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News & ArtsThursday, December 8, 2011
Science A Planet in the Zone
Posted by Charles Mudede on Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 8:49 AM
Good news from space:
NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed its first planet in the "habitable zone," the region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface.
- NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech
Though it has a star that's like ours, the planet's composition (gas, liquid, hard) is unknown. But if it is mostly hard, has water, and dry land, it might have something like a Africa. And if it has surficial life and something like our Africa, intelligence might have a chance in this world. If our planet is the best measure of all things, then we can say this with scientific certainty: A world must have a continent that is shaped like Africa for the door of intelligence to be opened. The shape of Europe will not do the job.
5
I love when Charles just says really stupid, pointless things and declares them to be true. For an atheist, he seems to believe in an incredible amount of magic. Imagine the forces that would have to exist to prevent intelligence from developing somewhere in the middle of a continent of the coastline, hundreds of miles away, was the wrong shape.
6
christ almighty, i'm probably going to regret this - but what does the SHAPE of africa have to do with it? i would think africa's relative position on the planet would be more relevant...
8
Although charles in an incredible ass... I'm sure he does not mean the actual shape, but rather location, climate, natural environment, etc. As in the Shape of Jazz to come did not implay square-shaped jazz.
10
Oh, please, the possibilities are endless. And so are the variables. We likely will never know considering our present abilities wouldn't carry us there in less than millions of years. And once we got there, what if we were wrong? Turn around and come back? It's fun to speculate and it keeps scientists employed.
13
@10 Once possibilities are identified, humans will start sending DNA pod rockets to attempt seeding, hoping there's nothing except the right conditions. Of course it will be Dick Cheney's DNA.
14
@13 Maybe frozen cyanobacteria. But why? What's the point? We should spend more time and money cleaning up the disgusting mess we're making on this planet. Sigh.
15
I am imagining a ship sent out with coordinates pre-set to this planet with a lone cell and everything a cell would need to survive, reproduce, evolve. And thousands of years later the ship lands on this planets with fully-formed sentient creatures who tell stories of a God who speaks to them (turns out it was Siri; one of the biologists forgot her iPhone under the shelf before the ship took off). And as they disembark the ship, they encounter the planet’s current inhabitants and, like the humans who sent them often did, spread disease to the current inhabitants, killing them all and overtaking the planet in Siri-God’s name.
You know, I miss Red Dwarf.
You know, I miss Red Dwarf.
18
Good Morning Charles,
I am exceedingly dubious that the shape of any continent on earth let alone Africa has anything to do with sustaining life and/or yielding intelligence as we know it. The universe is simply too mysterious. The discovery of planets as we know them is fascinating but that's about all. The idea that these planets could harbor life misses the point. An existential/philosophical leap must be rendered in order for anyone to believe that "life" can be elsewhere in the universe or that we could send our "life" elsewhere. It's a question of "essence". "Why is this something the way it is?"
I don't believe a portal to life or intelligence on any "planet" is available with the current data we have. Remember, I'm a fan of Peter Ward's thesis. Earth may indeed be very rare.
I am exceedingly dubious that the shape of any continent on earth let alone Africa has anything to do with sustaining life and/or yielding intelligence as we know it. The universe is simply too mysterious. The discovery of planets as we know them is fascinating but that's about all. The idea that these planets could harbor life misses the point. An existential/philosophical leap must be rendered in order for anyone to believe that "life" can be elsewhere in the universe or that we could send our "life" elsewhere. It's a question of "essence". "Why is this something the way it is?"
I don't believe a portal to life or intelligence on any "planet" is available with the current data we have. Remember, I'm a fan of Peter Ward's thesis. Earth may indeed be very rare.
19
While I understand the symbolism, Charles, there is no reason to presume that intelligent life anywhere will even be mammalian, let alone descended from apelike ancestors. This exoplanet might be populated by sentient amphibian analogues, or hyperintelligent cephalopods, for all we know. There's not even a requirement that it evolve on land, or that it should be carbon-based.
Beyond that, the suggestion that Europe is somehow inferior to anywhere else is a bit racist, you know.
Beyond that, the suggestion that Europe is somehow inferior to anywhere else is a bit racist, you know.
21
@18 That's what I think, that earth is incredibly rare. I think it might take a universe to create one earth. The odds against it are so immense, I'm speculating billions of trillions to one, that we are indeed, alone.
22
I think you mean "shaped like Pangea", Charles.
Africa is what's left after South America took off to go party.
Even if intelligence took off when we lived on the SW coast of Africa, as our species was forced to adapt.
Africa is what's left after South America took off to go party.
Even if intelligence took off when we lived on the SW coast of Africa, as our species was forced to adapt.
23
@14 ftw. It would be more effective to seed Mars with life and oxygen-creating storage plants and way cheaper.
That way we can upset the Martians who buried deep beneath the polar ice caps and they'll invade us.
But then we'll have to use the secret moon launching facility to set up rail guns on the Moon to fight back.
That way we can upset the Martians who buried deep beneath the polar ice caps and they'll invade us.
But then we'll have to use the secret moon launching facility to set up rail guns on the Moon to fight back.
30
Charles, we DO know the planet's composition, more or less. It's a rocky planet, judging by its size. And if it formed in the same orbit that it occupies today, we can model pretty well what its makeup is based on the spectral output of the star and its orbital radius.
You see, different substances condense at different temperatures. (Condensation temperature can be thought of basically as boiling point.) Silicates and most metals condense at high temperatures, and will be common in planets nearer their sun. Gases, on the other hand, condense at lower temperatures, and will not do so until they are further out from the protostar, in cooler regions of less intense radiation. It's no accident that the inner planets are all rocky and the outer planets are all gaseous in the Solar System.
You see, different substances condense at different temperatures. (Condensation temperature can be thought of basically as boiling point.) Silicates and most metals condense at high temperatures, and will be common in planets nearer their sun. Gases, on the other hand, condense at lower temperatures, and will not do so until they are further out from the protostar, in cooler regions of less intense radiation. It's no accident that the inner planets are all rocky and the outer planets are all gaseous in the Solar System.
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