Potentially Habitable Planet Found

Awesome. More planets to screw up! Weeeeeee!

But seriously... cool news. Eventually we'll start expanding off this rock. Sol System and Terra will always be home, but space is our inevitable future.

What I always take issue with, though, is this train of thought:

It's a significant step on the way to finding possible life in the universe

ANY planet could sustain life. Sure, not any planet could sustain life as we know it here on Terra, but that means nothing. If there are other species out there, they don't necessarily need Earth-like conditions to live. Maybe there are creatures out there that breathe pure methane or are pure energy or anything else -- conceivable or not.

9 votes

#2 - Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:58 PM EDT

Behind My Screen

also... silicon based life is a hypothetical possibility. though one of the reasons carbon is found in life might be its reactability.

2 votes

#2.1 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 9:22 AM EDT

munzilla

Bush: Let's roll!

13 votes

#2.2 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 1:02 PM EDT

Munz, why that didn't get more votes is beyond me. Even outside the context of (galactic warming?) the idea of Bush saying "let's roll" is hilarious.

2 votes

#2.3 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 4:10 PM EDT

s-s It gives me a hilarious visual of Bush in a space suit.

3 votes

#2.4 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 6:50 PM EDT

Glinda, I smell a box office smash...

1 vote

#2.5 - Thu Apr 26, 2007 9:55 AM EDT

munzilla

Thanks stolte-sawa. It's funny, Glinda because I actually did picture him in a space suit with one of those bubble helmets.

2 votes

#2.6 - Fri Apr 27, 2007 9:32 AM EDT

Do you think Bush would wear a ten-gallon helmet into space?

1 vote

#2.7 - Fri Apr 27, 2007 4:42 PM EDT

*wookie

I'm surprised Richard Branson hasn't announced a package tour deal already.

11 votes

#3 - Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:59 PM EDT

Tim Baxter

Now to just figure out how to get there before we completely screw up this one.

6 votes

#4 - Tue Apr 24, 2007 7:32 PM EDT

Hmm.. was it on the list of possible planets in Outpost?

2 votes

#5 - Tue Apr 24, 2007 8:07 PM EDT

Hmm.. was it on the list of possible planets in Outpost?

#6 - Tue Apr 24, 2007 8:08 PM EDT

Jay Baker

This is very exciting. Of course, any talk of life there is purely speculative, but I can't help but be excited none the less.

2 votes

#7 - Tue Apr 24, 2007 8:09 PM EDT

Hmm.. was it on the list of possible planets in Outpost?

1 vote

#8 - Tue Apr 24, 2007 8:13 PM EDT

indelible inc.

Outpost was rad, Master of Orion was better. :)

1 vote

#8.1 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 11:14 AM EDT

(sorry, NV gave me a SpicedWeasle error upon posting)

3 votes

#9 - Tue Apr 24, 2007 8:14 PM EDT

Rimuladas

spicedweasle errors are when you try and post, and its already posted or (double posting).

1 vote

#9.1 - Tue Apr 24, 2007 8:54 PM EDT

Yea, but its happening even when you first post. I've confirmed its happening to others as well.

3 votes

#9.2 - Tue Apr 24, 2007 11:45 PM EDT

yes - its the bug of the evening.

1 vote

#9.3 - Tue Apr 24, 2007 11:57 PM EDT

TheWindshield

I have long hoped that we'd find extraterrestrial life before my life is over. This is a GREAT step towards finding some! Well...we'll probably find some stuff on Europa or Mars first anyway. Awesome news, indeed.

2 votes

#10 - Tue Apr 24, 2007 9:05 PM EDT

niuhuifei

Is it really? where the sunny and water?

#11 - Tue Apr 24, 2007 9:15 PM EDT

Binro

let's go! Do you think they need English teachers?

2 votes

#12 - Tue Apr 24, 2007 10:11 PM EDT

Jordan Rivas

I only got one thing to say...

dibs.

4 votes

#13 - Tue Apr 24, 2007 11:24 PM EDT

Blitzen

HAHA LOL... nice
pure poetry

2 votes

#13.1 - Tue Apr 24, 2007 11:39 PM EDT

I'm tired but

between 32 and 104 degrees

seems like a big range. Or maybe not... I don't speak Farenheit. Anyway, until they know for sure it's not a frozen iceball, I'm not booking my vacation there.

3 votes

#14 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 12:01 AM EDT

Nah, that's an acceptable range. I live in Wisconsin, where our winters get down in the -20s (Fahrenheit) on occasion, and summers can get up to 105. So an average temperature could fall somewhere in there and still be perfectly habitable.

As long as it doesn't do that on some sort of... daily interval, it should be fine.

4 votes

#14.1 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 12:26 AM EDT

Yeah, Glinda, 34° is just above freezing (think 1°), and 104 is probably a hot day in Vegas (think 40°). So, we're somewhere between Iqaluit and the Sahara.

