There should be photos in 45 to 55 years! http://news.sky.com/story/new-planet-found-which-humans-could-colonise-10550245
our sun, however, has millions upon millions of years of life still in it. my guess is that in at least 30,000 years from now we will have developed our own energy source and will be completely independent of the sun
It's a very thought provoking article. My grandchildren and their children might learn that there is life, maybe even intelligent life, on that planet.
And Proxima Centari is close enough that an advanced propulsion system could take humans there someday, or at least robotic missions.
This is interesting news but comes on the heels of much less stellar astronomy news in regards to extraterrestrial life. Recently, there was also an article I read where a group of scientists concluded that apparently a planet being the in hospitable or "Goldilocks" zone is not enough for a planet to harbor life. Apparently the internal temperature during the formation of a planet has to be pretty specific as well, which I guess is not directly influenced by a planet's distance from it's Star.
Corporations would be the first to get to this "new planet"... for "development" purposes. I give them 50 years before they make it uninhabitable.
I would rather humans go extinct than travel to another planet and destroy it too. But that aside, pretty cool discovery.
Yeah, like humans could just vacation there for several hundred/thousand years and come back to Earth when she's completely over us. That other planet isn't depicted to be as beautiful as Earth. I vote some humans stay here and if they start fucking her up again, just rocket them into deep space.
Ridiculous whenever this kind of story pops up. First off they are only guessing at the existance of the planets based on light waves from the star Even if its in that supposed Goldilocks range, there are still another trillion variables that have to come together, least of which it has to have its own magnetic field spinning the right way, the right speed Also if the earth had never had a moon life probably wouldnt have evolved on earth, it serves as a metronome for all biological organisms
I have to agree. While I do like the romantic notion of splitting this place before it becomes a smoking cinder, the only possible lifeboat for humanity is still only Mars at best. and Mars is going to be a deadly environment for a long long time (though it might benefit from our atmosphere-thickening pollution if we could send it there). Interstellar travel for humans is not just a matter of speed, it's a matter of being able to survive that speed and for how long? People might have to be modified biologically for the trip, which means the ones who land at their destination will no longer be like us. While we have seen many benefits of space research, the really deep star gazing has dubious value beyond the pretty pictures and the expanding array of theories. I'd rather see the efforts remain within our solar system for a while. And then primarily as robotic exploration. We have no real reason to send humans to Mars except as a potentially tragic public stunt to "make history" (a term I'm getting sick of politically). Mars can wait until we have robotic construction crews there building habitats, growing food and processing fuel. But really, Mars is of little use to us unless we can move a substantial population there. That will take well over a century. Until then it will likely be a weigh station for robotic asteroid miners. Just think how the world will change when they discover a uranium asteroid the size of Florida!
That point at the end of the first paragraph probably the most important. Colonize anywhere else, even with the tiniest difference in gravity, wouldn't take that long before they become a different species, as in different to homosapien, and it wouldn't take 100,000 years, it would only take a dozen generations We can spawn other worlds, ensuring intelligent life survives assuming we are the only ones in this galaxy. But I dont think it's at all possible to ensure homosapiens continue. Even if we all stay here, probably under 50,000 years before "natural" changes see the next subspecies appear, 1/5th of that given all the "artificial" environmental factors
It's not that likely this planet of Proxima centauri is inhabitable at all. It is even less likely there is intelligent life on there. Sorry if this seems like pissing on someones parade. The only way this news is actually great is that this nearby planet in another solar system is so close that humans can study it soon with upcoming better telescopes. That way we can likely gain some new insights about planets outside our own solar system. For the rest it is intriguing but to be frank useless.
A friend of my friend watched the sun melt one evening as it was setting, about 33 years ago. Orange microdot has some interesting revelations.