20 light years away, the most Earthlike planet yet

Nice, I'm all over that!

I've already seen some of those shows, if we had no moon, most of the universe is missing, and super black holes. The missing universe one really blows your mind.

You sound like me...I live on the Discovery Channel.

I don't hold much stock on these planets being the next earth anyway. I jumped on that bandwagon years ago, when everyone thought Titan had water. After a closer look, it was liquid gas.

Also, as of today, we can't reach somewhere that is 20 light years away in time to actually inhabit it. Even if we were lucky enough to send a space ship in the general direction, by the time we arrived, we'd be skeletons.

It always makes me nervous that scientists are so hell bent on finding a new planet. Are they indirectly telling us our planet is doomed?

That super black hole show freaked me out. I had no idea there were so many black holes, and they implied that life derives from black holes. It was very interesting...it gets you thinking.

Haha. Did you get a piece of the moon too? If not, you better hurry.

Earth's Leading Lunar Real Estate Agency - Buy Moon Property (http://usa.lunarregistry.com/)

WOW. Had no idea they were selling property on the moon. Kind of stupid if you ask me. Not becuase they WON'T make communities up there, I believe we can...but because the moon is already getting closer and closer to the earth every day, put more weight on the moon and then we may see it crash into the earth.
Why are humans self destructive?

is there any possibility at all we could get anywhere near this planet? or the main point is, it could be life supporting?

WOW. Had no idea they were selling property on the moon. Kind of stupid if you ask me. Not becuase they WON'T make communities up there, I believe we can...but because the moon is already getting closer and closer to the earth every day, put more weight on the moon and then we may see it crash into the earth.
Why are humans self destructive?

Yeah, not to mention it is basically a desert. No rain, no weather, no water, no lakes -- just a bunch of sand dunes and craters. Kinda dull if you ask me.

is there any possibility at all we could get anywhere near this planet? or the main point is, it could be life supporting?

As of now, we've got the capability to reach Mars in about 8 months. Mars is 35 million miles away.

This new planet is 20 light years away, or 120 trillion miles. If we go at the same speed we go when we head to Mars, it would take us 2,285,714 years to get there.

So no we can't get near it; not until Scotty invents the warp drive.

Someone once said to me "Either life as we know it exists in the universe or it doesn't, either way - it's pretty mind boggling".

I saw this show recently on alternate dimensions. Apparently this is a concept that's really gaining some steam amongst scientists. The show really boggled my mind.

I saw this show recently on alternate dimensions. Apparently this is a concept that's really gaining some steam amongst scientists. The show really boggled my mind.
It's really the dominating theory in physics right now. They've recently gained a great deal of ground on something called "m theory", which unifies about 7 or 8 different "string" theories.

If you've got a lot of time, and psychedelic mushrooms, I'd strongly suggest you watch all of the series called "Elegant Universe". It's hosted by Brian Greene, who is kind of cheesy in it, but really brings to the table what's actually going on.

I'm reading a book by him called "Fabric of the cosmos" and he relates a lot of modern physics to the Simpsons and other familiar ideas. He's got great analogies, and it's definitely a good "sitting on the john" reading.

Here's the link to part 1 of "The elegant universe". You can fumble around and find the rest. YouTube - The Elegant Universe Part 1: Einstein's Dream (1/5) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poINyvCN3tc&mode=related&search=)

A lot of these theories are being put to test by a company called Fermi-Lab. I think it's in Virginia somewhere, I can't remember off the top of my head. They have assembled a giant super collider where basically they're colliding atomic particles at close to light speed. On of the things they're looking for is a theoretical particle called a "gravitron". The theory is that gravity may possible be the strongest of the four forces, but it seems weak in our world because "gravitrons" flow in and out of different universes.

Crazy stuff, that we're actually investing a lot of time and money into to investigation of other universes with different forces altogether.

One last thing, this year in Switzerland they're opening up another super collider that's many times larger and more powerful then Fermi-Lab's. There are almost certainly going to be some mind shattering discoveries in the next 5 years.

Edit: Here is the fermilab particle accelerator.

http://www.physics.northwestern.edu/ugrad/img/Fermilab.jpg

You know, speaking of warp drive, it got me thinking ... it only took 67 years from the time that we first achieved flight (in a heavier-than-air machine) to landing on the moon. During that time, we also harnessed the power of splitting the atom.

Those were pretty big steps in the progress of human civilization in a fairly short time span when you think about it -- or maybe in the grand scheme of things it's not that significant of an achievement.

But to come to the realization that we aren't anywhere near non-fossil fuel or alternative forms of propulsion for space flight makes this sort of finding interesting, but frustrating at the same time. Well, for people our age anyway. My great-grandkids might see something from it.

We still have a lot to learn.

WOW. Had no idea they were selling property on the moon. Kind of stupid if you ask me. Not becuase they WON'T make communities up there, I believe we can...but because the moon is already getting closer and closer to the earth every day, put more weight on the moon and then we may see it crash into the earth.
Why are humans self destructive?

Actually, the moon is getting farther and farther away from the earth. It's also interesting to know that as the moon drifts away, the earth's days are getting longer because of it. It has to do with circular motion, but it's kind of cool that we can actually calculate almost exactly the effect the moon has on our days. I'm a huge nerd, sorry.