2 votes

#14.2 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 4:24 PM EDT

Oh well then - we get all those temps during a year in Toronto.

3 votes

#14.3 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 6:53 PM EDT

Viki Babbles Gonia

Good lord. It was below freezing and snowing here in Chicago early last week, and 84 by Sunday. And now it's 40 degrees and raining. I find that kind of range completely believable.

#14.4 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 9:00 PM EDT

ellie mae

Very cool indeed. We'll need seriously better propulsion to make exploration feasible and meaningful. If I did my math correctly it would take the Voyager probe 354,620 years to get there. This might pose a slight problem.

4 votes

#15 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 12:02 AM EDT

i wonder which religion they are.

4 votes

#16 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 12:15 AM EDT

Yuriy Bilokonsky

Luciferian.

4 votes

#16.1 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 12:30 AM EDT

hopefully, if there is something like human life there, they believe in themselves. it would be awfully awkward if they didnt.

1 vote

#16.2 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 10:50 AM EDT

Noah BradleyDeleted

ProFuzionProd

This is absolutely amazing news!!

2 votes

#18 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 2:48 AM EDT

Viki Babbles Gonia

Cool! But I'm not going until someone confirms there is internet access.

6 votes

#19 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 9:28 AM EDT

indelible inc.

Here, here! I'm ain't goin' nowhere without the 'tubes.

2 votes

#19.1 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 11:02 AM EDT

David Mc Girr

They don't have alcohol and cigarettes... or at least the fixins' for those 2 items. I'll stay here.

By God I may be the only one to stay here, but at least I'll be drunk!

-Dave

2 votes

#19.2 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 9:26 PM EDT

Viki Babbles Gonia

I must amend my previous statement. If they have internet access, booze and cigarettes--in UNLIMITED SUPPLY--I will go.

Otherwise, I'll stay here with Dave. It'll be fun. We'll have our run of the world.

1 vote

#19.3 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 9:30 PM EDT

stevetherobot

If we ever do discover life on other planets, the big question in my mind is whose diseases will be the most virulent to the other? Their's or ours?

4 votes

#20 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 9:45 AM EDT

Yuriy Bilokonsky

Depends on a a number of factors, I think. How similar would our anatomies be? We can't catch anything from plants, and I imagine that they will be at least as different from us as plants are. Probably more so. Unless there is only one way that life can progress, in which case the disease of the invaders will probably be more virulent, unless the only life is a kind of disease itself than lays dormant until we get there.

2 votes

#20.1 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 10:04 AM EDT

stevetherobot

It doesn't even have to be a disease though. It could be some innocuous organism that has a deleterious effect on either us or life on the other planet.

1 vote

#20.2 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 10:43 AM EDT

this means i have to get on the @!$%#ing stick and write the article i've been meaning to write for a few weeks now, that the next ethical quandary for our age is whether or not we should contact life that we find in a distant galaxy. that we havent been contacted yet means that other life either isnt able or doesnt want to contact us. we'll have to make that call when we get the means. do we let them go or do we take the step and make the one little shout-out that could change their world in ways we might not even be able to understand, particularly if the reason we havent been contacted by other life is because they arent that advanced yet. ooo.

6 votes

#20.3 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 10:53 AM EDT

Just watch out for the Andromeda Strain... we'll have to have a Wildfire installation setup somewhere along the way.

#20.4 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 1:10 PM EDT

cjlewis

when some one eventually gets there...i am assuming we will send guinea pigs first, like monkeys and donkeys. Well, that if we don't completely wipe them out first.

1 vote

#20.5 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 2:26 PM EDT

indelible inc.

I don't understand the point of this discovery if we can never possibly get there. I mean, was it news to anyone that there would be a potentially habitable planet in an infinite universe of infinite possibilities?

It really didn't need confirmation for me and changes nothing. I guess it's cool that we have something to show for our interest and spending on space though, even if it's virtually unprovable that their claims are accurate. I mean really...how can they know anything at all about the surface? I realize that their guess-timation is based on distance from the closest sun, but it's not like they can actually see the surface.

I just think we should focus our attention on more immediate matters, like the here and now and the planet we live on.

Space is pretty cool though, just not that cool. And I even love Battlestar Galactica.

2 votes

#21 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 11:12 AM EDT

i cant get to india, either, because i cant afford it, but i can talk to people from there.

even if we find a way to send pictures back and forth, that would be priceless.

2 votes

#21.1 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 11:27 AM EDT

I don't understand the point of this discovery if we can never possibly get there.

The point is that someday we might be able to get there.

I just think we should focus our attention on more immediate matters, like the here and now and the planet we live on.

and you don't think maybe it's a good idea to plan ahead, maybe look for options for the future? I just think looking at it that way is more than a little short-sighted. We have to look to the future to survive.

1 vote

#21.2 - Wed Apr 25, 2007 1:13 PM EDT