Discovery of Earth-Sized Worlds - Google+ Hangout

[JOHNINCOLUMBUS]

Q: if light takes 14 billion years to reach us, wouldn't light from that same galazy/stars travel 14 billion light years in the opposite direction making the Universe much, much larger than just from our vantage point. Earth ~~~~14 Billion light years distant >>>>14 Billion light years in the other direction? Am I looking at this the wrong way?

[Michael500ca]

@JOHNINCOLUMBUS You would be right. From our point of view we see the observable Universe, up to 13+ billion light years away, in all directions. A world near that threshold of 13 billion light years away would be able to see another 13 billion light years away. There are galaxies and stars that we will never see because they are beyond our observable universe and we will never see them.

[JOHNINCOLUMBUS]

@Michael500ca - Then, if I am correct, that would mean the observable Universe, as we know it now, has to be at least twice as old, or 28 Billion years old, and if we could go out further, this extrapolation could go on infinitely. Until we have the technology to see further and further, we are always going to be limited by our technology, that is until we discover another way to measure the Universe, which I think we had in the past, but was lost.

[Michael500ca]

@JOHNINCOLUMBUS The light would be equal in all directions, 14 billion years coming from one direction and at the same time 14 billion in the opposite direction. However, I did forget to mention that space has been expanding all this time, so once that is factored in, this still gives the universe an age of 14 billion years old, but 93 billion light years across observable due to the time light takes to travel and the expansion of the universe. Wikipedia has a good article.

[JOHNINCOLUMBUS]

@Michael500ca - 93 billion wold seem more logical, if not still on the low side, I can live with 93 billion. The antiquated propulsion systems that are being used will never get us any where close to exploring outside of our own solar system and still live to tell about it. Anti-gravity wave propulsion and beyond will have to be employed to escape our tiny solar system. Thank you for your response.

[palmeridigital]

Great hangout session! Hope to see more space and astronomy sessions like this, direct from the experts,

[rsem]

Hi guys, LOVE this! Thank you so much for sharing. May I ask what database is being used for the Kepler data?

[DeVizardofOZ]

So, we're missing those planets which are, from our viewing angle, NOT passing in front of the star, right?

[Michael500ca]

@DeVizardofOZ Right.

[Mars2i0]

3 people are Daleks!

[macarot]

Loved it so much I might watch again, after some Dr. Who.

[maxvasher]

Excellent discussion and panel. Please do more of this!!!

[drronmccoy]

This was great! I enjoyed every minute. Can't wait for the next one.

[GodlessMorality]

Hope to watch a lot more of these. This was fun!

[casGK]

Awesome video; I would love to see more discussions (hopefully with Pamela :).

[solar793]

this is great! Love the idea of getting scientists together like this. Its so informal its like an after dinner fireside chat. Getting cozy with those in the know. Thanks.

[RobTheJungleRat]

This was great! I would love to see more like this!

[87Yael]

heyy i thought that light takes time to travel and since the planets are 950 light years away is it possible that they arent there anymore???

[aigg]

@87Yael in theory you can never really know what's going on 950 light years away in the 'now' of that place. However, the tell tell signs of a star on the verge of collapse is playing out over a much longer time frame than 950 years. So, if the star is about to collapse, we would know by studying its nature 950 years prior to that stars relative 'now'. Not sure if this made a lot of sense, pluss pardon my english:)

[ullrichfischer]

Awesome! More pictures and artists' conceptions would be nice. When Fraser was showing stuff it only showed up in the lower left corner of things while the main screen showed Phil Plait. Not that he's particularly ugly or anything, but it would have been nice to have the content photos front and center.

[universetoday]

@ullrichfischer This was the way the Hangout worked. We're going to figure out a workaround for next time.

[davavanstone]

@universetoday It is mainly caused by not using head phone and the voice of others back feeding through Phil's MIC. Hope this helps.

[RAZO1MARCO]

loved it. hope to see more of your hangout in the future. thanks.

[DubinaMan]

@Universetoday,

The odds of most of those events are vanishingly small in my lifetime, so I am not thrilled that people who pose as reputable scientists are searching for answers to questions of minimal importance when more urgent issues are at hand. Yes, some of these extraterrestrial stunts have been impressive, and things have been learned, but scientists should be more pragmatic with large sums of money at stake. I would remind you of Newt Gingrich's Lunar economy: stupid.stuff, imo.

[DubinaMan]

@Universetoday,

I have no need to know much more about alien worlds than I know now. I would not be surprised to learn of primitive life Mars or Europa.. I am virtually certain that life is abundant elsewhere in the Universe. I would certainly be interested to know if SETI found signals indicative of alien intelligence. I would be interested to know if those were translated as an invitation to communicate. I would be interested to know that humans had reponded with some communication scheme.

[AppReviewerWill]

Thumbs up if the guy in the lower left looks like Rick from Pawn Stars.

[Joydivision456]

GOOD WATCH thanks for the upload!

