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NASA finds a large amount of water in an exoplanet's atmosphere
- IntronExon 9y agoIs there any way the link could be changed to the original? https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/nasa-finds-a-large-amount-of-water-in-an-exoplanets-atmosphere https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/nasa-finds-a-large... NASA > Phys.org
- mturmon 9y agoThe NASA link you posted is materially better, because it links in an obvious way to the ApJ paper itself (http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hvi/uploads/science_paper/file_attachment/309/published_AJ_WASP_39b_paper.pdf http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hvi/uploads/science_paper/file_...). I could not find such a link in the phys.org page. The paper link is worth following if you're interested. It describes using an exoplanet general circulation model (atmosphere model) to recover the temperature-vs-pressure profile within the exoplanet atmosphere - pressure being a proxy for height (Fig. 11a). They also retrieve temperature-vs-longitude.
- dang 9y agoSure. URL changed from https://phys.org/news/2018-03-nasa-large-amount-exoplanet-atmosphere.html https://phys.org/news/2018-03-nasa-large-amount-exoplanet-at....
- IntronExon 9y agoSo fast! Thanks very much.
- superkuh 9y agoThis is actually a step backwards in accessibility. The phys.org article could be read with any browser, text to speech, or sight assistance tools. But the NASA.gov page is just a blank, black screen until you turn on javascript and it renders the text in.
- wavefunction 9y agophys.org complaining about my ad-blocker/arbitrary code execution state tho
- aerodog 9y agoI wish our government spent all that money figuring out how to make seawater affordably drinkable. Interesting nonetheless.
- kakarot 9y agoFalse dilemma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma
- _emacsomancer_ 9y agoYou could have also devoted some time to that problem instead posting a comment on Hackernews.
- aerodog 9y agohaha touché! but i am but one man
- _emacsomancer_ 9y agoThat's true. Get a few more people together and you could have a real HN commenting team.
- thaumasiotes 9y agoWe already know how to make seawater affordably drinkable. Your wish is granted!
- aerodog 9y agoPlease go on...
- thaumasiotes 9y agoJust in case you're serious, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination#Economics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination#Economics . > In 2014, the Israeli facilities of Hadera, Palmahim, Ashkelon, and Sorek were desalinizing water for less than US$0.40 per cubic meter. As of 2006, Singapore was desalinating water for US$0.49 per cubic meter. Try drinking a thousand liters of water, and get back to me with how much you think it would be possible to spend this way before killing yourself through excessive water consumption.
- elihu 9y ago> In fact, the planet, known as WASP-39b, has three times as much water as Saturn does. Is that a lot?
- BinaryIdiot 9y agoThat's exactly what I was wondering! It's such an odd choice to compare it to as I'm having trouble finding an exact number. This article mentions that it's a small amount of ice but not exactly helpful for a scale: https://www.universetoday.com/15374/is-there-water-on-saturn/ https://www.universetoday.com/15374/is-there-water-on-saturn...
- ASalazarMX 9y agoSo there's little water on Saturn! but wait, since Saturn is about 300 times the size of earth, and Earth's mass is just 1/4000th water, I'm still utterly confused as how much it is compared to us. Odd choice, indeed.
- TheSpiceIsLife 9y agoSaturn is big! And it looks blue! Must be a lot!
- dclowd9901 9y agoSaturn looks blue? https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA00400 https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA00400
- TheSpiceIsLife 9y agoOops, I was thinking of Uranus! What hope!
- lostmsu 9y agoMaybe Neptune? Would make more sense.
- nategri 9y agoImage backgrounds on plots: Just say no, kids.
- indescions_2018 9y agoAnd only 700 light years away ;) It would be nice to compare the atmospheric spectrum of WASP-39b. As well as other candidate exoplanets in habitable zones. With the baseline of our own home planet. High resolution transmission spectrum of the Earth's atmosphere -- Seeing Earth as an exoplanet using a lunar eclipse https://arxiv.org/abs/1405.4780 https://arxiv.org/abs/1405.4780
- smaili 9y agoJust out of curiosity, what's the reason for looking so far out? Are we assuming by the time we would actually need to visit these planets, we've discovered some method to go faster than the speed of light? I only ask because realistically, how do we expect to actually make use of these resources if it would take so long just to reach it?
