks.
Congratulations!
Have a Quote.

In related news, the French have already surrendered to them.

I am so sick of the "the French are cheese eating surrender monkeys" stereotype, its so much bullshit.

They have a long impressive history of warfare, then get creamed in only 1 war (because they spend them self's WINNING the last one in the first place) and suddenly they just suck at war?

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?

It makes the US penis look bigger as they've only won 2 wars themselves

And by god do I hope they invent light speed travel... Or teleportation in my life time, would make everything so much easier.

As of May 4th in 05, this was the complete military history of France.
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/france.html

Okay. Even better.
Thank you for making me sleep well tonight!

 

[Captain Pancake]

So close, yet so far. It's infuriating to know that even if we develop the technology to get there, I'll be dead by that point.

 

[Angus565]

Awesome, a habitable planet, although I will never see it as its way too far away. Maybe we can send messages though, but they would also take a hellova long time.

Message in a rocket propelled space-bottle?

 

[AllLagNoFrag]

Well, we could just hurry up and discover mass effects to propel ourselves there in the event that our planet becomes unsustainable.

Seriously though, I wonder how living on that planet would be like, 3x gravity and all..

 

[Xman490]

In all seriousness, the real question is HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GET THERE? (Which, in all seriousness, would be answered in several decades.)

 

[Agayek]

This thread is silly. There's no reason to expect extraterrestrial life to follow the same evolutionary path that life on Earth did. Thus, any given planet (regardless of atmosphere, gravity, temperature, etc) has an equal chance to contain life.

 

[Agayek]

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.

I don't know about severely hurt. The colonists would need to be in excellent shape though. Anyone without a damn-near perfect cardiovascular system would die of a heartattack within days. If they're in good shape though, they might be able to survive it. There's no way to really test the situation beforehand, so we can't say for sure, but that's my guess.

 

[Keltzar]

So um why's this on the front page again if the planet's existence has been apparently disproved?

 

[Wicky_42]

Nice. Shame the gravity and atmosphere are slightly horrible to us, but I'm sure if we somehow end up there we'd be fine somehow.

Also, it's not impossible, due to quantum physics and all that jazz. Bloody science is always changing it's view, though faster than light is always an odd topic to be poking around.

I don't buy that ftl is impossible. 100 years ago, we thought that travel faster than the speed of sound was impossible.

Also, this is kinda cool. I'm curious how old the planet is, it seems like it might be a likely candidate for Extra Terrestrial Life. I wanna know what they look like.

Sound exists in a physical medium. I.e. the movement of air.
Light is entirely different. Not a form of matter at all. (although it does have visible interactions with matter) moving faster than light requires a totally different set of concepts. Not to mention the hypothesis that the increase in kinetic energy would increase the density and mass of an object.
Still pessimistic on FTL myself.

I'm happy to accept that moving faster than photons is impossible, but I strongly believe that we'll develop work-arounds - rather than go faster, we'll manipulate space to shorten the trip, or slip into a different dimension of space that brings things closer together (maybe like moving to an inner layer of an onion; you move the same speed, but it translates to a greater distance travelled on the exterior).
Basically, cheating the law to get effective FTL

It's a first step to think we've found a new potentially life-supporting planet, but how long before we can get a probe there, let alone begin to think of proper exploration or even colonisation? 300,000 years is a bit more of a future investment than most people will be willing to make

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 technically, intelligence requires something similar to a human body. We know any intelligent life form will have opposable fingers. We know alien organisms would require a liquid similar to our blood in order to transport whatever they use for breathing to their major organs. The skull would be as big as ours, if not bigger, in order to house a large brain. They'd have skin, obviously, to protect against UV radiation. They'd have all the organs we humans have for obvious reasons. By the way, this does not necesarelly mean those organs would look like ours. What I'm saying is that their organs would have to perform the functions of our heart, kidneys, liver etc.

