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A new planet breeds optimism

With the discovery of a new earth like planet, a mere 20 light years away, scientists are already redefining optimism:

It's 20 light-years away and so we won't be going there anytime soon, but with new kinds of propulsion technology that could change in the future.

Yes, if we could just get the technology hidden in area 51, we could be there by lunch time tomorrow. Apparently, they figured this all out with a bit of math. Like the fact that the planet orbits the sun in only 13 days. Now isn't that going to be annoying - we finally get a rocket out to a new planet, and we can't land on it because it's going too fast.

Related Link: A New Planet

Comments

  1. 20 light years, with current technology is 5 billion years travel time.

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  2. Still quicker than waiting on the phone for ACC!

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  3. All we know about the planet is that it's 1.5x the mass of Earth and orbits in the "Goldilocks" zone.

    We don't know its density (gas vs rock).
    We don't know its composition (H2O or NH4).

    The Swiss based French bloke I heard on NatRad said they will calculate the density soon once they calulate the diameter inferred from occultation of the star.

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  4. Isn't the star it orbits a red dwarf?

    Ie a star at the end of its life if I remember correctly

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