- Maybestring 9y agoEase of travel is pretty unimportant for prioritizing research targets. No one is leaving for another star anytime soon.
- flukus 9y agoWhat about the other way around? It let's us know where we can expect visitors from.
- Maybestring 9y agoWhat could you possibly resolve that would make you expect that?
- indescions_2018 9y agoI believe the end goal is some proof of extraterrestrial life. As sensing becomes more accurate, we may be able to detect certain biochemical signatures. Even of a hypothetical alien variety. At even great distances. Its an answer to the age old existential dilemma: are we alone in the cosmos. And would indeed provide a modicum of hope for the future of humanity ;) Exoplanet hunters rethink search for alien life https://www.nature.com/news/exoplanet-hunters-rethink-search-for-alien-life-1.23023 https://www.nature.com/news/exoplanet-hunters-rethink-search...
- aphextron 9y agoIncredibly exciting that these techniques for exoplanet spectroscopy have come so far so quickly. I have full faith that we will discover indirect chemical evidence of extraterrestrial life within the next 10 years. Once JWST [0] comes online it's going to be just a matter of time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope [0]
- tomrod 9y agoWhat would that indirect chemical evidence look like? Perhaps an example you have in mind? Outside of non-committal elements like Uranium or something showing up, I'm not sure what that evidence would look like?
- trhway 9y agoA CO2 increase during just a few years of observation? :) and resulting shift of the planet's black body radiation.
- ranger207 9y agoOxygen would be one. Due to its reactivity, free oxygen is rare, and oxygen spectra may be evidence of respiration.
- aaron_m04 9y ago> evidence of respiration. Evidence of photosynthesis as well!
- mygo 9y agoYeah O2 is an input of cellular respiration. The presence of O2 is more likely an indicator of plant-life than it is an indicator of animal life. But plant life is still life. You do not need animals to have plants. Plants came before animals here on earth. But I’m not sure of a way for animals to exist without plants. So yeah a stronger indicator of photosynthesis than cellular respiration.
- curiousgal 9y agoThis might be a dump question but if we were to look at our planet from far away what exactly would we see?
- elihu 9y agoFrom lightyears away, probably nothing except maybe a slight drop in the sun's output if the Earth happens to pass in front of it and a periodic wobble of the sun's location as the sun and Earth orbit the center of gravity of the sun-Earth system. The Earth is pretty small and far from the sun compared to the kinds of exoplanets we've been able to detect, so the wobble (which might be detectable via doppler shift of light from certain elements in the sun) would be slight and probably hard to detect without some pretty sophisticated instruments. It might be possible to detect something the size of the Earth from several light years away with a good enough telescope, but I'm not sure what the limit of that is.
- wallace_f 9y agoQuestion, given the sun's wobble would result from rotating around the solar system's center of gravity, how feasible is it to actually know with certainty what the solar system is made up of?
- saagarjha 9y agoComposition analysis is usually done using spectroscopy, which looks for the characteristic wavelengths of compounds that show up when analyzing spectra.
- KasianFranks 9y ago700 light years away. We'll need to solve for human lifespan first. There's another planet about 5 light years away. It's just a matter of time.
- jandrese 9y agoIsn't that what generation ships are for? Or sleeper ships? In practical terms we'll need a warp drive. And the whole new type of mathematics and physics to support it.
- jfoutz 9y ago.1c is 7000 years. I don't think we know how to build much that lasts that long. machines or civilizations.
- akvadrako 9y agoDidn't you hear someone just built a 10000 year clock?
- anvandare 9y agoThe key to space is genetics. If we can master modifying our own code, we can solve all of the uncomfortable aspects of space travel (radiation, low/zero gravity, habitable environments※). With extreme longevity you can even get over the time aspects (If a human can live for multiple centuries, a few decades spent on travel isn't that much time). ※ No need to terraform - instead of adapting the planet to humans, adapt humans to the planet. Scarce atmosphere? Add the Nepalese genes to survive at high altitude[1]. Heavy gravity? Increase bone and muscle mass. Water world? Gills it is! [1] https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/07/tibetans-inherited-high-altitude-gene-ancient-human https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/07/tibetans-inherited-h...
