New Earth-like planet discovered

Mey

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If it's 20 light years away surely what we are seeing (the pictures) they have taken are old?
 

Dukat

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If it's 20 light years away surely what we are seeing (the pictures) they have taken are old?

I would hazard a guess that 20 years is a relatively short period of time by astronomical standards :p
 
P

Palmer

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If it's 20 light years away surely what we are seeing (the pictures) they have taken are old?

light speed is 670,616,629.384 miles per hour

if you looked at somthing, through a telescope or whatever that was 670,616,629.384 miles away..... it would take an hour for the light to travel from that position to you and then you will see it, like a delay on your tv or somthing.

1 year = 8 765.81277 hours

so 8 765.81277 x 670,616,629.384 = a light year

5878499813628.62443368 miles = a light year

117569996272572.4886736 miles = 20 light years

sorry got calculator happy :<
 

AngelHeal

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allthough this may sound stupid:p

i don't think we have to aim for travelling at the light of speed asin: use gasoline and put a nice pimpin motor in it:p

maybe theres a way to 'stickon /use' to the light to travel I dont know..

maybe, were looking at a whole wrong picture and is bending light perhaps the way of fast traveling i have no idea

i do know that I think it's useless of traveling to other planets because there's enough stuf on our own earth we can fix:)

(like dyvet cluster:p)
 

Moggit

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Just a thought on why nasa looks for planets like our own.

Firstly it would be an alternative if and when this planet can not support the growing population. Look back at a lot of the old scifi films and they have us living on the moon and things like that when there is not enough room.

Secondly if the planet has at some time supported a lifeform like ourselves (they may be exstinct) there maybe things we can find out from the planets remains that we can use to improve our planet. Like some one said earlyer in this post a cure to cancer or even a way to replenish the ozone layer on this planet you never know. It may even give us an insight to how we are going to evolve or how in the end we are going to destroy ourselves. I mean how good would it be for our world leaders to have information brought back about a planet just like our own who has gone threw the same type of wars as us and eventualy drestroyed them selves by dropping big nukes on each other. Maybe just maybe it would give them the brains to think about how stupid it would be.

Thats just a few thoughts for now ( please dont flame me)
 

Marc

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I must admit, im pretty sceptical about life on other planets. Id like to believe it, but from a scientific point of view I believe chances are pretty minimal??
 

Raven

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They probably are quite small, having the right conditions etc but i am of the belief that if we are here there is no reason why "others" shouldn't be. in the millions of other stars and planets i am sure there is life.

This is not to say they fly around in flying saucers messing with cows :p

Though ofc if you went forward in time say 100,000 years just think what humans could achieve (assuming we haven't destroyed ourselves) we have come a long way in the last 30,000 years or so.

There are even theories that life can exist as silicon based which would need different conditions than us.
 

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