Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

From what is stated,it can support Human life,

and if you were standing on this Planet,you could see Our Sun...

It's called the "Goldilocks Planet".


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100929/ap_ ... new_earths

Yes, but could you see Russia from Sarah Palin's planetary getaway?

Seriously, though, these discoveries are good news. The more we can find out, the less in the dark we are. The article didn't actually say it could support human life; it just said that it could support life, and the temperature at the planet's "sunset" point would likely be like T-shirt weather.

Hmm...I wonder if Al Gore will extend the Internet up to there...ping times would be hellacious.

That close proximity and the way it was found so early in astronomers' search for habitable planets hints to scientists that planets like Earth are probably not that rare.

It'll be interesting to see what else they find in the coming years.

No, I believe that the general hypothesis is that there may be hundreds or even thousands of other 'Earth-like' planets out there - or at least planets capable of sustaining life. Of course, it's hard to say how intelligent that life (or life forms) would be, or how evolved those life forms would be. To think that Earth is somehow unique, however, is simply ignorant. If the universe were a beach that stretched the length of the east coast, our galaxy would be nothing more than a handful of sand, if that.

I heard Obama wants to force his new health care on the other planet.

Hmm this is one of those really interesting things that we won't hear anything about for the next 5-10 years. When we do it will just be confirming what they already know. Kinda sad to have to weight that long, but really cool they found it.

Opps double post.

In my younger days I would have cheered but now, expenditures like this IMO are a vulgar waste. Too many other problems. Now, I am not against exploiting space. If we want to spend a butt load of money how about on something practical like asteroid mining or an orbiting factory...

chfaunce wrote:No, I believe that the general hypothesis is that there may be hundreds or even thousands of other 'Earth-like' planets out there - or at least planets capable of sustaining life.

Yes it is. Given the size of the universe it is statistically very likely there are lots of planets that are "Earth-like."

chfaunce wrote:Of course, it's hard to say how intelligent that life (or life forms) would be, or how evolved those life forms would be.

Earth-like does not mean life. It simply means the possibility of life similar to what we are familiar with here on Earth may exist. I.e. the environmental conditions are right.

chfaunce wrote:To think that Earth is somehow unique, however, is simply ignorant.

No it isn't, it just seems unlikely given the size of the universe. However, the central problem is that our experience with life on Earth-like planets is extremely limited to a case of one. In the famous Drake equation, fl, fi, fc are huge unknowns. We choose numbers which seem reasonable to us, but they could be way off in either direction. The fact that intelligent life exists on this planet may be a statistical anomaly.

Oh, come on, have you not seen ET, Close Encounters, Aliens, and every last one of the X-Files???

But, you're right - life forms may or may not resemble what we have here on Earth. Still, I'd wager that life of some sort certainly exists elsewhere (perhaps even within our own solar system -for instance, Jupiter's moon, Europa) and I would not be surprised if there were several planets like ours out there - this is not to say those planets would be as evolved as ours.

Livin' long and prosperin'!!!

chfaunce wrote:Still, I'd wager that life of some sort certainly exists elsewhere (perhaps even within our own solar system -for instance, Jupiter's moon, Europa) and I would not be surprised if there were several planets like ours out there - this is not to say those planets would be as evolved as ours.

Yes, but that isn't what most people mean when they talk about life on other planets. Scientists are usually talking about microbes, while pop culture is looking for ET.

Many people think something occurring to them with a one in a million chance per day is a huge something. However, that something would tend to happen 300 times a day in the US and 6,000 times a day in the world. Far from unlikely, but people are bad with numbers. The current thinking follows this kinds of logic, but is prone to the same error. When Drake first estimated his equation, he thought 100% of suitable planets would form life and 1% (1 in a 100) of those would have intelligent life. Depending on whom you ask, those are reasonable or absurd assumptions. In reality, all of the numbers in Drake's equation are made up.

Again, the issue is that we only have experience with one planet with intelligent life. IMHO, that is the bigger issue than life itself. Pessimists have also made estimates using Drake's equation and using their numbers the results suggest we are alone in the entire universe. However, they don't get time on pop science. In the end the numbers are all made up and IMHO are completely useless.

The universe being huge only proves one thing, that it is huge. It stands to reason that things we consider unlikely on earth are likely on the scale of the universe. However, that ignores the fact that our very existence may be the largest statistical anomaly in the universe and we have no way of determining otherwise.

Here's a thought to twist your nippies:

What if we're the "baby" planet? The last in a line of development, and all the other planets have developed to their maximums, sent out probes, and promptly passed into infinity.

