Veeeery interesting... BUT, knowing all this, are you willing to spend perhaps upwards of one hundred billion taxpayer dollars to TRY, only try, to shoot a walnut-sized robot spacecraft zipping past this planet at 0.10c to capture some scientific data and take a few thousand pictures - 40 years hence?
Man, the inferences made on so little information is staggering.
I’ve been there. Think “Venus”. All of our bases are underground. It’s a very good strategic location, otherwise we’d not even be there.
It orbits its primary every 11.2 days!? That sucker is laying down some serious laps!
At Warp 1 it will take more than 4 years to get there.
I would. Hard science is a great investment. Better to spend the money on scientific advancement that all the crap that the Demonrats of waste it on
40 years hence?
THey now know our solar system is much much much bigger than they originally thought. These discoveries were made in the 90s and I binge watched that wonder ful series about the Universe this past weekend.
I have terrible memory but one particular probe US sent out on the ‘77 (I think) is still sending back signals although oh my that technology is ancient!
Still sending back signals. I am from the Apollo generation I was 7 in 1969 when we landed on the moon. This stuff just draws me! Thanks for your opinion LibWhacker.
And no matter how much water they may find only one Being can bring life. Speech not forthcoming....LOL
‘Proxima b.’
God’s, ‘Plan B’ for us, once we destroy Erf? ;)
It must already be inhabited by Liberals because a week on Earth feels like a week and a HALF on Proxima b!
I also like how they stated the picture was an ‘artist’s rendering’ just in case anyone thought it was a Photo Shopped REAL picture from space, or something. *Rolleyes*
But MOST importantly, what’s the gravitational pull? Will I weigh LESS if I move there? ;)
Then again, it may not.
Why are all the planets everywhere round? Not oblong, not square, not triangular, but round?
..at a maximum velocity of 56,000 km/h, Deep Space 1 would take over 81,000 years to traverse the 4.24 light years between Earth and Proxima Centauri. To put that time-scale into perspective, that would be over 2,700 human generations. Source
81,000 years? We better get on the ball then!
No one will ever know for sure whether it has oceans. Who is going to take a trip to another star, knowing you will certainly die before ever arriving? What government could fund a 500 or 1,000-year mission for a stellar probe? This is fantasy, not science.
My guess is that it may not have oceans
To your question — absolutely. Why not? It’s a better cause IMO than most of the other crap government wastes money on.
On a somewhat related note, anyone else reading the “Three Body Problem” series? Scifi books from a Chinese author that involve first contact with a civilization from the triple-star Centauri system who evolved with very unique problems due to the the unpredictable motion of the 3 stars near their planet. Very interesting stuff.
Whoa...EXACT distance the article says. They know so much. Will they apologize when they find out it is off by a few thousand miles.
Planet in star system nearest our Sun 'may have oceans'It also "may" have rainbows and unicorns.
But it's probably a barren, lifeless hulk.
Slow news day... There may be a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, and it may have water, and it may be orbiting at a distance where water could be liquid.
There may be rainbow unicorns swimming in those oceans too. You heard it here first!
They make it sound like it's right next door (OK, it is in galactic terms) but since we've gotten no where close to the speed of light, those "Four Light Years" would take us about 70,000 years to cross, but who knows, maybe the aliens have faster ships.