Space....Mindblowing - Page 3 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

cmac2012 · #31 03-30-2009, 12:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ps2cho

I just hope we actually find, and visit/photograph a planet that contains water within my lifetime. That would be so cool

Don't hold your breath. It would take us more than a thousand years to get to the closest star that's not our sun with current tech. Maybe we'll get warp drive, huh?

The chances of any one star having a planet that we'd like to hang out on are remote, all caps, bold face. And then if it was too big, it would be excruciating for us to visit it not to mention very difficult to take off from. Gravity too strong for our poor li'l bods.

Or if too small our bods would get weak from too little gravity. Look at the huge differences between the planets in our solar system. And that's 8, 9 possibilities out of untold millions of permutations. I'm sure habitable planets are out there. Just too many stars and galaxies for there not to be. Finding it, now there's the rub.

Graplr · #32 03-30-2009, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pj67coll

The sun will expand to Red giant stage before cooling. The result for the terrestrial planets, especially Venus will be destruction. Even if it's core remains extant it's atmosphere will be boiled off into space. Along with Earths and Mars etc. So no. It will not become amenable to life after the sun passes thru it's red giant stage and starts to become a white dwarf.

- Peter.

Actually that is only one theory as to what happens. I read some new research this past year that says there is a possibility that when a star begins to swell into a Red Giant phase, it actually pushes the planets further outward rather than engulf and destroy them.

Graplr · #33 03-30-2009, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTUpower

And boy oh boy we've studied and found so many...

I believe the current count is around 300+ planets outside of our solar system. Although the last time I checked/heard anything was more than a few months ago and all of these have been discovered in the past decade so obviously the number could increase rather quickly in a short period of time.

There are ~200 billion stars in our galaxy. Even if you low-ball the number of stars that have planets or the number of planets per star, the number of planets in our galaxy alone could be incredibly large.

Mistress · #34 03-30-2009, 09:23 AM

hey thanks for the thread....

pj67coll · #35 03-30-2009, 06:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graplr

Actually that is only one theory as to what happens. I read some new research this past year that says there is a possibility that when a star begins to swell into a Red Giant phase, it actually pushes the planets further outward rather than engulf and destroy them.

That's a new one to me. Who'se the protagonist?

- Peter.

DieselAddict · #36 03-30-2009, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ps2cho

I just hope we actually find, and visit/photograph a planet that contains water within my lifetime. That would be so cool

Already happened. Mars has some water, even right now, under the polar caps of dry (CO2) ice. And there's strong evidence that in the distant past it had bodies of liquid water much like Earth today.

BTW, awesome pics, thanks. We are truly just a spec of dust in the universe, if that.

Graplr · #37 03-31-2009, 10:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pj67coll

That's a new one to me. Who'se the protagonist?

- Peter.

Boy, I don't remember off-hand. And I can't remember where I read it. I believe it was in some Astronomy magazine or website. I look at random ones so I'm sorry I can't point to it from memory. I do know that it is a pretty new idea/theory.

Fulcrum525 · #38 03-31-2009, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kuan

Dude man... like... you can't say space is big. Space is nothing. How can nothing have any volume?

'ere... *coff*

Antimatter

ps2cho · #39 04-03-2009, 03:58 AM

Graplr · #40 04-03-2009, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmac2012

Don't hold your breath. It would take us more than a thousand years to get to the closest star that's not our sun with current tech. Maybe we'll get warp drive, huh?

I teach many lessons in the observatory to kids and I quite often bring up space travel. When I do the math myself, I come up with ~57,000 years to get to our closest star (Proxima Centauri) which is ~4.2 light years away.

I use 50,000 mph as the constant speed of travel which, I believe, is roughly the speed space probes travel. So if we could go 100,000mph then we would get there in half that amount of time and so on.

Here is how I did it-
4.2 ly x 6e12 miles in 1ly = 2.42e13 miles away

2.42e13 miles / 50,000mph = 5.04e8 hours of travel

5.04e8 hours / 24 hours in 1 day = 2.1e7 days of travel

2.1e7 days / ~365.242 days in a year = 57,496 years of travel

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmac2012

Or if too small our bods would get weak from too little gravity. Look at the huge differences between the planets in our solar system. And that's 8, 9 possibilities out of untold millions of permutations. I'm sure habitable planets are out there. Just too many stars and galaxies for there not to be. Finding it, now there's the rub.

Oh, I think we will find one not too far into the future. Like you said there are many out there. The real issue is getting humans there...

I think teleporting and wormhole type ideas are a better shot than WARP drives.