[Thep660]

here's how the first project might work, we could study trees to see how and make a machine, and for the 2nd project, if this works, we could have a second planet, which means troubles of the ecosystem wont go away, but probaly divided by, who knows. PLEASE respond back by today n tell me what you think, P.S. Im 12, and please be nice, IF THIS WORKS, well, many things will happen, BLESS YOU ALL N THX FOR READING,..... if you did, God bless us all!

[Thep660]

okay, i just had an idea i thought of, you guys do know the US made a machine that turns air into water, well this game me an idea, like trees, why not make a machine from carbon dioxide to air, but without the waiting, Another idea i have is that, why not put one tree, plants, and grass on a planet FILLED WITH carbon dioxide, then we could create air, plus we can put a feeding system for it that we wil refuel after a few years or so, HOW TO GET IT THERE? spaceships

[DubinaMan]

Two of these five individuals, one of them, Alan Boyle, admitted these alien planets, even one as close as four light years away, were not in the zone of feasible expedition. Given the impracticality of generational expeditions to colonize distant stars, why are so many people gulled by the idea it could happen soon? What foolishness. No wonder we are bleeding red ink. Someone should invent a scientific instrument to search the Earth for common sense. .

[universetoday]

@DubinaMan It's not about colonization, it's about discovering other life in the Universe. Are you telling me that you wouldn't be excited to know there's life on another world out there? Once we find an Earth-sized world in the habitable zone of another star, we can point our radio telescopes at them to detect signals. Then, we can actually start communicating with other civilizations.

[thelegendarylord]

@universetoday How long would it take for a radio signal to even reach that planet? It takes 6,000 years for the light/reflection/image of the planet just to even reach earth.How long would a radio signal take?

[universetoday]

@thelegendarylord These planets are 1000 light-years away, so we'd see their radio signals from 1,000 years ago. And if we wanted to communicate, it would take 2,000 years for a round trip message.

[thelegendarylord]

@universetoday Haha,correct by the time we manage to communicate by radio,we would already be able to travel there back and forth.Also some of the planets like keppler-20b which is one of the most earth like planets is 6,000 years away.We would need a better way to communicate with them other then using radio signals.

[universetoday]

@thelegendarylord No, we just need to find closer planets. :-)

[thelegendarylord]

@universetoday Yeah but chances are the closest planet able to support life would still be many light years away and what are the chances of finding them in this gigantic universe.I still haven't given up on keppler-20b.Is their a way to speed up radio signals and blast them a million times faster? I refuse to believe that it would take thousands of years for it to reach them and by the way does light and radio signals travel at the same speed,Im just a teenager and I dont know much.

[universetoday]

@thelegendarylord Unfortunately no. There's no possible way for signals to travel faster than the speed of light. But when we discover the real Earth-like worlds, we can point our radio telescopes at them and search for signals. Who knows what we'll discover?

[thelegendarylord]

@universetoday Yeah you're right only time will tell,I just hope humans can do it because we are seriously lacking right now but regarding your other comment about finding new planets.What are the chances of us finding a planet with a suitable size,habitable orbit,moon(important for reflection of light),chemical elements needed for life,and one close to us? Also I am astonished how astronomers were able to find so many earth like planets this year.How did they do it??

[johnjoe147]

omg by coincidence i saw this video on the youtube front page and i got a shock when i heard Fraser's voice! I recognized it immediatelly. U have so a pleasant voice, I used to listen to astronomy cast regurarely in high school. thanks for bringing back the nice memories, i spent hours listening to you and pamela and walking through the nature :-)

[failure1is1not1an1op]

Very interesting. NASA needs more spending money allocated to our space exploration. We are so close.. :)

[VideoRoom207]

I enjoyed listening to this discussion, thank you! It just sucks that I will be really old by time they go to Mars and dead by the time they go past that. =/

[universetoday]

I have no idea... you tell me what you want to see. :-)

[bschaar11]

This is awesome. what's next?

[universetoday]

@bschaar11 You tell us what you want to hear next. :-)

[jeffkilmerify]

keep it up

[DistortedV12]

3:48 that's all you need to know.  Move along now my fellow e-friends.

[Sheananagins13]

I loved this discussion. I especially liked the many points of view and specialty. This is really u my alley and I look forward to seeing more.

[universetoday]

@Sheananagins13 Glad you liked it, we'll do more.

[sk8caro88]

Great discussion! Keep these coming please! :)

[Ursacke]

12:20 - Blender is a generic open-source 3D rendering software: blender dot org.

[VerySweeTea]

@Ursacke I don't think that she thinking about that Blender...You can not use 3d modeling software to confirm existence of the exoplanet! Right?

[Ursacke]

@VerySweeTea You're right, it's their own internal piece of software: 1 dot usa dot gov/tSFHfE I assumed that they might have used Blender3D to create the artists-impressions of the planets.

[Minecraft2789]

@Ursacke That Is not the blender they are talking about.

[Engineero]

Very cool. Now it's time for a weekly show!

[hildormuthafo]

Great stuff, looking forward to seeing more discussions like this.

[Yarn5ave]

Can't wait to hear more!

[uceid]

Highly enjoyed it!

[kpheider]

Thank you for posting this discussion.