Proxima b

[HM-PuFFNSTuFF]

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016 ... hbour.html

Out of the 100 billion stars in the Milky Way and the many multiples beyond it, one, the red dwarf Proxima Centauri, is our closest stellar neighbour.

On Wednesday, a team of astronomers announced they had discovered a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri — and that the planet is rocky, has a mass similar to Earth’s and sits in the “goldilocks” zone where liquid water could exist on its surface...

[xer0s]

Yeah, I read about this. Very cool stuff.

With all these exoplanets they're finding, I wonder if they're teaming up with other groups, like SETI, to point our satellite arrays at these newly found planets. Instead of SETI blindly pointing their satellites at stars that may or may not have planets, they could be pointing them at systems that are confirmed to have planets, especially earth like planets. It just makes sense to share information and resources, to heighten our chances of finding something...

[Transient]

The much less appealing part of the story is that the planet is probably bathed in x-ray or other harmful radiation that could have stripped all the liquid water off already, or otherwise prevented life from forming. It would need a magnetic field like Earth's, from a molten iron core.

[losCHUNK]

But isn't the point of a planet of our size that it's large enough to maintain a molten core ?

[Transient]

Partially, but there are a lot of variables to consider before getting too excited, is my point. We don't even know if it has an atmosphere.

[losCHUNK]

Partially, but there are a lot of variables to consider before getting too excited, is my point. We don't even know if it has an atmosphere.

But that's why we've been searching for a planet our size within the goldilocks zone, to limit the variables.

We think mars is dead cos it was too small to maintain a molten core (but likely had one when it was closer to the sun), venus / mercury are too close to the sun to be habitable with the rest being made of gas.

All our planets in our solar system have some form of atmosphere n all, a planet our size being a similiar distance from the sun is highly encouraging as it means temps and pressures >could< be just right for liquid water and the most comparable to our own so far. The whole point of it is to try and maximise our chances of finding life as we know it.

[Transient]

You're clearly getting too excited.

[losCHUNK]

Yep, not for reason you think though. Ya see, I fully understand that we probaly won't even know what the surface even consists of until long after I'm dead, we can't even work out if other planets in our solar system have molten dynamos at their centre.

This is exciting because we can gather data through other means and possibly give us new clues or nods to what is or isn't possible. This is huge, we've been searching for a planet like this for as long as I have been alive and the whole reason for Keplar in the 1st place.

[Transient]

Yep, not for reason you think though. Ya see, I fully understand that we probaly won't even know what the surface even consists of until long after I'm dead, we can't even work out if other planets in our solar system have molten dynamos at their centre.

This is exciting because we can gather data through other means and possibly give us new clues or nods to what is or isn't possible. This is huge, we've been searching for a planet like this for as long as I have been alive and the whole reason for Keplar in the 1st place.

Uhh, we've found a bunch of potential Earth-like planets, this is just the closest one.

[Eraser]

I hope we're getting more public interest in space travel. In the 60's, it was quite the thing with the space race and all. Going to the Moon was a goal that was inspiring to people.

After the Apollo missions, not a whole lot of stuff happened that captured people's hearts. NASA lost it's focus (still hasn't really found it yet) and space travel became impossible to unify with people's ideas that we had too many problems down here on Earth to warrant space travel.

What we're getting now is companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic making rapid steps in space flight. Especially the stuff that SpaceX is doing really excites me and I hope that once they start sending actual people up with their Dragon V2 capsule, more people will get excited about it as well.

I think it's very safe to assume that a manned mission to Mars will take place during our lifetimes, probably even within the next 15 years. When that happens, I hope the entire world will be glued to their TV screens to watch the landing live on TV. And when the lander sets down, a roar of excitement and applause will spread across the globe.

[losCHUNK]

Yep, not for reason you think though. Ya see, I fully understand that we probaly won't even know what the surface even consists of until long after I'm dead, we can't even work out if other planets in our solar system have molten dynamos at their centre.

This is exciting because we can gather data through other means and possibly give us new clues or nods to what is or isn't possible. This is huge, we've been searching for a planet like this for as long as I have been alive and the whole reason for Keplar in the 1st place.

Uhh, we've found a bunch of potential Earth-like planets, this is just the closest one.

The next smallest is 4x larger in terms of mass, I believe these are called super Earths. None are the size of Earth, which is an important bit - nor this close, which was part of the point I was making.

