water found on extra-solar planet:D

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6544257.stm

where there is water, there might not be life as we know it, but humans can survive. maybe not on this gas giant, but near by?

One of a billion I can only imagine. To be honest, I think Id spend a lot more time looking in our own solar sytem at the moment. Moons like Europa, Titan, Io, and a few others look very promising to have water. Or at least subterranian seas/oceans.

But finding water that far away is awsome. Hopefullly they find a lot more.

One of a billion I can only imagine. To be honest, I think Id spend a lot more time looking in our own solar sytem at the moment. Moons like Europa, Titan, Io, and a few others look very promising to have water. Or at least subterranian seas/oceans.

But finding water that far away is awsome. Hopefullly they find a lot more.
it's only 150 light years away....if the universe were the size of earth, it would be right outside the front door!

what i'm getting at is that water, what our life needs, is out there!

This is a very exciting story!

Is it surprising that there is water "out there?" Water has to be one of the most common molecules in the universe--probably the most common after the diatomic molecules.

water found on extra-solar planet:D

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6544257.stm

where there is water, there might not be life as we know it, but humans can survive. maybe not on this gas giant, but near by?

I remember in High School my Biology teacher {a Holy Cross Brother}
told the story of a Scientist who made a great discovery.
The last thing he was heard to exclaim,and he did it loudly was :
******* E u r e k A ********* and then was never
seen again.
Some Scientist,like Einstein believed in a Fifth Dimension.
A spatial dimention of Time,that we have yet to grasp or
encounter.Except on - The Twilight Zone -.
I digress !

There is supposed to be space based telescopes that will be able to detect earth sized, earth like planets. Things will start to get interesting when we find those and are able to see if their atmospheres support life, dammit.

There is supposed to be space based telescopes that will be able to detect earth sized, earth like planets. Things will start to get interesting when we find those and are able to see if their atmospheres support life, dammit.

Why - " dammit " - ? Are you in some kinda hurry to find
another source of life or reason to esacpe this Worldy sphere
of ours,that seems singularly contingent on Earthly domain.
I'm personally effusive towards TOO much change.
I rather Like Earth,w/o any outside source,being more
contingent than Us.
We have enough Earthly problems,than the added burden of :
-- War of the Worlds -- {1953} !

That is a good question--why are we in such a hurry to find the aliens? When we do, we won't like it at all.

That is a good question--why are we in such a hurry to find the aliens? When we do, we won't like it at all.
healthy curiosity is part of the human condition. without wondering what was over the next hill or across that ocean, we might still be living in trees.

The only thing that will ever unite humanity is a threat from the outside. Just as the Greek city states unified in the face of the Persian threat, so to human nations will unite if we face an alien race that poses a threat to us.

The only thing that will ever unite humanity is a threat from the outside. Just as the Greek city states unified in the face of the Persian threat, so to human nations will unite if we face an alien race that poses a threat to us.
do you think we could get away with making one up?

What makes you think that the government isn't doing just that. By denying flying saucers exist, they make many people believe they do.

What makes you think that the government isn't doing just that. By denying flying saucers exist, they make many people believe they do.
saying they do exist would be more effective:@@:

healthy curiosity is part of the human condition. without wondering what was over the next hill or across that ocean, we might still be living in trees.
Or even better, Europe.

saying they do exist would be more effective:@@:

Actually, far more people probably wind up believing in them in the absence of proof if you repeatedly deny they exist. That way, when someone asks for proof, you just deny they exist. Lots of people then believe you are lying, because this is the government.
If you said they did exist, when people demanded proof you would have to produce something. No one would believe it, because it is the government, and everyone would be trying to prove it was faked.

I do not doubt that unidentified flying objects exist. Every time I look in the sky and see something I can't identify flying up there, it is an unidentified flying object.

It takes a good deal of rationalization to overcome the basic question--if "they" are visiting us, why are they so secretive? Only rationalizations can be offered, but it seems to me a society so advanced as to be able to travel between stars can, if it wishes, hide themeselves so well we wouldn't have a clue. Therefore anything we do see is not "them."

Besides, I think the issue of ghosts is far more interesting.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b222/godsandmen/cool%20photos/pluto-astroid.jpg

Besides, I think the issue of ghosts is far more interesting.
I think so too.

Actually, far more people probably wind up believing in them in the absence of proof if you repeatedly deny they exist. That way, when someone asks for proof, you just deny they exist. Lots of people then believe you are lying, because this is the government.
If you said they did exist, when people demanded proof you would have to produce something. No one would believe it, because it is the government, and everyone would be trying to prove it was faked.
:@@: you're making my brain hurt.

