[watsisname]

wow another fireball that we cant get to. let me know when we find a habitable planet that we cant get to.

Here you go, have a bunch of them.^٭

٭ potentially habitable as determined by ESI; obviously we don't know everything about them yet

[redsniper]

I propose we at HLP do our bit by having Spoon shot.

If you threw yourself into a fireball that you can get to, I'm sure nobody would mind.

Wtf is your problem, man?

[Scotty]

I sense a DarthWang among us.

[karajorma]

All right, let's not try to solve the issue by all dogpiling on Phantom after I've told him to stop either.

[Phantom Hoover]

Hey now, I'm no happier with having Spoon shot than anyone else. I just recognise that we may have no choice if we want humanity to survive.

[SpardaSon21]

I for one welcome our new Cyrvan overlords.

[Phantom Hoover]

QUISLING!

[An4ximandros]

So Anti-Communist space elves, eh?

[IronBeer]

This awesome thread is getting ****ted up pretty quick.


Toodles.

[Nuke]

I for one welcome our new Cyrvan overlords slaves.

fixed!

[An4ximandros]

Here's a gif for you Iron Beer! Made it myself for teh internetz.

But enough nonsense, let's get this back on topic (if it's still relevant?)

[attachment deleted by a basterd]

[watsisname]

It never ceases to amaze me just how sensitive the measurements for exo-planet discoveries have become.  To detect this planet they had to measure an induced radial velocity on the star of 0.51m/s.   That's less than half of the average human's walking speed!

Not to mention all the data reduction and removing unwanted signals from the other star and so forth.  Truly an amazing accomplishment.

[Firstdragon34]

It never ceases to amaze me just how sensitive the measurements for exo-planet discoveries have become.  To detect this planet they had to measure an induced radial velocity on the star of 0.51m/s.   That's less than half of the average human's walking speed!

Not to mention all the data reduction and removing unwanted signals from the other star and so forth.  Truly an amazing accomplishment.

Indeed! 

The planet may be burning hot, but there optimistic hope that there's another Earth-like planet out there. (Like Gliese and Kepplar, etc) 

[perihelion]

I wonder, for a planet so (relatively) close to our own star system, what kind of-  How big would a telescope have to be in order to detect an earth-sized planet by direct observation in the Alpha Centauri system?

I'm just thinking.  This is awesome and all, but that planet is obviously roasty-toasty in a way that Venus could only dream about.  That close to its primary, I wonder if it would even have an atmosphere at all, or if would have been boiled away by a) heat and b) blasted off by the solar wind?  This is an awesome find and I do not want to diminish that in any way, but the technique used to detect this planet was pushed damn close to the limit.  If there were an earth-sized planet in the habitable zone, would there be a way to detect it other than direct observation?

Also wondering if having Alpha Centauri A so nearby could serve the same function as Jupiter does in our own system for clearing out potential meteors, or is the separation too great?

[NGTM-1R]

As a technical challenge it's probably not huge. We've imaged planets much further away than this. Might be difficult to mask both stars of the binary so they don't wash it out, but that's really the only problem I can see.

[JCDNWarrior]

It'll be interesting to see if it can be colonized sufficiently and can be terraformed to our advantage. Oh and if there's mindworms. I don't feel like getting a horrible death from those things.

Whatever the case, the chance we'll find a really good second home planet seems to be getting bigger, the more they can detect earth-like planets. Too bad we lack subspace or other more-than-FTL to get there in any sensible amount of time it seems.

[perihelion]

It'll be interesting to see if it can be colonized sufficiently and can be terraformed to our advantage.

can be terraformed to our advantage.

can be terraformed???

Umm... did you miss the bit where it says that it is roughly ten times closer to its primary than Mercury and has an orbital period (year) shorter than 78 hours?  Or perhaps the bit where it says the surface temperature is at least 1500K, well above the ignition temperature for most organic compounds?

Unless you have figured out a way to move Earth-sized masses into orbits roughly 1 AU (close enough!) higher without destroying them utterly in the process, there are probably better candidates for terraforming. 

[swashmebuckle]

I'm no astronomer but I bet if we study this new planet a bunch we can make Mars jealous enough to put out a magnetic field.

[perihelion]

Now there is an interesting question.  How does one go about producing a planetary magnetic field on a planet that has no intrinsic one of its own?

[Klaustrophobia]

drill down to the core and drop a giant ****ing magnet down the hole.