Newly Discovered PLanet, in Habitable Zone

[myandroid]

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wow...grabeha nilag mga pangagpas nu...22 light years away

[sykeia]

I wonder how many years it would take for US/Russia/China/any first world nation to send a drone/human to planets within the Goldilocks zone, Sci fi today-reality in the future.

[rodsky]

@spark and myandroid

(a repost from my FB status message, which triggered a long discussion on Kepler 22B)

Newfound "goldilocks" planet Kepler-22b is 600 light years away. Now people who think they know about the speed of light would utter, "Then it's useless to want to go there--it would take light 600 years to get there, what more a slower spacecraft? Thus 'space colonization' is stupid."

Well, here comes the interesting (and zany) part, when Einstein's special relativity sets in--the closer you approach the speed of light (you can only approach it, but never reach it), something bizarre occurs from the reference point of INSIDE that spaceship, in that time slows down for the passengers. Thus, if the ship is travelling at 99.9999 % the speed of light, it would only take 300-350 days (that's LESS THAN A YEAR!) to reach Kepler-22b. At that speed, almost two years pass for every ship's day. But then of course, we have to build a spaceship with an engine that can propel us at that speed. It can be done, but only if our societies in the world adapt another kind of system that doesn't depend on MONEY and POLITICS, but rather, a new world economy that upholds technological ingenuity rather than political supremacy.

Here's a "sobering up" note . Other media sources have articles entitled "EARTH'S TWIN FOUND" or "NEW EARTH-LIKE PLANET FOUND" While there may be some grain of truth to these headlines, the hard facts may sound almost contradictory to the words "TWIN" and "EARTH-LIKE"...consider the following:

a) To date, its mass and surface composition remain unknown - Now how can you say or use the term "twin" when you haven't even seen if they really look alike)?

b) If it has an Earth-like density (5.515 g/cm3) then it would contain 13.8 Earth masses, while its surface gravity would be 2.4 times Earth's. If it has water-like density (1 g/cm3) then it would mass 2.5 Earths and have a surface gravity of 0.43 times Earth's. The planet may fall into the category of planets known as super-Earths, depending on what the actual mass is. - not knowing about density produces a range of gravitational values that far differ from each other--either you're super heavy, or super light--bottom line is, we DON'T KNOW YET.

c) At 2.4 times the size of the Earth, Kepler 22b is substantially larger than Earth and may therefore have a different composition. For example, the newly discovered planet may not be Earth-like, but rather more like Neptune, which is mostly ocean with a small rocky core. Nonetheless, Natalie Batalha, one of the scientists on the project, speculated "it's not beyond the realm of possibility that life could exist in such an ocean." - "may therefore", and "if" NOTE THESE WORDS.

Thus If I were you, I would be more conservative in calling it earth's "twin"

-RODION

[ghostie2472]

We have the resources and possibly the technology but what's keeping the human race from achieving most of it's goals is politics.

[bad_juju]

who's discovered who! life forms in that planet must have also discovered earth... hehehe

[zener_101]

maau unta maka discover cla ug mas doul kaysa kay kepler 22b....

[jhappy]

Perting layoa oi...

[thethird79]

ka nice ani oi..... ka balhinon na raba ko aning planetaha.... maayo onta og dili mahal plite diha...

Libre ra plete boss basta ikaw

Pero 50 years daw byahe... lol..sugot ra u?

[thethird79]

or sobra pa gani sa 50 years... basin millions of years ang travel time..aha

[redhorse1L]

We have the resources and possibly the technology but what's keeping the human race from achieving most of it's goals is politics.

The question is, does politics isolated only on humans?