Thought that up when I watched a special on Easter Island.

Considering how huge the universe is, this is really expected. It's welcome news too because with the way our population is increasing, we'd need a new planet. But we don't have the technology yet to make that happen and I'm willing to bet that not a single one of us can live to experience it.

From the article: "120 trillion miles away, so it would take several generations for a spaceship to get there."

I say we just stick to looking at the moon for now - how can we exploit what the moon has to offer? I think I want to live there...Imagine the range I could get with my AR15. I wonder if a bullet fired from my AR could break the gravitational pull of the moon to enter orbit?

allingeneral wrote:From the article: "120 trillion miles away, so it would take several generations for a spaceship to get there."

I say we just stick to looking at the moon for now - how can we exploit what the moon has to offer? I think I want to live there...Imagine the range I could get with my AR15. I wonder if a bullet fired from my AR could break the gravitational pull of the moon to enter orbit?

Exploit the moon? We're thinking about it:

http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/19296/

I'm also for building a golf course on the moon. Now everyone could drive like Tiger, or Phil!

chfaunce wrote:

allingeneral wrote:From the article: "120 trillion miles away, so it would take several generations for a spaceship to get there."

I say we just stick to looking at the moon for now - how can we exploit what the moon has to offer? I think I want to live there...Imagine the range I could get with my AR15. I wonder if a bullet fired from my AR could break the gravitational pull of the moon to enter orbit?

Exploit the moon? We're thinking about it:

http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/19296/

I'm also for building a golf course on the moon. Now everyone could drive like Tiger, or Phil!

Yes, we *were* thinking about it. Obama has since attempted to pull the plug on further moon exploration. I swear - that man's a frickin' genius.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/science/02nasa.html

Yeah, but he's not the be all end all of space exploration. Besides, he's only going to be around for a couple of more years (hopefully!), and then he's history. Further, I'm also going to gamble on the bulk of the funding coming from private industry and NOT the Government (you have to wonder if the Wright brothers had such hurdles), so I think Obama is a little irrelevant. I think names like Richard Branson will be the ones to watch (I mean, he's already gotten at least one sub-orbital prototype of the ground - I see it as just a matter of time before he's into deeper space, and perhaps a moon landing), and it may even be likely that a China, or Russia will beat us to the table. Man will once again reach the moon; I don't think Obama is really going to impact that in any meaningful way. His 4 year term is going to be a blink of the eye in the grand scheme of things.

So, regardless of whether or not the Government is thinking about funding anything, *we're* definitely still thinking about it.

I share Neil Armstrong's view that space exploration has led to several positive technology developments that we now use today, and that we should continue it. If there is life on another planet, and if someday we discover that, then that'd be great! Let's just hope that if it's intelligent, it's friendly to us....

allingeneral wrote:From the article: "120 trillion miles away, so it would take several generations for a spaceship to get there."

I say we just stick to looking at the moon for now - how can we exploit what the moon has to offer? I think I want to live there...Imagine the range I could get with my AR15. I wonder if a bullet fired from my AR could break the gravitational pull of the moon to enter orbit?

I thought I'd already posted this, but it didn't take for some reason. I probably closed the tab before it finished submitting or something.

According to Wikipedia, escape velocity on the moon is about 7,874fps. Too fast for your AR, but at least wind drift is pwned.

I am really pleased that most of us believe Space Exploration is necessary.

We have 1 planet. 2 would be great.
Space Flight allows us that. (fu bho)

Not to mention the benefit of added resources.
What if there were a Metric Ton of Precious Metals on Uranus...???
Or,at least, the Technology we've gained as a result .

Distance and Travel time is the problem.

For reference,and hope,
a Project began in the '60's called "Project Orion".
A spacecraft designed to use Nuclear Propulsion.

https://encrypted.google.com/search?cli ... gQFT9BLR6o

The original design was improved upon thru the years,as the early design had concerns about launching from Earth.

As well,the propulsion system was not efficient,or "human friendly".
These problems have been addressed with constant refinement,and further enhancements added.

Proposed speed as of current design is 0.33 percent of Light Speed.
or,61,380 M/ps.
Way faster than the Shuttle.

I have read that a round trip to Mars could be done in 125 Days!
The Russians are onboard too.

Also check for Project Prometheus/Project Daedalus/ and Freeman or George Dyson.


(ps,I hope we also come up with how to slow it down(Retro's),and Shields...)

I mean,
wouldn't it be great to meet T'Pal or 7 of 9 ?