A Lovely Planet In The Neighborhood? - 3

Oh, it is just down the block

In this series we have been noting the vast distances to planets that some astronomers loosely call "in our neighborhood" or "near us."

In previous posts regular readers know that we have pointed out how travel to those planets would take orders of magnitude more time than we have, in fact it would take more time than homo sapiens have even existed, which is about 200,000 years.

The pop science rags tell us things like "The extrasolar planet, now named GJ 1214b, is about 40 light-years away ... Astronomically speaking, this [planet] is on our block" or they might say that they have found a planet "near us."

Ecocosmology Blog has consistently pointed out that these planets are well out of our reach, and in fact impossible for us to reach since we have opted to stick with propulsion systems thousands of years old (see A Lovely Planet In The Neighborhood? and A Lovely Planet In The Neighborhood? - 2).

Now, two new planets have been detected that are even more "near" than previous ones we have discussed.

Those new discoveries are 12 light years and 4.4 light years away.

If we calculate using the arithmetic in the two Ecocosmology Blog posts linked to above, the number of years required to go to the planet 12 light years away would be 211,774.36 years ONE WAY.

Likewise, the planet "only" 4.4 light years away would "only" take 77,650.60 years ONE WAY.

Why don't we settle on going to Mars first, as we figure out a realistic mode of transportation for meaningful space travel?

The previous post in this series is here.

Shadow of Time Governs The Earth - 2

In the first post in this series, we touched upon the convergence of needs that are approaching as well as those that are here already, which together are endangering civilization as we know it.

The "time" focused on in that post was the year 2030 when "the perfect storm" would converge such that the whole danger would be greater than the sum of its parts.

In this current post let's update ourselves using The Living Planet Report from the WWF.

Here are some interesting findings contained in the report:

1.5 years are needed to generate the renewable resources used in 2007 (use was more than the Earth produced, i.e. decline)

71 countries are experiencing blue water resource stress

2 earths will be needed by the year 2030

5 major threats to civilization (habitat loss, exploitation, pollution, climate change, invasive species)

(Living Planet Report, PDF, 24 megs). For the rest of this post lets focus on the statement "2 earths will be needed by the year 2030" (to accommodate the needs of civilization).

This statement is in agreement with The Tenets of Ecocosmology, although for different reasons.

Tenet One is based on the demise of the Sun which requires us to find a new home world, but the Living Planet Report is based on the demise of the Earth caused by violations of Tenet 3(a).

The shadow of time is approaching fast upon current world civilization, and there is no time at all to waste, seeing as how it may already be too late.

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

A Lovely Planet In The Neighborhood? - 2

Astronomers are being quoted as having found a planet that is "near" us.

But what is called "near-by" is quite relative, because we can ask "near-by compared to what?"

Well, compared to far, far, far, far away for example?

Never-the-less, astronomers are happy to have discovered the most earth-like planet orbiting a star as only one of several planets in that distant (or close?) solar system.

The red dwarf star Gliese 581 has not only six known planets, but it also has at least one planet that orbits at a distance that places it in what is called the habitable zone.

That zone is also called the Goldilocks zone, because planets within that zone are at a distance from the star so as to allow liquid water to exist in some places on those planets, which in itself makes it an interesting solar system:

Gliese 581 is a red dwarf located 20.5 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Libra. Like other red dwarfs, it's smaller and much dimmer than our sun. Scientists believe Gliese 581 is old — at least a few billion years — and relatively stable. Both are qualities conducive to the evolution of life, scientists have said.

(Space; also White Paper PDF). So how excited should we get about this discovery, in terms of potential human space travel to check it out?

As was pointed out in an earlier post on Ecocosmology blog:

For example, our B.C.E. technology (burning chemicals to produce energy (thrust) in rockets) which we fondly call rocket science, is not going to get us to the part of "the block" where the "near" star with planet GJ-1214b is.

Light travels at about 670,618,800 miles an hour (186,283 miles per second x 60 x 60) or 5,878,644,400,800 per year (670,618,800 x 24 x 365.25). A planet orbiting a star 40 "light years" away, then, is 235,145,776,032,000 (5,878,644,400,800 x 40) miles away.

Our spacecraft Voyager I and II travel at about 38,000 miles per hour, or 333,108,000 miles a year (38,000 x 24 x 365.25).

So it would take them 705,914.53 years (235,145,776,032,000 / 333,108,000), one way, to get to that planet salaried scientists say is "on our block".

