Bozo Erectus
Master Baker
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2003
- Messages
- 22,389
This one is much closer than Mercury to its star, and its 5 times the size of Earth.
Bill, whats the mean temperature of Mars?
Habitable Planet outside fo the solar system
- Thread starter cubsfan6506
- Start date
Bill, whats the mean temperature of Mars?
Yeeek
Seizing The Day
Not very surprising in the sense that for many it was an evidence that there are planets in other galaxies/solar system close to our earth, it is very cool however to finally have a proof.
I kinda feel I was born at the wrong time when reading such article. I envy future generations who will go explore unknown planets.
How many civilizations have had their golden age before our time. . . Who are they? Do they even exist. What about other life forms? So many questions that won't be answered in my lifetime, this is sad.
Unless of course we are invaded in the next few decades by them! 
I kinda feel I was born at the wrong time when reading such article. I envy future generations who will go explore unknown planets.
How many civilizations have had their golden age before our time. . . Who are they? Do they even exist. What about other life forms? So many questions that won't be answered in my lifetime, this is sad.
Unless of course we are invaded in the next few decades by them! 
Fugitive Sisyphus
Escape Artist
Oh, I was basing my Mercury example on Cuivienen's comet that the new planet was about as close to its star as Mercury is to ours.
The article says that the new planet orbits at a distance ~14 times closer than Earth which makes it's orbit 7 times closer than that of Mercury. I am still not sure if this is close enough. I would have to a little research and a little math to find out how much tidal force it experience relative to known satellites.
-46 C, apparently.
Anyway, if you'd like to calculate the Habitable zone of a planet, I created a program for it quite awhile ago. It's located here.
Winner
Diverse in Unity
It is too close and the mass of the star is more than enough.
http://www.solstation.com/stars/s20ly.htm
I'd like people to think about the odds involved here. There are 129 stars within 20 light years. (130, including Sol, I think). There are at least 3 confirmed planets in the 'life-zone' in that small number. Even if we exlude Earth ('cause we're special) we still have Mars and this find (plus the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, which give us hope).
2 planets among 130 (at least) is pretty good odds, considering that there are 200 billion stars in our galaxy alone.
This is one reason why I constantly extol people to encourage rapid and sustainable progress.
I'd like people to think about the odds involved here. There are 129 stars within 20 light years. (130, including Sol, I think). There are at least 3 confirmed planets in the 'life-zone' in that small number. Even if we exlude Earth ('cause we're special) we still have Mars and this find (plus the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, which give us hope).
2 planets among 130 (at least) is pretty good odds, considering that there are 200 billion stars in our galaxy alone.
This is one reason why I constantly extol people to encourage rapid and sustainable progress.
Xanikk999
History junkie
So did the article say how many light years away it was?
How many light years is 120 trillion miles?
How many light years is 120 trillion miles?
6 trillion miles = 1 light year.
Xanikk999
History junkie
Only 20 lightyears then? Thats not too bad. With better technology it would be practical with generation ships.
Winner
Diverse in Unity
Cuivienen
Deity
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2003
- Messages
- 8,011
Oops, well, then, it probably is tidally locked, though I have no idea how they could know from so far away. Yes, you don't need a big object to cause tidal locking, but if the object doing the locking is smaller, the distance needs to be much smaller too. (The Moon is obviously much closer to the Earth than Mercury is to the Sun.)
Leifmk
Deity
Tidal "force", actually being the difference in gravity over the span of the affected body, falls off about as the third power of distance to the primary, so moving the planet closer has a lot to say. Therefore, for instance, Earth will eventually become tidally locked to the Moon, not the Sun (except it's been calculated to take more time than the projected main-sequence lifespan of the Sun).
Leifmk
Deity
Actually it's the opposite: What the inverse cubic relationship means is that the force increases more sharply as you reduce the distance. I.e. if you halve the distance, gravitational force increases by a factor of 4, while tidal effects increase by a factor of 8.
Tank_Guy#3
Lion of Lehistan
This is cool, though it is still one helluva flight to get there.
Perfection
The Great Head.
I did the math!
Code:
Body A Body B Distance (AU) Mass Body B (earths) Mass*Distance^(1/3) tidal force (relative to lunar)
Earth Moon 2.5700E-03 1.2300E-01 7.2461E+06 1.0000E+00
Mercury Sun 3.8710E-01 3.3295E+05 5.7399E+06 7.9214E-01
Io Jupiter 0.002819 3.1780E+02 1.4186E+10 1.9578E+03
Europa Jupiter 4.4860E-03 3.1780E+02 3.5203E+09 4.8581E+02
Ganymede Jupiter 7.1550E-03 3.1780E+02 8.6761E+08 1.1973E+02
Callisto Jupiter 1.2580E-02 3.1780E+02 1.5961E+08 2.2028E+01
Gliese 581 c Gliese 581 0.073 1.1098E+05 2.8529E+08 3.9371E+01
Bluemofia
F=ma
FTW! 
Come on Nasa. You've got competition. Get a move on!
Now if only we would stop these silly wars and use the money wasted into making space travel cheaper...
Come on Nasa. You've got competition. Get a move on!
Now if only we would stop these silly wars and use the money wasted into making space travel cheaper...
Kan' Sharuminar
Fluffy
Why not combine the two? I've always argued towards creating an Intergalactic Battle Fleet of Doom. We can explore, and blow things up!
Fugitive Sisyphus
Escape Artist
Pessimism and Optimism. I noted that a small increase in distance translates into a sharp decrease in tidal affects while you noted that a small decrease in distance translates into a sharp increase in tidal affects.
But as I have said, Mercury is very close to the Sun and yet it doesn't experience volcanism due to tidal affects.
Perfection
The Great Head.
As you can see from my math above, Gliese 581 c experiences about 50 times the tidal effects of Mercury.
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