Time for a "Generation Ship"?

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

The study of extra-solar planets has turned up some rather interesting candidates in the past few years. As of August 1st, 2017, a total of 3,639 exoplanets have been discovered in 2,729 planetary systems and 612 multiple planetary systems. Many of these discoveries have challenged conventional thinking about planets, especially where their sizes and distances from their suns are concerned.

https://www.universetoday.com/137001/exoplanet-hunters-detect-two-new-warm-jupiters/

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Three 'super-Earth' exoplanets orbiting nearby star discovered


(Phys.org)—NASA's prolonged Kepler mission, known as K2, has made another significant discovery, revealing the existence of three new exoplanets. The newly found alien worlds circle the nearby star GJ 9827 and were classified as "super-Earths." The finding is presented in a paper published Sept. 6 on arXiv.org.

Kepler is the most prolific planet-hunting telescope. The spacecraft has discovered more than 2,300 exoplanets to date. After the failure of its two reaction wheels in 2013, the mission was repurposed as K2 to perform high-precision photometry of selected fields in the ecliptic. Since then, the revived Kepler spacecraft has detected nearly 160 extrasolar worlds.

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The coolest of these three superEarth planets is calculated to have a temperature about 700 degrees F. Rather hot for life as we know it. Perhaps some form of life based on silicon-oxygen chain molecules (silicones)? These have the advantage of being much more resistant to heat than ordinary life materials.

update:



We may have found 20 habitable worlds hiding in plain sight

There could be more habitable planets out there than we thought. An analysis of data from the Kepler space telescope has revealed 20 promising worlds that might be able to host life.

The list of potential worlds includes several planets that orbit stars like our sun. Some take a relatively long time to complete a single orbit, with the longest taking 395 Earth days and others taking Earth weeks or months. The fastest orbit is 18 Earth days. This is very different to the very short “years” we see around smaller stars with habitable planets like Proxima Centauri.

The exoplanet with a 395-day year is one of the most promising worlds for life on the list, says Jeff Coughlin, a Kepler team lead who helped find the potential planets. Called KOI-7923.01, it is 97 per cent the size of Earth, but a little colder.

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Meet Ross 128 b!


Nearby planet is a target in search for life

Astronomers have found a cool, Earth-sized planet that's relatively close to our Solar System.

The properties of this newly discovered planet - called Ross 128 b - make it a prime target in the search for life elsewhere in the cosmos.

At just 11 light-years away, it's the second closest exoplanet of its kind to Earth.

But the closest one, known as Proxima b, looks to be less hospitable for life.

Found in 2016, it orbits the star Proxima Centauri, which is known to be a rather active "red dwarf" star. This means that powerful eruptions of charged particles periodically batter Proxima b with harmful radiation.

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Even though Ross 128 is very nearby, by cosmic standards, it's not visible to the unaided eye. It wasn't even discovered by telescope until 1926.

It's thought to be aged about 9 & 1/2 billion years, over twice as old as our Sun. This may be why it hasn't much flare activity. Red dwarf stars tend to 'settle down', as they age.

This makes the newly discerned planet a better prospect for life. The great age of the system suggests that there may have been more than ample time for intelligent life to evolve. This makes Ross 128 b an attractive target for SETI monitoring.

'Hot Jupiter' has no water in stratosphere, full of carbon monoxide


A NASA-led team has found evidence that the oversized exoplanet WASP-18b is wrapped in a smothering stratosphere loaded with carbon monoxide and devoid of water. The findings come from a new analysis of observations made by the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes.

The formation of a stratosphere layer in a planet's atmosphere is attributed to "sunscreen"-like molecules, which absorb ultraviolet (UV) and visible radiation coming from the star and then release that energy as heat. The new study suggests that the "hot Jupiter" WASP-18b, a massive planet that orbits very close to its host star, has an unusual composition, and the formation of this world might have been quite different from that of Jupiter and gas giants in other planetary systems.


Exoplanet has smothering stratosphere without water

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Just posted this to the Carl Sagan message board, might be of interest to you all as well !


Kepler: The Era of Exoplanets Has Arrived - Jeff Coughlin & Geert Barentsen (SETI Talk 2017)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2bDaD7IlC4
SETI Institute - Published on Dec 11, 2017

NASA’s Kepler space telescope was launched in 2009 and measured the brightness of 200,000 stars at unprecedented precision for over four years, with the prime mission goal of detecting Earth-sized exoplanets. Now after another four, Kepler’s final planet catalog is complete --- over 4,000 planet candidates have been found, with 50 of them possibly rocky and capable of having liquid water. For the first time in human history, we can calculate how common planets the same size and temperature as Earth are, a key component to SETI’s goal of figuring out how common life may be in the universe. The K2 mission began three years ago, and uses the Kepler spacecraft to stare at many different parts of the sky for 80 days at a time. A broad portion of the Astronomical community chooses what targets to observe, resulting in a wide variety of science, including supernovae, galaxies, stars, and of course exoplanets. K2 has found over 300 confirmed exoplanets and an additional 500 candidates. Some of these are likely to be habitable, and many of them are prime targets to be observed by future missions, such as the James Webb space telescope. We'll discuss what we may learn about these worlds over the next few decades, and what future missions are being planned to find planets to which our descendants may one day travel.

