How long before we find Earth's sister planet

[glenimp617]

http://news.mit.edu/2015/new-earth-sized-exoplanet-1111#.VkSjfibwwrY.facebook

Why do I get the feeling, it will almost certainly be within my life time. You'd like to think that over the next 50 years technology will be good enough to find a planet which is almost a replica of ours.

Interesting times

 

[jsmoke]

May do may not do, I don't believe we will however.

 

[Glaucus]

Not very soon, as we will need to be able to do both Exoplanet Spectroscopy and direct high quality imaging of said exoplanet. So maybe in the next 50years, all depends on funding.

Wont be long till we start regularly detecting earth sized planets in habitual zone though as that's far easier.

ESA has done a preliminary study on what would be needed to do Exoplanet Spectroscopy but no mission plan yet.

 

[modo77]

Several are pretty close already in terms of size and orbit, the next generation of satellites/telescopes will allow us to find even more. So not long at all.

 

[Mat]

Not very soon

So not long at all.

 

[modo77]

No one knows, it could already be in the data collected or never.

 

[MooMoo444]

Finding them is relatively 'easy', but getting there is going to be a several generations thing, so it's hard to get your hopes up.

 

[anything I don't mind]

I doubt in our life time but it would be amazing if we did. If we did find a planet it is even less likely that it would have advanced life on it. Much more likely to find primitive life or at most a reptile or low level mammal.

it's probably going to be robots or a form of digital consciousness that travels the distance most likely over some form of a laser transportation system.

 

[MadMouse101]

Not in this life

 

[AndrewNR]

Finding them is relatively 'easy', but getting there is going to be a several generations thing, so it's hard to get your hopes up.

I can't see "getting there" happening for millions of years, if at all.

 

[UTmaniac]

Next Tuesday.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Why would we even bother trying to get to an uninhabitable planet?

 

[Vulcan]

Why would we even bother trying to get to an uninhabitable planet?

Who said anything about going to an uninhabitable planet?

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Who said anything about going to an uninhabitable planet?

The linked article is about a 450 Fahrenheit rock..

 

[modo77]

So you just looked at the link and didn't read the title or post I take it.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Not in your life time.

They might guess it could be one but we don't have the tech to leave the solar system currently, well we could but it takes so long the people on it would be by pensioner's age by the time you reach Pluto. And then how long to the sister planet? And then to land it, and then to send confirmation back?

 

[Smokey Deza]

No. I think it'll be a very long time before we find a near replica of our planet.

 

[Von Smallhausen]

I can't see "getting there" happening for millions of years, if at all.

I'm of this opinion too - interstellar travel is a different ball game. Considering that the Voyager probes travel at about 12 miles a second, have been travelling for nearly 40 years, have only recently left the solar system ( or at least one has iirc ) and even at that speed our nearest star would still be about 60,000 years travelling time then I feel we have a long way to go if you'll excuse the pun.

 

[Rilot]

I agree on the travelling thing. Unless a revolutionary forum of propulsion is invented we're not going to be undertaking interstellar travel any time soon.

 

[lafemmefatale]

Humanity has a really rather high opinion of itself.