Most Earth-like planet yet discovered

**Damien** · 06-01-2015, 21:54

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2...fe-kepler-438b

Just a mere 470 light years away. Perfect distance from it's star and likely to be rocky. A very good candidate to have water and where there is water there may be life.

Exciting questions but also depressing that none of us will be alive to know the answers.

qasdfdsaq · 06-01-2015, 22:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Damien

Exciting questions but also depressing that none of us will be alive to know the answers.

If we had the money we could be.

Osem · 07-01-2015, 09:47

With a travel time of 470 years at the speed of light, I don't think we're going to be around to see that unless some amazing scientific advances are made and we stop killing eachother. In fact there's no guarantee that we wouldn't set off on the journey only to find en route that the planet's not there anymore...

**Damien** · 07-01-2015, 12:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

If we had the money we could be.

Even with the money it's unlikely. It's too far away. Too many limitations on our technology in order to make up the time. We would have to go faster than the speed of light to make it in any reasonable amount of time.

qasdfdsaq · 07-01-2015, 13:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Osem

With a travel time of 470 years at the speed of light, I don't think we're going to be around to see that unless some amazing scientific advances are made and we stop killing eachother. In fact there's no guarantee that we wouldn't set off on the journey only to find en route that the planet's not there anymore...

The thing is, when you travel at the speed of light, outside time stops. Therefore if you were on that ship, you could travel an infinite distance in 1 year at the speed of light. It's more likely you wouldn't see anyone left on Earth when you get back...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special...m_the_Earth.3F

---------- Post added at 13:30 ---------- Previous post was at 13:29 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Damien

Even with the money it's unlikely. It's too far away. Too many limitations on our technology in order to make up the time. We would have to go faster than the speed of light to make it in any reasonable amount of time.

The whole point is the faster you go, the slower time goes. When you hit the speed of light (which is impossible) time stops completely.

Of course I'm talking from the perspective of somebody on that ship, rather than a bystander watching it from Earth. From the latter point of view, it'd be like that Interstellar movie.

More importantly though, with enough money and current technology you could probably get in your lifetime but you certainly won't be coming back.

Osem · 07-01-2015, 13:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

The thing is, when you travel at the speed of light, outside time stops. Therefore if you were on that ship, you could travel an infinite distance in 1 year at the speed of light. It's more likely you wouldn't see anyone left on Earth when you get back...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special...m_the_Earth.3F

Interesting thanks. My vague memories of A level Physics are not exactly flooding back (more of a unpredictable drip really. lol) but then it was back in the days when the world was in black and white and a spade was a spade...

**Damien** · 07-01-2015, 13:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

My understanding is that whilst that would be true it's also the case that we cannot reach the speed of light and thus at the very min

The whole point is the faster you go, the slower time goes. When you hit the speed of light (which is impossible) time stops completely.

Of course I'm talking from the perspective of somebody on that ship, rather than a bystander watching it from Earth. From the latter point of view, it'd be like that Interstellar movie.

More importantly though, with enough money and current technology you could probably get in your lifetime but you certainly won't be coming back.

So the 470 light years is time relative to us and not the speed of light? If we could travel at within a hair's width of the speed of light then time, relative to those doing the travelling, would be a fraction of the time?

Osem · 07-01-2015, 13:45

I dare say you'd need pretty decent ceramic brakes to slow down from the speed of light.

qasdfdsaq · 07-01-2015, 17:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Damien

So the 470 light years is time relative to us and not the speed of light?

In a vague sort of way, yes. Yay for relativity.

Quote:

If we could travel at within a hair's width of the speed of light then time, relative to those doing the travelling, would be a fraction of the time?

Yeah.

The way I like to think of it is light = time. It's an awkward concept but pretty amazing once you get your head around it. Imagine a flash of light, e.g. from a lightning strike, travelling outwards from Earth as a wave at the speed of light. The peak of that wave equates to not only the flash of light, but also the exact time it took place. If you were to travel with the wave at the speed of light, you would be travelling along with time itself, staying in the same moment forever, and the flash of lightning would seem to last forever. Until you hit something and die.

As for brakes - that's the problem. We can't put enough fuel onto a spacecraft to make it go fast enough so we have to propel it, at least partly, from Earth. Without somebody building something at the other end to slow you down, you can't. Which is why you won't be coming back ;-)

TheDaddy · 11-01-2015, 20:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Damien

So the 470 light years is time relative to us and not the speed of light? If we could travel at within a hair's width of the speed of light then time, relative to those doing the travelling, would be a fraction of the time?

For everyone else left behind though it roughly 10 000 years for them to get there iirc