It takes a good deal of rationalization to overcome the basic question--if "they" are visiting us, why are they so secretive? Only rationalizations can be offered, but it seems to me a society so advanced as to be able to travel between stars can, if it wishes, hide themeselves so well we wouldn't have a clue. Therefore anything we do see is not "them."
why do zoologists hide in logs? to get a better look at lions in their natural habitat.

not that all of them (if they are aliens) are scientists, some of the might be college students on their way to spring break and breakdown in this galactic backwater we call Earth.

why do zoologists hide in logs? to get a better look at lions in their natural habitat.

not that all of them (if they are aliens) are scientists, some of the might be college students on their way to spring break and breakdown in this galactic backwater we call Earth.
As I said, if "they" are capable of interstellar travel then they can hide if that is their wish. The spring break analogy doesn't work.

There are something like 300 billion stars in our galaxy. Compare that to the human population of 6-7 billion.

It seems that life (in the form of self-replicating bags of chemicals) appears almost immediately that conditions permit. That is not surprising to someone who understands the chemistry of carbon. Therefore life is probably all over the place wherever anything close to earth like conditions prevail.

But, it took three billion of the three and a half billion years life has existed to evolve multicellular organisms (the Cambrian "explosion"), and then all the basic multicellular life forms appeared in a geological instant (a few tens of millions of years).

I have to think that this implies there is a barrier there--one that it is difficult to evolve past--and perhaps one that is very rare, since evolution then was able to actually begin (up to then nothing much happened--eukaryotes were around from very early on--just not multicellular).

Some combination of inventions--probably sexual reproduction combined with senescence and death combined with who knows what else--made differentiated, multicellular life work where before it didn't.

What if the odds against this are, say, one in ten trillion? If so, then multi-cellular life must be very rare.

This is just one of several possible barriers against the evolution of technological societies--any one of which being the case would imply our being extremely rare.

As I said, if "they" are capable of interstellar travel then they can hide if that is their wish. The spring break analogy doesn't work.
some UFOs show up on radar, some don't. because the U.S. has supersonic stealth aircraft (and maybe hypersonic) doesn't mean that every country that has supersonic jets has supersonic stealth aircraft...and factor in that of the most of the aircraft on Earth are privately owned...and not even jets.

ever been on Tamiami Trail? the turn offs are full cars. some of them belong to zoologists doing their thing in the everglades, most are tourists ignoring the "do not molest the wildlife" signs.

Tourists are bopping about from star to star and poke around the earth? Please be sensible. Have you any notion of the real distances between stars. Far more likely we are being visited by tourists from the future.

Tourists are bopping about from star to star and poke around the earth? Please be sensible. Have you any notion of the real distances between stars. Far more likely we are being visited by tourists from the future.

Its possible an alien lifeform has figured out how cover the distances of space, whether it be faster than light travel or wormholes.

Tourists are bopping about from star to star and poke around the earth? Please be sensible. Have you any notion of the real distances between stars. Far more likely we are being visited by tourists from the future.

your sense of scale is nothing but chauvinism. a trip that would have taken a week on horse back a hundred years ago, i can do now, and be back again in an afternoon in a car, or be on the other side of the planet in a day with a little help from my friends @NWA.

why wouldn't someone from another species be interested in a blue planet out in the middle of nowhere? if they weren't at all curious, they never would have left home.

You seem to have an idea that crossing the ocean is not much different from crossing from star to star--and that technology is all that is needed.

I find this amusing in its naivete.

You seem to have an idea that crossing the ocean is not much different from crossing from star to star--and that technology is all that is needed.

I find this amusing in its naivete.
i could be in Austraila this time tomorrow, i have the money, i'm not needed at work anytime soon, i have a passport...the only thing stopping me is a lawful "no international travel" order, and i don't want to.

Shit. You were starting to get interesting then you stopped.
Whats a no international travel order

Shit. You were starting to get interesting then you stopped.
Whats a no international travel order
it means i can leave the country, i just can't come back. i fucked up when i was a soldier, and that's all i'm allowed to explain.


and it expires in a couple of years:D

So your really an illegal, thats what your saying.
''Prae Prae, I found one''.

:lolhit:

Uh oh Mikey, better watch out. Prae's been on a real gun kick lately... :lolhit:

Uh oh Mikey, better watch out. Prae's been on a real gun kick lately... :lolhit:
i'm better armed (and prepared) than him:thumbs:

Ah Prae. Always bitch's on a Monday.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.......................................... ...