Newfound super-Earth just might support life.

[white_wolf]

"It's the holy grail of exoplanet research to find a planet around a star orbiting at the right distance so it's not too close where it would lose all its water and boil away, and not too far where it would all freeze," Steven Vogt, an astronomer at the University of California at Santa Cruz, told Space.com. "It's right smack in the habitable zone — there's no question or discussion about it. It's not on the edge, it's right in there."

I just saw this posted somewhere else and thought people here might be interested. Just don't tell the Neo-cons, they are already looking for somewhere else to invade. Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46237284/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.Tyrssvm22Wk

[sinkingfeeling]

1. I want to beat them there and try to establish a new world without religion, politics, and

based on human kindness toward each other.

[white_wolf]

2. Unless of course some species has already claimed it.

Actually, I wonder. If this planet is so similar to Earth, is it theoretically possibly for humans to have evolved there?

[ret5hd]

4. well, that's when you rely on smallpox!

[mike_c]

5. off the top of my head, no....

Just a quick, gut answer, but think about the evolutionary history of humans. The gaps in our phylogeny aren't important here, just the overall complexity of the pylogenetic tree that leads from some root prokaryote to eukaryotes, opithokonts, animals, deuterostomes, chordates, vertebrates, mammals, primates, and humans-- and those are only the major landmarks. Every one of those branchings-- let's assume there were at least a million mutations and other significant biological events-- between that root prokaryote and us depends upon a random event, and many of THOSE could only happen in the specific context of all the prior random events, so even without a full phylogenetic tree it's pretty obvious that the odds of evolving humans twice are infinitesimally small.

[yellowcanine]

6. No. There might be a form of life similar in intelligence and even culture but they certainly would

not be human. Through convergent evolution however they could very much resemble
humans. It sounds as if this planet is deficient in metals compared to earth however, so that would likely mean that whatever humanoid cultures are there would have developed very differently in terms of use of iron, bronze, etc. Maybe everything is made of glass.

[Cleita]

7. I would rather not colonize another planet, but leave it alone.

Every time humans colonize it doesn't end well.

[yellowcanine]

3. It sucks that their life is so much better than ours since they have no Newt Gingrich.

Maybe they would take Newt off our hands if we threw in Mitt?

[Uncle Joe]

9. Yes, but they might be worse off having a Poot Ringrich;

A flatulent, blowhard corporate supremacist with many gold rings.

[ladjf]

8. Don't forget that if the size of the planet is too large or small there are gravity issues that coul

be very challenging.

[IDemo]

11. Also don't forget that 22 light years makes the odds of humans landing there vanishingly small

[RebelOne]

16. Right, even if we were to travel the speed of light,

the astronnauts would have to be in their 20s.

[yellowcanine]

14. Gravity depends on mass, not volume. It could be much less dense.

If it is it might be very gassy so we could send Newt there and he would blend right in.

[Confusious]

15. gravity can be tricky

The moon is 1/4 the size of earth, but has a 1/10 of the gravity.

Since there aren't many heavy metals in the system, its conceivable that it could have 80 to 120% the gravity of the earth, even though it is 2-3 times the size of the earth.

[raouldukelives]

10. Great! I hope we never reach it! nt

[hifiguy]

12. I so wish I had any ability for math.

Most other Asperger's people do. I'd have become an astronomer, cosmologist or theoretical physicist because this kind of stuff absolutely fascinates me and has for decades. My only gift is for words and analysis. I can do complex logic problems, but only when they are in words.

[WingDinger]

13. Oh that? That is Romney's planet to rule, or his atheist Father in law gets one now.