Major new exoplanet findings to be announced next Monday

[YellowSubmarine]

OK, so the discovery that the Kepler project was going to announce today is a Tatooine. That explains the Lucasfilm involvement.

http://news.discovery.com/space/kepler-16b-exoplanet-two-stars-tatooine-110915.html

Unlike the previous “Tatooine”, this is actually orbiting the two stars at the same time, not just one of them, so it is essentially another first.

The stars are 0.2 AU apart, each slightly smaller than the Sun, and the planet is at an orbital distance comparable to Venus. Which sucks, because that's outside of the habitable zone, but nevertheless it would be quite awesome to live at a more distant orbit in such a system. In the habitable zone the two suns would appear smaller than the Sun, and it would be pretty eerie when if they eclipse each other – essentially a habitable planet would get occasional sunrises worthy of an outer, colder orbit. Kinda like a prolonged partial solar eclipse – I think I won't stare at the sun with protective glasses on the next eclipse, thus missing everything that's going on around me.

 

[Amaris]

^ That is interesting. I love it when we discover new phenomena!

 

[Deckerd]

I'm waiting for them to find a Pitch Black planet, orbiting 3 suns. That would be awesome.

 

[ALF]

Supa cool. I wonder if Lucas in on board with this. He may want to make some more changes to his films, though.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

I'm certain that the 3D release of Episode IV would feature two suns of different sizes now.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Lucas has already frigged around with the depiction of Tatooine's suns in the various releases. He should really find something better to do with his time and resources.

 

[Wanderlust]

comparison/ sys map of the Kepler 16 sys

 

[JarodRussell]

It's kinda lame that they make this Tatooine comparison to grab attention. It would be cooler if ILM was a new contractor for delivering artistic depictions of their discoveries.

 

[Wanderlust]

Well, Tatooine is something very well known in pop culture for people to relate to. Its done nothing but good for this discovery. Look all the people talking about it that would otherwise not give a crap.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

A planet was confirmed to be in the habitable zone, it's possibly Earth-like, at 2.4 Earth masses. It's around a Sun-like star that's only 600 light-years away. No information on the composition though, and no arrays of kilometer-wide dishes pointed at it yet as far as I can tell.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/news/kepscicon-briefing.html

If you think about the optimism that some people still have about Mars and life on it, and that this planet is at least an order of magnitude more interesting...

 

[RoJoHen]

Pretty cool. I am definitely impressed with how many planets Kepler has found in such a short time. Research like this always frustrates me, though, because I know that I'll never be able to see anything they find.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Never? Did you miss the news that NASA are building a Solar System sized telescope and sending interstellar probes to distant star systems?

Oh, wait, I'm living in the alternative future where NASA doesn't suck, my bad.

But yeah, for something that's 600 light years away none of us have a chance to see a photo taken by a probe. Unless those neutrinos from our future missions arrive early. But you can always find a good deal on getting frozen after you die. The chances that they will find how to thaw you back in time are small, but think about all the awesome things you'd see when they do. That's the best option if you want to see any of those places. I mean... the only option.

 

[Deckerd]

I've often wondered why future folk would want to defrost someone from a bygone time.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

If there was a noted pinned to him saying, "wake me up and ask me where the gold is buried"?

Sure, you're taking the risk that the economy isn't based entirely on latinum by then. But at least it's something.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

You paid them to keep you alive and defrost you. Although I don't see how a dead corporation would be legally required to execute its contract with a dead person. But still, if they can, they would defrost some of the bodies out of curiosity, to create some amusement with someone who would appear totally backwards in their society, or because of people protesting against the neglect of these frozen individuals.

The biggest issue is that someone would probably cut the liquid nitrogen supply long before there was any chance for actual defrosting. But even then, I really want to try. This certainly increases your chances of seeing close up shots of extrasolar planets by a great deal.

 

[Talosian]

I've often wondered why future folk would want to defrost someone from a bygone time.

Wouldn't we be interested in meeting people from centuries past?

Anyway, I would hope they would be ethical enough to obey the frozen person's wishes to be re-animated, if indeed such technology exists.

 

[Wanderlust]

 

[RoJoHen]

So...how big does a planet have to be before it's considered "too big" to support life?

 

[YellowSubmarine]

So...how big does a planet have to be before it's considered "too big" to support life?

I don't think we have any guesses on that. And have in mind that the bigger the planets, the more the moons. And it also depends on the density – more mass increases the gravity, but bigger radius decreases it. Neptune is 17 Earth masses, but only 1.14 g gravity – quite liveable, you'd feel at home on your floating colony.


My personal guess would be that anything that's not a gas giant is a good candidate. The mass probably has an effect on the speed of evolution, and the chances that certain essential biological processes happen, especially during the beginning of life, but that doesn't mean that there's “too big”. Not to mention that the bigger the surface, the bigger the chances.

 

[Deckerd]

So...how big does a planet have to be before it's considered "too big" to support life?

I don't think anyone can really speculate, except to say that the heavier the planet, the smaller and/or lighter the life forms are likely to be.

Similarly, when we meet the Martians, they'll all look like the Michelin Man.