Many scientists' salaries come from military sources in the Pentagon budget. The military scientists are only concerned with being able to destroy things on the earth, so "rocket science" is the apex of their intellect. If it kills better than the last one they love it.

(A Lovely Planet In The Neighborhood?). What that means is since the star Gliese 581 is half the distance to GJ-1214b, it would "only" take us 352,957.27 years (705,914.53 / 2) to get there, ONE WAY.

We see, then, that the science produced by our political systems on Earth is so heavily controlled by military considerations that we have unwisely focused on chemical propulsion for space travel.

Thus, we are still way, way out of range and cannot realistically consider travelling to Gliese 581, or any other star system for that matter, even though our continued existence depends upon the ability to do so.

Humanity has expressed hope, through the SETI program, to find another planet out there where a civilization exists that has the ability to do competent space travel, and could help us continue to survive when it gets close to the time when our solar system catastrophically dies out.

For now, then, all that any warmonger controlled planets like Earth can ask of "near-by" planets is the Mr. Robinson question, "would you be my neighbour?"

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

Find & You Shall Seek

The Kepler mission that is looking for a new home for all of us received first photo contact from the NASA spacecraft some months back.

The Kepler mission is to hunt for another "earth" for all of us.

Various articles point out the reason that there is no choice in this matter. We must eventually find another planet since this one will be destroyed by the Sun some day.

There is a post on the similarities, in some ways, that religion and science have on this topic.

Kepler has found planetary objects so the mission is producing results. Five exo-planets were recently detected and are being analysed.

Congratulations Kepler mission folks!

Keep looking for a planet we must seek to get to and live on.

"Let The Planet Hunt Begin" - NASA

Some people do not understand space missions to be an endeavour mandated by the tenets of ecocosmology.

Or that the strategy of space travel is necessary because of the nature of our solar system and our sun.

Ecocosmology states that human space endeavours must fundamentally be a mission to find a home world we can colonize so as to perpetuate the human species.

NASA says this about the Kepler mission:

NASA's Kepler spacecraft has begun its search for other Earth-like worlds. The mission, which launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on March 6, will spend the next three-and-a-half years staring at more than 100,000 stars for telltale signs of planets. Kepler has the unique ability to find planets as small as Earth that orbit sun-like stars at distances where temperatures are right for possible lakes and oceans.

(NASA Kepler, emphasis added). The obvious in that NASA statement may escape some scientists, but the reality is that focused scientists know that we must find another home world or cease to exist as a species.

They know that because they know the Sun will eventually destroy all of the life on this planet.

What we do not know is when the Sun will destroy the earth.

Tenet one discussions point out that the "when" has become more uncertain due to the recent, unexpected, and revolutionary discoveries concerning a star's life cycle.

Thus, the sooner we find other habitable planets with the Kepler mission the better.

No Need To Shoot In The Dark

Life After People

Imagine a large city on a planet near a star. A star that will be called a nova in a hundred years or less.

The SETI institute and NASA through its Kepler Mission are looking for planets that are, or can be, inhabited. Which means that they are looking near stars.

Some of which will go nova, or destroy the planets near them in another way.

Under current scientific models the stars which have planets near them will destroy those planets at some time. Our star, the Sun, will do so by expanding in size to a point out near the orbit of Mars.

Since we know that, it seems obvious that we will try to leave this planet to find another star with habitable planets. It seems obvious because if we do not do that, we cease to exist as a species.

We can assume that any other intelligent life species that wanted to continue to exist would do the same. They would try to find another home world.

I offer a search technique for consideration, which could fine tune the search Kepler and SETI are doing.

Look for signals from solar systems where the star has gone catastrophic, that is, has gone nova, super-nova, or has expanded out to destroy the planets near it like the Sun is going to to us. If there was any life on any planets there, the looming catastrophe may have caused signal transmission from any intelligent life there, well before the solar destruction.

But when we do the looking, we should look at the record of events before the catastrophe, we should also look back as many years before the catastrophe as possible, in cases where we have those astronomical records in our grasp.

For those systems where there were species who could not develop a way to do space travel to another planet, we might detect a signal for help.

And in those cases where the species could and did develop space travel, did find another star with a habitable planet, then did thereafter travel to it, we would expect a different signal to find its way toward us.

But remember that, in any search of this type, any signal will in most cases be older than our species, since great distances of space are involved.

Which involves great spans of time for signals to travel through, even at the speed of light.

Any signals received will be very, very old.

