'Second Earth' found, 20 light years away

sbi5ar · 17 Oct 2007 at 15:35

Raikiri said:
Wow, 20 lightyears ago... I could swear that was a measurement of distance and not time

i thought a light year was time (kind of) i.e. travelling the speed of light for a year

and when will they find third earth with the thunder cats

Chabsy · 17 Oct 2007 at 15:37

Simple......... why dont we just meet 1/2 way

gjrc · 17 Oct 2007 at 15:37

alien porn is where the new money is to be made!

furnace · 17 Oct 2007 at 15:37

Lightyears is a distance measurement - the distance light travels in a year.

This kind of news makes me excited

sbi5ar · 17 Oct 2007 at 15:40

furnace said:
Lightyears is a distance measurement - the distance light travels in a year.

This kind of news makes me excited

just of of curiosity, what is this distance in mm ??

Combat squirrel · 17 Oct 2007 at 15:40

sbi5ar said:
just of of curiosity, what is this distance in mm ??

HAHA im actually going to find this out now, brb

WotDa · 17 Oct 2007 at 15:40

sbi5ar said:
just of of curiosity, what is this distance in mm ??

20 lightyears = 1.89210568 × 10^20 millimeters

Jono · 17 Oct 2007 at 15:41

gjrc said:
alien porn is where the new money is to be made!

Just think, the population of that planet might be BOOBIE PEOPLE!

sbi5ar · 17 Oct 2007 at 15:42

WotDa said:
20 lightyears = 1.89210568 × 1020 millimeters

that was quick

WotDa · 17 Oct 2007 at 15:43

sbi5ar said:
that was quick

Google knows all.

Jonnycoupe · 17 Oct 2007 at 15:43

sbi5ar said:
i thought a light year was time (kind of) i.e. travelling the speed of light for a year

To give you a distance.... the year part of a light year is only thing to do with time.

misterPK · 17 Oct 2007 at 15:44

ScarySquirrel said:
If we sent a satellite on it's way to this place. How long would it take and how long would it take for us to receive signals back from it? (if we could at all)

Well thats an easy one, as radio waves travel at the speed of light, It'll take 20 years for a signal to get there, and 20 years to get back. So at the moment if there is life on that planet, they are suffering our late 80's music so they probably think we're attacking them already.

PK!

Captain Kirk · 17 Oct 2007 at 15:45

I've already been past, it was nice enough, but no good looking lifeforms.

WotDa · 17 Oct 2007 at 15:45

misterPK said:
they are suffering our late 80's music so they probably think we're attacking them already.

lol, nice one.

~J~ · 17 Oct 2007 at 15:47

What I don't get is these statements that say water is an essential ingredient for life.

On this planet yes, but is "water", good ole H2O "THE" key to life in the entire universe?

I'm confused.

Combat squirrel · 17 Oct 2007 at 15:48

How strange I just worked out in excel:

9.45425E+18 (light in 1 year in mm)

Assuming:

670616629 Speed light MPH
24 hours day
16094799096 Miles per day
365 Days year
5.874601670040E+12 Light travels this many miles in year
1 mile = 1609344 millimeters

Tomsk · 17 Oct 2007 at 15:51

~J~ said:
What I don't get is these statements that say water is an essential ingredient for life.

On this planet yes, but is "water", good ole H2O "THE" key to life in the entire universe?

I'm confused.

Only to life as we know it.

There may be life that is based on some other molecular compound, but it is difficult for us H2O based lifeforms to imagine what they might be like.

Jonnycoupe · 17 Oct 2007 at 15:52

~J~ said:
What I don't get is these statements that say water is an essential ingredient for life.

On this planet yes, but is "water", good ole H2O "THE" key to life in the entire universe?

I'm confused.

The human body along with all the species of plants and animals on the surface make this a good case study to make that statement. Anything else would be a guess, although they do know about sulphur based eco systems on the sea bed.

Captain Kirk · 17 Oct 2007 at 15:52

Tomsk said:
life as we know it.

Hmmm, heard that before somewhere, now where was it again?

Kyle009 · 17 Oct 2007 at 15:52

very interesting.