This guy seems to get it

[youtube]tcc635lNRwY[/youtube]

[losCHUNK]

Eraser, you're a lot more optimistic than me n all mate.

NASA were doing good work imo, the lack of interest in space and the lack of useable research accumulated VS cost shut them down though. The only viable way that companies such as Space X and Orbital survive is through government funding and are seeking to run the business through commercial means rather than scientific.

NASA was a completely different breed during the Space Race n all.

[Transient]

NASA has a plan to have astronauts on Mars in the 2030s already.

[Eraser]

There's too much politics involved with NASA for them to be anything other than a slow moving behemoth that spends too much money on too little results. Their SLS is a money sinkhole and I doubt it'll do things better or more efficient than SpaceX's Falcon Heavy or BFR.

[losCHUNK]

NASA has a plan to have astronauts on Mars in the 2030s already.

You seen that plan though ?

http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-journey-to-mars

Seems a bit optimistic, iirc part of the plan relies on developing new propulsion.

I'd argue the NASA politics stem from those things I mentioned n all (cost vs reward), the extremely depressing thing is that if NASA was still under military funding I doubt many would care of its cost, imo. I think (when I went looking last) the SLS payload was quite a bit larger than the Falcons n all, I don't think it's designed to compete with Space X who has geared the business for LEO pending BFR / SHLV stats.

[Eraser]

At the end of September Elon Musk will reveil his plans for the BFR and their mission to Mars. They aim for 2018 for a first unmanned mission using the Red Dragon capsule.

So nope, they're not limiting themselves to LEO at all. That's just to keep the money rolling in.

[scared?]

Been there... Planet is as dead as Mercury... Move on chumps...

[seremtan]

At the end of September Elon Musk will reveil his plans for the BFR and their mission to Mars. They aim for 2018 for a first unmanned mission using the Red Dragon capsule.

So nope, they're not limiting themselves to LEO at all. That's just to keep the money rolling in.

on a related note: anyone read Seveneves by Neal Stephenson?

can recommend for people interested in space stuff that's grounded in real science

[seremtan]

Been there... Planet is as dead as Mercury... Move on chumps...

NASA are naming it Planet Testicle in your honour

[Transient]

You seen that plan though ?

http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-journey-to-mars

Seems a bit optimistic, iirc part of the plan relies on developing new propulsion.

If you'll remember, the Curiosity rover was a pretty optimistic plan, too.

[youtube]h2I8AoB1xgU[/youtube]

[Transient]

on a related note: anyone read Seveneves by Neal Stephenson?

can recommend for people interested in space stuff that's grounded in real science

I loved that book! They're turning it into a movie.

[losCHUNK]

At the end of September Elon Musk will reveil his plans for the BFR and their mission to Mars. They aim for 2018 for a first unmanned mission using the Red Dragon capsule.

So nope, they're not limiting themselves to LEO at all. That's just to keep the money rolling in.

***Pending BFR stats. The LEO + money rolling in was kinda my point.

[losCHUNK]

You seen that plan though ?

http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-journey-to-mars

Seems a bit optimistic, iirc part of the plan relies on developing new propulsion.

If you'll remember, the Curiosity rover was a pretty optimistic plan, too.

[youtube]h2I8AoB1xgU[/youtube]

Aye, but they were refining tech and taking it to the next level. Inventing a new propulsion, well I doubt it always works out. We've heard stories of landing men on Mars before, along with moon bases and refuellers in orbit from both private and government run institutions.

With that said, when I had seen the initial plan for Curiosity when it was still in the planning stage I balked at the idea.

With Proxima B though, I neglected to mention that if we can get light from the planet using the transit method then we should be able to break the atmosphere down. If we can detect traces of things like Oxygen or Methane then that would be a big marker for alien life. Highly unlikely, but that's why 'we' need to maximise our chances but whatever happens it gives us a target planet to examine and compare it to our own. Is it tidally locked ?, does it have a Moon ? etc.

I'm also desperately wanting to see more of moons like Titan and Europa. I thought NASA or someone would be throwing money at projects to get back to celestial bodies holding liquid methane / water.

[AndyW]

Maybe they find Batman Dentist´s lost ball too...

[Transient]

FWIW I think a private venture will get a manned mission to Mars first, but NASA's not a bunch of chumps. They have 20 years to figure it out.