Compromise And Settle On A Moon

The earth is a beautiful home world which we know we must learn to care for much, much, much more successfully.

That is if we are to survive the childhood of human development, and move on to the cosmos which will only be inhabited by cosmic adults.

The Tenets of Ecocosmology point out that we humans are a species that rely, for our very existence, on habitable planets near central stars.

Central stars that eventually destroy those habitable planets near them, just before the star wears out and diminishes into obscurity.

Which means that humanity will eventually need to discover other planets near stars, travel to them, and then colonize them, if humanity is to continue to exist.

In that regard the NASA Kepler mission is on the case looking for habitable planets.

But a new and hopeful development is being talked about, and that is the prospect of habitable moons in addition to habitable planets:

Since the launch of the NASA Kepler Mission earlier this year, astronomers have been keenly awaiting the first detection of an Earth-like planet around another star. Now, in an echo of science fiction movies a team of scientists led by Dr David Kipping of University College London thinks that they may even find habitable ‘exomoons,’ too.

(Science Daily). That of course increases the chances of finding a new home world; a necessity because our star will eventually become a threat to our species.

Scientists tell us that we began as nomadic hunter gatherers, and so it seems that we shall stay that way through the more distant reaches of time.

Or, as the Tenet 3(f) of Ecocosmology points out, until we evolve or morph into beings who do not need to rely on habitable orbs near central stars.

Thus, we live in a cosmos where religion or mysticism and science both have prospective contributions to our future well being.

Our Trail Into The Lights Of Time

An amateur, Stephane Guisard, took many photos of the Milky Way Galaxy then combined them into the mosaic shown in the photo.

Good work!

Stephane is an astronomer and an astrophotographer who has shown that amateur does not mean "without great skill and imagination".

The Milky Way Galaxy, our home galaxy, is the expanse where the human species must limit our efforts at space travel, as we try to find our next home world somewhere in the future.

A close up of stars taken by Hubble and a discussion of the extreme challenge we face in order to get there was posted here recently.

I was reflecting on that difficulty as I listened to leaders of the world speak at The United Nations for the past few days.

Sadly I had to conclude that many of them are focusing on short term endeavours and do not yet understand the vastness of the "ground" we need to cover to survive, or that it absolutely must be done together.

We can fail or we can prevail.

High Technology Boll Weevil

Here it is, a NASA photo from the newly repaired space telescope in the famous Hubble Mission everyone is once again excited about.

It is a photo of deep space beauty in an area of the cosmos NASA describes as:

"NASA's Hubble Space Telescope snapped this panoramic view of a colorful assortment of 100,000 stars residing in the crowded core of a giant star cluster.

The image reveals a small region inside the massive globular cluster Omega Centauri, which boasts nearly 10 million stars. Globular clusters, ancient swarms of stars united by gravity, are the homesteaders of our Milky Way galaxy. The stars in Omega Centauri are between 10 billion and 12 billion years old. The cluster lies about 16,000 light-years from Earth."

(NASA Hubble). That "16,000" figure is how long it takes light to travel from Omega Centauri to us, so the photo actually depicts what Omega Centauri looked like 16,000 years ago.

I have always considered it interesting that our modern cosmological dogma, for the most part, is based on what the cosmos looked like well before human civilization existed, and in some cases even before the human species ever existed.

Anyway, do you remember the song Woody Guthrie, and other folk singers, sang about the Boll Weevil looking for a home?

Let me tell you that Omega Centauri is out of reach for any Earth species looking for a home; even though, in the long run, according to the tenets of Ecocosmology, we are like the Boll Weevil, and must find another solar system with a home world, another habitable planet, for the human species to live on.

To be sure, it will not be Omega Centauri that we migrate to first, even though it has millions of stars and probably thousands of potential home worlds.

We will not migrate there first because it is way, way out of our range. Even if we travel at the speed of light, it would take us 16,000 years one way.

We must focus on another NASA project, The Kepler Mission, to potentially realize our hopes as a species needing a new home world.

The maximum stellar distance criterion in that mission is about 500 light years, which compared to the 16,000 in Omega Centauri, leaves a 15,500 light year difference.

Hey, read this closely and stay in awe, because we live in a very large neighborhood:

A planet at 50 light years distance from us would take us about a million years of travel to reach.

(Fuse Tautologies & Algebra). That is how long it would take unless we develop a new physics, then the science to develop speeds required by Tenet 3(b), which is at or near the speed of light.

We can learn from the cat species and hang in there hoping beyond hope, because there is a chance we will survive too.