"Nasa Discovers Earth's 'Older, Bigger Cousin'"

[SPCTRE]

http://a.msn.com/r/2/AAdo9iu?a=1&m=en-gb

NASA's planet-hunting Kepler telescope has spotted an Earth-like world 1,400 light years away, the space agency has announced.
Kepler-452b is 60% larger in diameter than Earth and orbits a sun-like star in the constellation Cygnus, said Nasa.
The new world sits squarely in the so-called habitable zone - where life could exist because it is neither too hot nor too cold to support liquid water.
Its mass and composition have not not yet been established, but researchers believe there's a good chance Kepler-452b is made of rock.
NASA scientist Jon Jenkins said: "We can think of Kepler-452b as an older, bigger cousin to Earth, providing an opportunity to understand and reflect upon Earth’s evolving environment.
"It's awe-inspiring to consider that this planet has spent six billion years in the habitable zone of its star; longer than Earth.
"That's substantial opportunity for life to arise, should all the necessary ingredients and conditions for life exist on this planet."
The Kepler mission launched in 2009 to search for planets outside our solar system, particularly those like Earth.
On Thursday, NASA added more than 500 new possible planets to the 4,175 already found by the space telescope.

 

[Ithekro]

Yet one more target for the warp probes and explorers.


Someday.

 

[FreezeC77]

Twice earths gravity. When they come here they will bitchslap us in our puny gravity.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Twice earths gravity. When they come here they will bitchslap us in our puny gravity.

 

[Dryson]

If a planet is made of gas then wouldn't a laser dissipate through the layers of gas opposed to a solid planet causing the laser to retain its focus and then suddenly stopped like it had made contact with a wall?

 

[sojourner]

Same thing?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Do we really need to be wondering why lasers aren't in our exoplanet classification toolkit???

 

[intrinsical]

Waiting 1,400 years for the laser beam to reach the planet, and another 1,400 years for the reflected beam to bounce back... yeah works great.

 

[scotthm]

If a planet is made of gas then wouldn't a laser dissipate through the layers of gas opposed to a solid planet causing the laser to retain its focus and then suddenly stopped like it had made contact with a wall?

A laser is a device, kind of like a flashlight, only different. If you threw one at a wall hard enough it probably would stop working.

---------------

 

[RoJoHen]

What an irritating time for science. We're discovering all this cool shit that we'll never be able to see!

 

[Dryson]

Using a laser and how light reacts in gas we could determine how thick the gas was by how might glow there was around the laser beam. A gas planet will have a large volume of gas compared to a planet like Earth.

 

[sojourner]

OK, get back to us when you manage to keep a laser beam as a tight focus over hundreds of light years. Then, when you've done that, let us know who of your distant descendants will be alive to present the data.

 

[Finn]

If a planet is made of gas then wouldn't a laser dissipate through the layers of gas opposed to a solid planet causing the laser to retain its focus and then suddenly stopped like it had made contact with a wall?

It'd be millennia before we would know either way....

 

[Silvercrest]

I spent all last night aiming a laser pointer at the sky. Expecting to see results any time now.

 

[Noname Given]

OK, get back to us when you manage to keep a laser beam as a tight focus over hundreds of light years. Then, when you've done that, let us know who of your distant descendants will be alive to present the data.

^^^
This - If such a laser beam could be produced realize that the time it takes for a round trip (28,000 years) is about two times as long as the current believed start of human 'civilization' (IE the time humans started creating monuments, structures, and small villages/cities...) to now (modern day.)

 

[Gov Kodos]

OK, get back to us when you manage to keep a laser beam as a tight focus over hundreds of light years. Then, when you've done that, let us know who of your distant descendants will be alive to present the data.

^^^
This - If such a laser beam could be produced realize that the time it takes for a round trip (28,000 years) is about two times as long as the current believed start of human 'civilization' (IE the time humans started creating monuments, structures, and small villages/cities...) to now (modern day.)

2,800 years, Kepler-452 and the planet Kepler-452b, is 1,400 light years away, but essentially, you're right.

 

[Silvercrest]

Hey! What about my laser pointer?

 

[sojourner]

You hit a pilot in a plane. The FBI is on it's way.

 

[Silvercrest]

Dang.

 

[BillJ]

At six billion years, intelligent life and civilization could've been born and extinguished long before humans ever existed.