[Flipside]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17117030

This is exciting news, the sooner we get out there and take a peek the better in my opinion

[MP-Ryan]

The planet was discovered in 2009 by ground-based telescopes. It is about 2.7 times the Earth's diameter, but weighs almost seven times as much. It orbits its red-dwarf star at a distance of just two million km, meaning temperatures on GJ 1214b probably reach above 200C.

Don't forget to pack an air conditioning unit.

[Flipside]

Heh, well, we don't have to send people, in fact, we couldn't, we don't have the technology.

If we can build a probe that can survive for a short period on Venus, then we could certainly get something underway that could survive those conditions long enough to send back some interesting data, and the sooner we start, the sooner we find out, cause it's going to take ages to get there.

[MP-Ryan]

Heh, well, we don't have to send people, in fact, we couldn't, we don't have the technology.

I guess my facetious key was broken

[Flipside]

LOL Nah, I got the point, just me being in 'factual mode' for some unknown reason at the moment

[Mongoose]

Sounds like the planet is one huge pressure-cooker.  Who's up for steamed rice?

[watsisname]

Great find.   Obviously far from hospitable to humans, but the more planets we discover with signs of water, the better the chances of someday discovering a planet with signs of life.

Just browsed through a few papers on this planet on ApJ.  Interestingly, atmospheric models indicate wind speeds of a few kilometers per second.

The exoplanet GJ1214b presents an interesting example of compositional degeneracy for low-mass planets. Its atmosphere may be composed of water, super-solar or solar metallicity material. We present atmospheric circulation models of GJ1214b for these three compositions, with explicit gray radiative transfer and an optional treatment of MHD bottom drag. All models develop strong, superrotating zonal winds (~1-2 km s–1). The degree of eastward heat advection, which can be inferred from secondary eclipse and thermal phase curve measurements, varies greatly between the models. These differences are understood as resulting from variations in the radiative times at the thermal photosphere, caused by separate molecular weight and opacity effects. Our GJ1214b models illustrate how atmospheric circulation can be used as a probe of composition for similar tidally locked exoplanets in the mini-Neptune/waterworld class.

Bring your wind jackets!

[Nohiki]

Still no planet with naturally occurring beer...

[watsisname]

[deathfun]

Quite the interesting find
And psssh, 200C. That's nothing!

[Nuke]

Still no planet with naturally occurring beer...

i think there was a nebula made of alcohol somewhere

[Charismatic]

Still no planet with naturally occurring beer...

i think there was a nebula made of alcohol somewhere

Yeah in coo coo land. Your just as likely to find a planet of snugglemufaluses...?

[watsisname]

Still no planet with naturally occurring beer...

i think there was a nebula made of alcohol somewhere

Yeah in coo coo land. Your just as likely to find a planet of snugglemufaluses...?

The Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. 
--J. B. S. Haldane

edit:  It's methyl alcohol, not like the stuff that's fun to drink, but still.  Nebulae synthesize some interesting things, including Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and complex organic molecules.

[karajorma]

Yeah in coo coo land. Your just as likely to find a planet of snugglemufaluses...?

http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/beercld.htm

So where's that planet of snugglemufaluses then?

[watsisname]

Wow, both methyl and ethyl!  That's awesome.

[Mikes]

Still no planet with naturally occurring beer...

i think there was a nebula made of alcohol somewhere

Yeah in coo coo land. Your just as likely to find a planet of snugglemufaluses...?

Didn't you know? Humans are the universes attempt at getting rid of all the excess alcohol

[Bobboau]

well, it backfired then.

[Mikes]

well, it backfired then.

My guess is that your blood alcohol level is too low to properly appreciate that truth

[Black Wolf]

We make too much for us to get rid of it all effectively. I vote we stop wasting our time with this pansy wine and beer stuff, and convert all our breweries and vinyards into distilleries. Let's kick our drinking efficiency up a few notches!

Oh, and the planet is cool too.

[MP-Ryan]

Wow, both methyl and ethyl!  That's awesome.

Too bad its virtually impossible to separate ethyl alcohol from methyl for consumption.  I wonder if the resulting blindness would be worth the bragging rights of drinking ALCOHOL FROM SPACE!