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Posted on 12/14/2009 5:30:25 PM PST by KevinDavis
An international team of planet hunters has discovered as many as six low-mass planets around two nearby Sun-like stars, including two "super-Earths" with masses 5 and 7.5 times the mass of Earth. The researchers, led by Steven Vogt of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, said the two "super-Earths" are the first ones found around Sun-like stars.
(Excerpt) Read more at ucsc.edu ...
Yes, but are they Class M planets?
One of them has to be it’s New Vulcan :)
One of them has to be it’s New Vulcan :)
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Wow. The close one is only 28 light years away.
If we can accelerate a ship to 100 times out current space-ship top speed, and maintain than as-yet unimaginable speed through light year after light year of lethal friction from dust, and then decelerate back down to 0 again upon arrival, the whole trip (one way) will only take about 8,000 years, which is merely the time its taken us to go from hunter-gatherer to twitter.
It’s a piece of cake.
I think a huge telescope just might be the most practical means of exploring these systems. :)
“...the whole trip (one way) will only take about 8,000 years...”
And when they arrive they will be greeted by the Chinese - who solved the FTL problem 7,900 years prior.
There are some big telescopes in the works. Seems like there’s one that will be better than 30 meters when complete. From what I’ve read it will be ground based and use adaptive optics but is expected to give us our first direct views of some of the exoplanets.
Aside from that I think we should be working on better propulsion. Something that could get us to mars in a week would be a nice goal to shoot for.
To get rid of the space dust and gas just turn on the deflector.
Yeah they skipped right over that whole attaining First World status thing and ensuring that there was plenty of food for each citizen. They went right to solving the FTL problem. Food is boring.
Can anyone name an exclusively Chinese invention, that wasn’t built of off technology that was given to them by the West?
No? Damn those clever Chinese.
It will get really interesting when they take a couple of primary mirrors and separate them by a few thousand Kilometers and make an interferometer out of them.
We’ll be seeing the closer exoplanets like Hubble sees Mars now.
We could actually see green forests on the surface of one of these, if they’re their.
A “Super-Earth” 5 to 7 times as large? The gravity would be horrendous.
And when they arrive they will be greeted by the Chinese - who solved the FTL problem 7,900 years prior.You really wouldn't need FTL, would you, to beat 250,000mph?
FTL's a pipe dream... and at this point, so is any kind of interstellar travel.
I'm satisfied with dreaming of colonizing the solar system.
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