'A new home for the human race'
An Earth-sized planet discovered this week could provide a new home for the human race when our own sun dies.
That's the view of Sky at Night presenter and University of Leicester professor Paul Abel.
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The new planet, called Centauri Bb, was discovered this week by astronomers at the European Southern Observatory, in Chile.
It is six million kilometres from Alpha Centauri, the closest star-system to Earth at 4.3 light years away.
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Dr Abel said: "This planet is special and I hope will provide a new sense of urgency for human space flight."
He said science fiction writers had made good use of the Alpha Centauri system. It was the destination for the Robinson family in Lost in Space and the setting for the film Avatar.
He said: "It has often been argued that the Moon was essential for manned space flight.
"It helpfully provided a close stepping stone for Mankind in its early attempts to access the cosmos."
Similarly, Dr Abel argues, Alpha Centauri provides the next cosmological stepping stone.
It is an island in the sky beckoning human beings out towards the stars.
He said: "One day, the rent on this planet will expire. Millions of years from now, the sun will become a red giant and the earth will be reduced to a cinder circling a dead star.
"Humans will need a new home and Centauri Bb provides both a destination and motivation."
Centauri Bb is currently beyond humanity's reach. A rocket journey of 4.3 light years would take thousands of years.
But Dr Abel said: "Given Mankind's resourcefulness and intrinsic desire to explore, I'm sure that when our sun does die, human beings will be watching the death of their ancient home out there, from the safety of the stars."
However, conditions on the planet would have to improve and cool down.
Comments
by 4_Stroke
Tuesday, October 23 2012, 9:34PM
“Peetuurr, "we have evolved the ability to live anywhere".. everywhere but outer space.
It took just over 60 years from the first flight to landing on the moon. The last lunar landing was 30 years ago. Unfortunately the dream of manned space exploration is dead. The furthest we get off the planet now is 205 miles above the earth.
Voyager2 was launched 35 years ago and has only just travelled 9 billion miles, at that rate it would take over 4 million years to reach Alpha Centauri. The human race will be extinct long before we ever send an astronaut beyond the solar system. Anything else is pure fantasy.”
by 4_Stroke
Tuesday, October 23 2012, 9:33PM
“Peetuurr, "we have evolved the ability to live anywhere".. everywhere but outer space.
It took just over 60 years from the first flight to landing on the moon. The last lunar landing was 30 years ago. Unfortunately the dream of manned space exploration is dead. The furthest we get off the planet now is 205 miles above the earth.
Voyager2 was launched 35 years ago and has only just travelled 9 billion miles, at that rate it would take over 4 million years to reach Alpha Centauri. The human race will be extinct long before we ever send an astronaut beyond the solar system. Anything else is pure fantasy.”
by Peetuurr
Tuesday, October 23 2012, 10:22AM
“"The Sun has got over 4 billion years to go. We have only just managed to survive the last 10,000 years. I think the human race will be long extinct before we need to worry about this one."
It is of the nature of natural dynamics that things either grow or shrink, be it a storm, a business, a forest or anything else that is driven by nonlinear dynamics. The human race was created by evolution we have evolved the ability to live anywhere, there is now well over 6 billion of us.
A good metric for the health of all life on this planet is the number of different species it supports, our species is despeciating our planet at a frightening rate.
The only way out is up.
http://tinyurl.com/8lwqqme”
by 4_Stroke
Monday, October 22 2012, 11:21AM
“The Sun has got over 4 billion years to go. We have only just managed to survive the last 10,000 years. I think the human race will be long extinct before we need to worry about this one.”
by Peetuurr
Sunday, October 21 2012, 12:54PM
“"I tried visiting my local travel agent, but it seems that they had never heard of it."
If it is Venus your travel agent has never heard of, apart from the moon, it is the brightest thing in the cloudless night sky.
http://tinyurl.com/8lwqqme”
by AnotherRobert
Sunday, October 21 2012, 12:33PM
“I tried visiting my local travel agent, but it seems that they had never heard of it.”
by Peetuurr
Sunday, October 21 2012, 8:30AM
“"Sure needs to at three times the surface temperature of Venus, the hottest planet in our solar system"
An idea I have read of is, because the atmosphere on Venus is so dense, we could live in giant balloons high in its atmosphere, the high temperature is caused by the very high atmospherical density close the the surface, so it would be cooler. The other idea is to seed it's atmosphere, with tailored bacteria to terraform it and make it habitable for life. The big plus about Venus is, it's orbit is much closer to our orbit, than the orbit of mars.”
by LikeItaLot
Saturday, October 20 2012, 8:56PM
“"However, conditions on the planet would have to improve and cool down"
Sure needs to at three times the surface temperature of Venus, the hottest planet in our solar system”
by chemistman
Saturday, October 20 2012, 12:40PM
“Given that we have barely made it to the moon, does anyone outside of professional astronomers actually realise how far 4.3 light years is? And, what will those survivors of Earth's destruction do if there is already an established civilisation there - do we invade?
Also, if the life cycle of the star Centauri Bb is roughly at the same stage as our sun, then quite likely, Centauri Bb will also begin to expand and engulf its own planetary system just as we set off! This is science FICTION.”
by Peetuurr
Saturday, October 20 2012, 11:18AM
“We should try to walk before we can run, first the moon.
http://tinyurl.com/8lwqqme”