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/main/index.html
https://twitter.com/NASAKepler
List of exoplanet search projects

The study of extra-solar planets has turned up some rather interesting candidates in the past few years. As of August 1st, 2017, a total of 3,639 exoplanets have been discovered in 2,729 planetary systems and 612 multiple planetary systems. Many of these discoveries have challenged conventional thinking about planets, especially where their sizes and distances from their suns are concerned.

https://www.universetoday.com/137001/exoplanet-hunters-detect-two-new-warm-jupiters/

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Apr 3, 1999 - May 3, 2020

Nasa has found a distant star circled by eight planets, equal to the complement in our own Solar System.

It's the largest number of worlds ever discovered in a planetary system outside our own.

The star known as Kepler-90, is just a bit hotter and larger than the Sun; astronomers already knew of seven planets around it.

The newly discovered world is small enough to be rocky, according to scientists.

"This makes Kepler-90 the first star to host as many planets as our own Solar System," said Christopher Shallue, a software engineer at Google, which contributed to the discovery.

Engineers from Google used a type of artificial intelligence called machine learning to find planets that were missed by previous searches.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42356305

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I agree completely. And the time it takes to evolve into an intelligent species is a bagatelle in astronomical terms...

Here quoting Moderator Julie for that above.

And next that I made it perhaps event driven for that of the Universe, if it rather not should be about that of intelligence for such a thing at perhaps a lower, or secondary level.

I still could question both reason and meaning, but also that we could be a blue planet situated in space as well, except for also a couple of Mysteries and Magic,
because we still could be part of space.

A door could next be opened for that of seeing and next also perhaps believing, except for both the door and the handle as well when it comes to that of size.

Thinking about it, and I also mentioned the word "ascribe", which next was not totally clear, even to me.

But also that of a given notion of Heaven and Hell as well, in that like darkness itself, could be a part of just such Creation.

Are white dwarfs still supposed to be white, or should they rather be blue, except for perhaps not any red either?

K type stars are possible dwarf stars like our own sun, except for a bit colder, and also more reddish, and next also that of a possible habitable zone for such a star as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy

Here that of Physics for such a thing, or possible example, but also that I could make it conditions for that of a possible environment where that of life could perhaps exist,
and next also be possible, except for not any Statistics or Mathematics either.

If rather that of Biology itself for that of possible life, also that such life could be possible because of a similar feasability.

Nature could be its own composer, if not any distributor or manufacturer, and next come up with such a thing as planet Earth, either because of a given purpose or meaning,
or rather that Probability itself could be making it possible.

Always wishing for the best, if not fearing for the worst, and we could be having the extremes for that of a possible subject, but why still four giant planets made of gas,
except for Pluto at the edge, when also that of Earth itself, except for perhaps not building a house or home from that of different size bricks or stones.

Again my thoughts here, and also the way it could be reflected, except for perhaps not a different subject as well.

Quoting Julie here at the beginning of this thread, evolving into an intelligent species could be taking just a short while in the bigger sense of time,
but also that Biology should also make it the whale eating the small fish, in the same way as a lion could be eating a zebra for its meal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosystem

Have a sit down and next think and also that each and everything could be with respect with not only itself, but perhaps other things as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryogenics

Except for not the Ice Man here, next being found in the snow of the Alps, but here chill could also make you possibly blind and deaf as well, in that you could getting a sleep,
but next called hibernation.

Have I perhaps seen such a thing as well, or even thought about such a possibility when looking at a couple of tasks?

We still could be looking for the answers, if not any questions either for much of the same, but next also the fact that I could be still sitting here.

Jackpot!

As of January 2018, well over 3,500 planets have been confirmed from outside our Solar System, and that number is constantly growing. All of these have been spotted within our neighborhood of the Milky Way, but with numbers like that it was basically a given that planets were pretty common across the universe. Now astrophysicists from the University of Oklahoma (OU) have confirmed that assumption with the first detection of extragalactic exoplanets.


First exoplanets spotted beyond the Milky Way


Published:
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aaa5fb

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17 Feb 2018 4pm - AAAS AMA #3 - Exoplanets AMA - USA Central Time zone @ https://www.reddit.com/r/science/
Notes: AMA = ''Ask Me Anything''. Normally, all times and dates are USA East Coast Time. Name of invited scientist(s) unknown at publishing time.
Previous Science AMA's : https://www.reddit.com/r/science/search?q=flair%3A%27AMA%27&sort=new&restrict_sr=on

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Apr 3, 1999 - May 3, 2020

100 exoplanet discoveries.


The exoplanet discoveries by NASA's Kepler space telescope keep rolling in.

