6 ms·

NASA Hubble Finds a True Blue Planet

57 points by asutosh 13y ago

Pitarou 13y ago
And science marches on. Maybe I'm showing my age, but it astonishes me how quickly the study of exo-planets has progressed. I wonder if I'll live long enough to see images beamed back from an interstellar probe?
- arethuza 13y ago
  "I wonder if I'll live long enough to see images beamed back from an interstellar probe?" I would say you have a small, but definitely non-zero, chance of that - but it probably depends more on the development of effective life prolonging therapies that anything else. We're quite a long way from being motivated enough to build a dedicated interstellar probe and then you would probably have to wait a few decades for the probe to actually get somewhere and a, much smaller, time for the signals to get back. Personally, I'd settle for seeing manned exploration of Mars and I think that may just happen...
  - kamaal 13y ago
    Mankind is into space since what, 75 years? Its too early to think of traveling to far points in space using the technology we have. Imagine some thousands of years back, planning to explore the world using an ox cart. Yet today, airplanes have made that perfectly possible.
    - arethuza 13y ago
      Well, if we really wanted to we could probably hack something together along the lines of the Project Orion designs right now, but it would be hugely expensive and pretty messy so I can't see anyone doing that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propulsion%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propul... I suspect if we do send out interstellar probes they will be tiny rather than flying battleships: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starwisp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starwisp
    - maxerickson 13y ago
      The hominid diaspora occurred using feet and canoes. Tens of thousands of years ago. Of course no individuals 'traveled the globe' in that era, but a gradual process was plenty sufficient to cover the globe with humans.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
- wikiburner 13y ago
  What's frustrating to me is that apparently a modestly priced (for spacecraft) dual-satellite telescope system has been designed that could return images of extrasolar planets like we were snapping pictures of Saturn, but it hasn't made any progress because of budget limitations. Edit: here's a brief article that gives an overview of a lower-budget, swarm technique being proposed by Planetary Resources - http://www.dvice.com/archives/2012/04/could_planetary.php http://www.dvice.com/archives/2012/04/could_planetary.php
kamaal 13y ago
When I looked at the word 'blue' in the title, my first thought was there could be life but. But reading further... >> It is only 2.9 million miles from its parent star, so close that it is gravitationally locked. One side always faces the star and the other side is always dark. and >>day side and night side temperatures on HD 189733b differ by about 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Means life similar to us doesn't exist there. Seems like our exploration of the cosmos and some drastic results with regards to that will only happen after some drastic changes in technology. It took a ship, and a few determined men to explore places on earth. It will take some radical invention in transport systems. And few determined men this time too. I don't think we will ever discover anything substantial as long as the physics of that is limited by things like speed of light. Its like thinking of heavier than air flying machines before the discovery of bernoulli's theorem.
- wikiburner 13y ago
  It could happen sooner than you think: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4542210 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4542210 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4834306 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4834306
- Udo 13y ago
  >>day side and night side temperatures on HD 189733b differ by about 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, it's a gas giant...
  - gadders 13y ago
    Going off at a tangent slightly, but what would happen if I dropped, say, 1kg steel weight on to the surface of a gas giant? Does it sink to the core? Or close to the core and then melt due to temperature and pressure?
    - maxerickson 13y ago
      You should ask XKCD. (Really! This seems like a very suitable question for that treatment.)
marshc1 13y ago
Dose NASA have a full time staff of artists? Or do they outsource these "artistic interpretations" we some frequently see?
- TsiCClawOfLight 13y ago
  I think they have actual photos. Only, the government hides them from us... maybe the alien overlords don't want to reveal themselves yet?
  - Pitarou 13y ago
    That would be cheaper, yes.
obeleask 13y ago
And here I was thinking they had found an Australian Planet... http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=true%20blue http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=true%20blue

57 points by asutosh 13y ago

And science marches on. Maybe I'm showing my age, but it astonishes me how quickly the study of exo-planets has progressed. I wonder if I'll live long enough to see images beamed back from an interstellar probe?

arethuza 13y ago
"I wonder if I'll live long enough to see images beamed back from an interstellar probe?" I would say you have a small, but definitely non-zero, chance of that - but it probably depends more on the development of effective life prolonging therapies that anything else. We're quite a long way from being motivated enough to build a dedicated interstellar probe and then you would probably have to wait a few decades for the probe to actually get somewhere and a, much smaller, time for the signals to get back. Personally, I'd settle for seeing manned exploration of Mars and I think that may just happen...
- kamaal 13y ago
  Mankind is into space since what, 75 years? Its too early to think of traveling to far points in space using the technology we have. Imagine some thousands of years back, planning to explore the world using an ox cart. Yet today, airplanes have made that perfectly possible.
  - arethuza 13y ago
    Well, if we really wanted to we could probably hack something together along the lines of the Project Orion designs right now, but it would be hugely expensive and pretty messy so I can't see anyone doing that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propulsion%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propul... I suspect if we do send out interstellar probes they will be tiny rather than flying battleships: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starwisp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starwisp
  - maxerickson 13y ago
    The hominid diaspora occurred using feet and canoes. Tens of thousands of years ago. Of course no individuals 'traveled the globe' in that era, but a gradual process was plenty sufficient to cover the globe with humans.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
wikiburner 13y ago
What's frustrating to me is that apparently a modestly priced (for spacecraft) dual-satellite telescope system has been designed that could return images of extrasolar planets like we were snapping pictures of Saturn, but it hasn't made any progress because of budget limitations. Edit: here's a brief article that gives an overview of a lower-budget, swarm technique being proposed by Planetary Resources - http://www.dvice.com/archives/2012/04/could_planetary.php http://www.dvice.com/archives/2012/04/could_planetary.php

kamaal 13y ago

When I looked at the word 'blue' in the title, my first thought was there could be life but. But reading further... >> It is only 2.9 million miles from its parent star, so close that it is gravitationally locked. One side always faces the star and the other side is always dark. and >>day side and night side temperatures on HD 189733b differ by about 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Means life similar to us doesn't exist there. Seems like our exploration of the cosmos and some drastic results with regards to that will only happen after some drastic changes in technology. It took a ship, and a few determined men to explore places on earth. It will take some radical invention in transport systems. And few determined men this time too. I don't think we will ever discover anything substantial as long as the physics of that is limited by things like speed of light. Its like thinking of heavier than air flying machines before the discovery of bernoulli's theorem.

wikiburner 13y ago
It could happen sooner than you think: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4542210 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4542210 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4834306 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4834306
Udo 13y ago
>>day side and night side temperatures on HD 189733b differ by about 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, it's a gas giant...
- gadders 13y ago
  Going off at a tangent slightly, but what would happen if I dropped, say, 1kg steel weight on to the surface of a gas giant? Does it sink to the core? Or close to the core and then melt due to temperature and pressure?
  - maxerickson 13y ago
    You should ask XKCD. (Really! This seems like a very suitable question for that treatment.)

marshc1 13y ago

Dose NASA have a full time staff of artists? Or do they outsource these "artistic interpretations" we some frequently see?

TsiCClawOfLight 13y ago
I think they have actual photos. Only, the government hides them from us... maybe the alien overlords don't want to reveal themselves yet?
- Pitarou 13y ago
  That would be cheaper, yes.

obeleask 13y ago

And here I was thinking they had found an Australian Planet... http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=true%20blue http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=true%20blue