1y ago

NASA found a super-Earth. It's in a tantalizing place.

mashable.com

45 comments

- Haha probably meant to write "miles" the second time
  
  Which is funny because that would have been even more inaccurate. "Millions of light years" is off by a factor of 15,000 or more. "Millions of miles" is off by a factor of 400,000,000 or more (2 million miles is 0.00000034 light years).
I don’t get it. We found lots of planets, including super earths in goldilock zone. What makes this planet unique to deserve a separate article? The article does not explain that.
- Those other planets were jerks. This one's cool.
  
  If it’s cool, it isn’t in Goldilocks zone.
- Because it generates views
- Lemmie punch it into libre-maps
I volunteer to go check it out in person.
- The best time to start that journey is 1.37 million years ago. The second best time to start is today.
- I volunteer to send the world's billionaires to check it out in person.
  
  So, like the end of Don't Look Up?
- Good luck, report back with your findings.
- Why would you want to go live on a planet of losers?
Cool, put all the billionaires in a rocket and shoot them there.
- Why? Give them a new planet so can live peacefully while everybody else has to deal with what they did to this planet? Nah bro send them to Mercury and enjoy the burning entry.
  
  Shh, at the last second we're going to change the destination coordinates to Uranus
Cool, how long until we can move there?
- Ugh so fucking long unfortunately. I kind of doubt squishy biological humans will ever make it to another star system, we are so much closer to immortal machine minds that can make the trip much more conveniently than we are to interstellar travel.
  
  Maybe they'll create some humans in other star systems when they get there, as an art project or something.
- I'm in the middle of reading A City of Mars, by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, who goes over their take on the feasibility of long term habitation off world. Short answer is, it's going to be a long time. There are a lot of questions, physically, biologically, legally, logistically, unanswered. At best, it's going to be like building a cathedral. It's a project for multiple generations.
  I also like watching Issac Arthur's videos on YT, and fantasize about the future. He gives a more positive spin on stuff like that.
  
  Yeah thinking about the giant challenges of building a settlement on Mars really puts in perspective the much much much harder problem of sending people to another star system.
They found it in a pool of water that dries up when you try to drink it?
I managed to grab a TESS poster at the last Goddard Space Flight Center open house. It's hanging on the wall behind me, and it's awesome to read some news about it because I got to meet some of the folks on the team.
What if NASA just makes this stuff up to get more funding? .
NASA scientist: See that dot?
US Government: Where? There?
NASA scientist: No. The other one.
US Government: That?
NASA scientist: Yuuuup. Totally a Super-Earth.
US Government: Really?
NASA scientist: Dude. Trust me, bro.
US Government: (sighs) Make a color computer render to show the press by Thursday.
. pops champagne cork
EDIT: WOW... people seriously need the /s for this? Damn. This was complete sarcasm.
- That's a key component of the flat earth ideology. They are idiots. Don't be an idiot.
- Nasa is not the only space agency on earth. They communicate and verify the data.
  
  Also the data is public. Anyone can go look at the data and if they have good enough science and math skills they can get to the same answer.
- Independent astronomers and agencies and other countries verify this stuff, so it'd be a complicated conspiracy.

45 comments