The Human Race 'Must Colonise Space Or Face Extinction'

The Mad Rapper said:
Except that this states that:

'Though Proxima Centauri is the nearest bona fide star, it is possible that one or more as-yet-undetected sub-stellar brown dwarfs may lie closer.'

You've probably read about WISE (Wide Infra-red Survey Explorer). I found this excerpt very interesting (particularly given all the Planet X nonsense floating about at the moment):

'Kirkpatrick says that it's possible that WISE could find an icy, Neptune-sized or bigger object in the far reaches of our solar system -- thousands of times farther from the sun than Earth. There is some speculation amongst scientists that such a cool body, if it exists, could be a brown dwarf companion to our sun. This hypothetical object has been nicknamed "Nemesis."

"We are now calling the hypothetical brown dwarf Tyche instead, after the benevolent counterpart to Nemesis," said Kirkpatrick. "Although there is only limited evidence to suggest a large body in a wide, stable orbit around the sun, WISE should be able to find it, or rule it out altogether."'

So it's possible that a Brown Dwarf orbits our Sun, as a member of our Solar System. Cool :)
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Nemesis

This is interesting too - Sedna
 
Of course, a brown dwarf is worth jack all to a species looking for a new home, and we'd probably have to go a lot further than either Proxima or Alpha Centauri to find a solar system with a habitable planet.
 
in the end we are dead anyway.. also hate to bring this up, but there NO WAY 6 billion of us are making it on the ark spaceship thing. so decide amoungst yourselfs whos going ill go build
 
the annoying thing is they say we will run out of oil yet they won't do a blind thing about it, it annoys me to hell

they have the solution in their face yet they won't take it "cos its cost too much money/energy"

this is not the only subject that governments "abandoned"
 
sandman06 said:
Does anyone know of a earth like planet that exists ie same distance from its star compared to ours etc
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Yes. Statistically it must do. The universe is a very big place. Even when we focus solely on the area we'd be able to navigate, there would be planets with similar characteristics to Earth (i.e. Oxygen based, atmosphere, etc.).

To correct a misunderstanding amongst some members: yes, the sun will inevitably expand and 'eat' our planet. However, the sun still has a few billion years left in it, and humans haven't even been around for a few million yet. Whatever - if we manage to last that long - remnant of our genetic code is still around in a few billion years time, it will not resemble humans as we know them. If however, genetically, it does; whatever humans are still around at this point will have no doubt stayed out of choice.

As it stands, humanity has all its eggs in one basket. Carl Sagan advocated the point - one which Hawking here is echoing - that we're not safe until we're off this rock and have eggs elsewhere to tend the flame.
 
Eliot said:
i dunno... arent we out of oil by 2050? :D
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No, just the oil that remains will be more expensive and harder to come by. As it stands most of that oil we think is there, is largely hypothetical and largely dependant on economies driving demand and an increase in mining technoloy to obtain it. We are essentailly, at the end of 'easy oil'. In the near future, we'll see oil being mined from other places which require better technology and/or further processing. An example of this would be oil shale.

It's basic supply and demand. The supply of crude oil will dry up, thus the demand will increase and prices will sky-rocket unless they are artificially kept at a certain level. The oil businesses are already aware of their predicament and are researching into alternative fuels; they have the most to lose in not taking a lead in the monopoly of shifting away from a carbon-fueled economy.
 
sandman06 said:
Does anyone know of a earth like planet that exists ie same distance from its star compared to ours etc
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No. That doesn't mean there aren't any, just that they're very difficult to find from lightyears away.

EDIT: It wouldn't necessarily have to be the same distance. You might find one similar enough to Earth that's further away from a more powerful star or closer to a less powerful star.
 
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sandman06 said:
Does anyone know of a earth like planet that exists ie same distance from its star compared to ours etc
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Could you not have a larger/brighter star and more distance or a smaller/dimmer star and less distance? :p



Although how awesome would it be to see a binary star system up close.
 
Might aswell throw this in for anyone interested. Read an article on NewScientist recently that hypothesised that our universe may actually be born from a black hole as some recent maths alluded to the concept that the infinity within black holes might actually lead to massive expansion, or if you will... a big bang.
 
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