Astronomers poring through data gathered during Kepler's current extended mission, known as K2, have spotted 95 more alien planets, a new study reports.

That brings the K2 tally to 292, and the total haul over Kepler's entire operational life to nearly 2,440—about two-thirds of all the alien worlds ever discovered. And more than 2,000 additional Kepler candidates await confirmation by follow-up observations or analysis. [7 Greatest Exoplanet Discoveries by NASA's Kepler (So Far)]

Kepler launched in March 2009, on a mission to help scientists determine just how common rocky, potentially habitable worlds such as Earth are throughout the Milky Way. For four years, the spacecraft stared continuously at about 150,000 stars, looking for tiny dips in their brightness caused by the passage of planets across their faces.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/astronomers-haul-in-another-horde-of-kepler-planets/

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It's happeing here at
https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/7y6ieg/hi_were_scientists_who_are_scouring_the_night_sky/

Exoplanet AMAHi, we’re scientists who are scouring the night sky for exoplanets, and then trying to determine if any might reside in the “habitable zones” of their stars. Ask us anything! (self.science)

submitted an hour ago by AAAS-AMAAAAS AMA Guest

Discoveries of planets outside our solar system have burst from a trickle to a flood in recent years, transforming our understanding of the Universe. NASA's Kepler exoplanet-hunting spacecraft and other missions have shown that the Milky Way Galaxy is teeming with at least tens of billions of planets. These exoplanets come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from smaller than Earth to larger than Jupiter, and include a small number of Earth-size planets in the “habitable zones” of their stars. Telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope are carefully examining the atmospheric compositions of many of these alien worlds. However, the goals of imaging an Earth-size planet around another star and comprehensively understanding surface properties and atmospheric characteristics remain elusive.

The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018 will help move comparative planetology forward, while astronomers are continuing to design and develop the next generation of observatories. As scientists deeply involved in this research, we welcome your questions about the current state of knowledge about the diversity of exoplanetary systems, and the challenges of direct imaging and atmospheric characterization in particular. We’re especially interested in telescope concepts under development to directly image exoplanets and search for water, ozone, oxygen, and other potential markers of habitability, and envision where these may take our understanding of exoplanets in the next decade.

Ask us anything!

Debra Fischer, Professor of Astronomy at Yale University.

Jessie Christiansen, Astronomer at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena CA.

Aki Roberge, Research Astrophysicist & Study Scientist for the LUVOIR space telescope concept, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD

Jennifer Wiseman, Hubble Space Telescope Senior Project Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Dr. Patricia Boyd Chief, Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory & Director Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Guest Investigator Program, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

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17 Feb 2018 4pm - AAAS AMA #3 - Exoplanets AMA - USA Central Time zone @ https://www.reddit.com/r/science/
Notes: AMA = ''Ask Me Anything''. Normally, all times and dates are USA East Coast Time. Name of invited scientist(s) unknown at publishing time.
Previous Science AMA's : https://www.reddit.com/r/science/search?q=flair%3A%27AMA%27&sort=new&restrict_sr=on

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Apr 3, 1999 - May 3, 2020

Scientists at NASA recently used the Hubble and Spitzer telescopes to study the atmosphere of a Saturn-sized planet 700 light years away. What their spectrographic study found is that the planet, known as WASP-39b, has a ton of water in its atmosphere—three times the amount that Saturn has. WASP-39b is part of the Virgo constellation. It sits 20 times closer to its star (named WASP-39) than Earth is to the sun. Unlike Earth, it doesn't rotate—only one side of the planet faces the star. That means there are extreme temperatures on WASP-39b, as high as 1,430 degrees Fahrenheit on the star-facing side. The fact that WASP-39b has so much water means that it formed in a very different way than Saturn.

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Scientists discover 15 new planets, including 'super-Earth' that could harbor liquid water

Scientists have discovered 15 new planets, including a “super-Earth” that may have liquid water on its surface.

The planets are orbiting small, cool stars near our solar system that are known as “Red Dwarfs.”

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/03/14/scientists-discover-15-new-planets-including-super-earth-that-could-harbor-liquid-water.html

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The Kepler spacecraft is now used to detect supernovae in galaxies, now that it lost its ability to hunt for exoplanets. Astronomers are quick to find new uses for old instruments.
Tullio

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sad thing is though voyager going 50k mph would take 280,000 years to get just 4 light years away.

Speed of Voyager 1 = 62,000 km/h /39,000 miles per hour (10.8 miles per second)
Speed of Voyager 2 = 56,000 km/h /35,000 miles per hour (9.7 miles per second)

Speed of light 186,000 Miles per second

V1 186.000/10.8 = 17,222 Times as slow

V2 186.000/9.7 = 19,175 Times as slow

Even if we rounded up to 20,000 times as slow X 4 years that is a total of 80,000 years. Still a VERY VERY long time but much shorter than 280,000 years,

If I got something wrong here please correct me.

Thanx
Bob

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Sometimes I wonder, what happened to all the people I gave directions to?
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