Still, in the end, the only true similarities intelligent life forms would share would be opposable thumbs, bipedal movement and a large skull to house the brain. Whilst we'd have similar organs that would perform functions similar to ours that does not mean they'd look like ours do.

I think you make rather too many assumptions on what forms intelligent alien life could take. Why have a centralised nervous centre? Why not distribute it throughout the body? Why house it in a bone box?

Lots of our organs use symbiotic relationships with bacteria to work; there's no reason to think that such systems have to exist to create complex life elsewhere.

Skin? Underground dwellers, aquatic membrane-clad gelatinous forms, self-aware nebulae, chitinous carapace, radiation-blocking atmosphere - the options are endless.

Even opposable digits become irrelevant if you're an adhesive blob, can control magnetic fields, are equipped with tentacles etc etc.

Keep an open mind - broad evolutionary traits of life on this planet should not be taken as indicative of life elsewhere - they may not even be based on the same core raw elements as we are; there are forms of life on this planet that don't require oxygen, so why should we assume that such a gas would be necessary for alien life?

 

[Wicky_42]

So um why's this on the front page again if the planet's existence has been apparently disproved?

Really? Source?

 

[punipunipyo]

And here we are, cutting our budget wards tech-advancements... we aren't even close to speed of light!? from what I remembered, in space... there is no resistance, we can just booster our way to accelerate, till we reach max human tolerate speed...

 

[KiKiweaky]

Nice. Shame the gravity and atmosphere are slightly horrible to us, but I'm sure if we somehow end up there we'd be fine somehow.

Also, it's not impossible, due to quantum physics and all that jazz. Bloody science is always changing it's view, though faster than light is always an odd topic to be poking around.

I thought traveling at the speed of light was impossible if you have any mass at all?

 

[Alar]

If we can get there within my lifetime, I'm going. I don't care how hard I have to work or if I have to sell organs, I'm going.

 

[Adam Galli]

Several of these planets fall within the star's "Goldilocks" zone, neither too hot from proximity to the star nor too cold from being too far. 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.

It should read human life, people should stop assuming that because life evolved on Earth, this exact set up is the only way life can thrive, instead the thought process should be life evolved in this particular way because of these particular set up

Couldn't have said it any better myself.

 

[ReiverCorrupter]

Nice. Shame the gravity and atmosphere are slightly horrible to us, but I'm sure if we somehow end up there we'd be fine somehow.

Also, it's not impossible, due to quantum physics and all that jazz. Bloody science is always changing it's view, though faster than light is always an odd topic to be poking around.

As my physicist friend keeps telling me, it's perfectly possible. As you approach the speed of light everything slows down for you because time is relative and motion is absolute. Don't ask me how the hell that works, I think he said that there's a space beneath normal space that allows it to bend. I think we have our heads up our asses because our theory is both crazy and gives us pretty much no control over gravity. Generally when you understand something you can figure out how to manipulate it.

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.

No, they would. Have you heard of plants?

Also if the atmosphere is entirely CO2 then it probably doesn't have a lot of life. Ours has balanced because plants and animals exchange CO2 and O2.

 

[Kurokami]

Sick let`s send that monkey again and see how he does.

We eventually send humans after him and we find that he's completely populated the planet with intelligent apes!

Oh, and they built a giant statue of liberty JUST to destroy it again. Those damn dirty monkeys.

 

[Kurokami]

Lots of our organs use symbiotic relationships with bacteria to work; there's no reason to think that such systems have to exist to create complex life elsewhere.

Skin? Underground dwellers, aquatic membrane-clad gelatinous forms, self-aware nebulae, chitinous carapace, radiation-blocking atmosphere - the options are endless.

Even opposable digits become irrelevant if you're an adhesive blob, can control magnetic fields, are equipped with tentacles etc etc.

Did you say... Magneto?

(I realize that's not even close to what you said, but I heard magnetic fields and I liked it. =])

 

[blankedboy]

Are you serious? This planet has been confirmed as colonisable for at least 4 years now. Who keeps finding news half a decade ahead of time on this site? >.>