- Asooka 9y agoIf you build a ship that accelerates at a constant 1g towards the destination until the midway point, then decelerates at a constant 1g, due to time dilation, the people on board would experience "only" 12 years passing for a 700LY journey. People on Earth would still need to wait 1400 years for the first communication back, of course, but at least you won't have to build generation ships. Edit: I got my numbers from http://convertalot.com/relativistic_star_ship_calculator.html http://convertalot.com/relativistic_star_ship_calculator.htm...
- tr4cefl0w 9y agoIt takes 148.75 days to reach WASP-39b at Warp factor 9. Not bad.
- davidw 9y agoPlanet Oregon.
- samstave 9y agoProbes: What is max velocity we can, with current tech, achieve for shooting a probe to a target; Possible to build a giant rail gun in space where a falcon heavy is the payload (plus a nuke battery) and we shoot the falcon heavy out the rail gun, then at some point it’s various components engage to keep it heading to target. Also if you shoot a rocket out a rail gun, and it’s clipping along, will the rocket thrust add any velocity, or should you save all that fuel to land the heavy on the remote planet? Do rail guns behave differently in space?
- coinerone 9y agoThe position of the Planet will not be the same when the "Projectile" will arrive. The Railgun must aim to the Destination the Planet will be. Fault tolerance will be a bigger issue than building a giant Railgun (Walmart maybe has one in stock already :P).
- saagarjha 9y agoNot nearly fast enough for this to finish in the next couple million years.
- blackrock 9y agoI wanted to talk about artificial gravity. Since we're speaking of planets light years away. The only way for humans to get out there, is to stay in some kind of spaceship with gravity. Floating around on the International Space Station is nice for an hour. But after that, I bet it gets boring real quick. Especially, if you need to go use the restroom, and handle liquids and solids. So, having artificial gravity is nice. It will keep liquids down. You can drink out of a cup. Food doesn't float away. You can surgically operate safely. You can use the restroom normally. But, you would need a very large structure, to spin around, in order to not get the effects of Coriolis Force. And since it is currently difficult to build such a large structure in space, then I wondered if we could cheat. The method is to apply a constant force, but at an angle. This angle will allow the space craft to simulate a rotation, like it is being spun around with an invisible tether. This angular force will push all the occupants inside, to feel 1 G of gravity. And after one full rotation, then the space craft will return to the origin point. So, the idea is to apply an angular force, to cause a space craft to rotate in place, to simulate artificial gravity. This is similar to the idea of constantly accelerating a spacecraft, so that the occupants feel 1 G of gravity. But that acceleration would shoot the occupants straight into deep space, which is not what we want. Instead, this method would be like simulating a Ring World, but instead of rotating the space station, it would use constant angular force to cause the rotation, in order to simulate the artificial gravity. I was thinking something like an electric-ion engine could be used to provide the constant thrust. It would need to be computer controlled, to automatically administer the right force, at the correct angle, at the correct time, in order to rotate and simulate the artificial gravity. And it can be powered by nuclear, or possible solar. And of course, the thrust can never be turned off, otherwise, the space craft would shoot off into deep space. One idea I thought was to have this be in a large orbit around the earth. The other location would be at the Earth-Moon Lagrangian Point. Any space infrastructure architects want to take a stab at this idea? Possible or not?
- Mayzie 9y agoYou should watch The Expanse, a very good TV show. Their ships accelerate at a comfortable level to generate gravity for half of the destination, and then "flip-and-burn" by accelerating in the opposite direction at the same comfortable level to generate gravity.
- zabana 9y agoI dream of the day NASA makes Cowboy Bebop a reality.
- perseusprime11 9y agoIt will be cool to spot dinosaurs on these exoplanets. Whatever made it possible to create these giant creatures should be on atleast few exoplanets.
- hguhghuff 9y agoWill the day ever come when astronomy is commemted on without "the likelihood of life" being attached to it?