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NASA to Host News Conference on Discovery Beyond Our Solar System
"NASA will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 22, to present new findings on planets that orbit stars other than our sun, known as exoplanets. The event will air live on NASA Television and the agency's website."
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-...lar-system
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov
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"NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed the first known system of seven Earth-size planets around a single star. Three of these planets are firmly located in the habitable zone, the area around the parent star where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water."
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-...ets-around
Will Mauna Kea telescopes be researching this at all in the future Tom or just space telescopes?
We need to find a new home for our descendants since we screwed this planet up so bad.
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Ground based telescopes involved in this discovery include:
Himalayan Chandra 2-metre Telescope(HCT) in India, and in the infrared range with the 8-metre Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile and the 3.8-metre UK Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii.
Here's the paper on it
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/rele...o1615a.pdf
Further studies by Hubble and eventually James Webb Space telescope are planned. It's possible UKRIT, or KECK might continue or get involved in the study too. TMT obviously would be ideal because of its power and unique location with the ability to view in IR (infrared) on Maunakea.
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Thanks SBH & Eric 1600.
Quite some news, first thing in the morning.
It will be interesting to see the level of detail the TMT can discern from each of the seven newly discovered planets. How different might they be from each other, and in what ways?
In addition, once the TMT is operational we can only imagine what other objects it may detect, especially beyond the observational range of all the other telescopes now on earth or in earth orbit.
You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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Well if we leave now.. with current technology in space propulsion, we can be there in 700,000 years. I say.. let's git r done.
Sorry.... My spellcheck is mildly retarded .. Intellectually challenged.
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We need to find a new home for our descendants since we screwed this planet up
...
we can be there in 700,000 years
Can Mars or an exoplanet really preserve the human race at some point in the future if earth becomes uninhabitable? Remember, we would only be able to send a limited number of people there, a tiny percentage of earth's population. How do we choose? Will we pick the best of the best? Or will our political and business leaders be the only ones who muscle their way on board, the same people who allowed our planet to be destroyed in the first place? Which means most likely they'll do it all over again somewhere else.
How much would it cost? A fortune, benefiting less than the 1% of the 1% of the 1%. What if something goes wrong on route during a multi generational trip, did they take a mechanic? What if on arrival the new planet isn't all it's cracked up to be?
Will any planet be a perfect duplicate of earth, with a warm climate, 20% oxygen, similar gravity, and the 24 hour day cycle under which we've evolved to function optimally?
Wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to make a few minor repairs on earth which would benefit everyone, not just the wealthy and those they pick to tag along? That is, if our world leaders realized what they're doing?
You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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SBH - as Eric pointed out, UKIRT on Mauna Kea has been directly involved in this project, we confirmed the existence of the first bunch of earth-sized planets to be detected in orbit around the star:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/promising-w...dwarf-star
I'm sure UKIRT will continue to be involved plus I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Gemini, the Kecks, and Subaru become involved. This seems to be one very interesting solar system!
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UKIRT on Mauna Kea has been directly involved in this project
Thanks TomK, great work!
I believe I'm hearing the sound of crickets chirping, no it's quieter than that, it's the sound of wekiu bugs breathing, and it's coming from the direction of those who recently said UKIRT was obsolete and should be decommissioned. The observatory seems to be functioning just fine to me. Better than fine considering their involvement in this new discovery.
You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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|"How much would it cost? A fortune, benefiting less than the 1% of the 1% of the 1%. What if something goes wrong on route during a multi generational trip, did they take a mechanic? What if on arrival the new planet isn't all it's cracked up to be? "|
No humans would likely be involved in a trip like that. Ships ran by self replicating robots.. are the likely method...with a cargo of frozen human embryos. To be hatched when a suitable environment is found.. and built by the robots.. several astrophysicist have agreed on this scenario. (think about a hundred years into the future.)
It's to bad we don't have TMT to take a closer look, as it is we will have to wait for the Web telescope to launch in 2018. Then we can determine if there are things like liquid water ...etc.
Sorry.... My spellcheck is mildly retarded .. Intellectually challenged.
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HOTPE - if you want my blunt opinion, it's the crazies who think UKIRT is obsolete. Only the Kecks are now more scientifically productive than UKIRT of all the telescopes on Mauna Kea. Up to a year or so ago, UKIRT was the most productive. If you want to use other parameters such as 1) scientific impact and 2) cost per science paper/discovery then 1) UKIRT is still right at the top and 2) blows every other observatory away. We're cheap but we're damn good.
The others wanting it decommissioned only want that for political reasons. I've discussed this before in PW - I can find the thread if you want.
