psyche101 Posted February 11, 2013 #26 Share Posted February 11, 2013 (edited) I do agree we must take it seriously when it comes to extraterrestrial life. We do, not sure why anyone would think otherwise. Even if the planet is not 'Earth-like', their still could be some form of life there. I just hope when we first find life it not very advanced because of how stupid we are still. Around Proxima Centauri? I would not expect something to have a major head-start on us there because It is believed that the Centauri star system formed about the same time as our own Sun at 4.85 × 109 years. Edited February 11, 2013 by psyche101 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Merton Posted February 11, 2013 #27 Share Posted February 11, 2013 Around Proxima Centauri? I would not expect something to have a major head-start on us there because It is believed that the Centauri star system formed about the same time as our own Su) at 4.85 × 109 years. Well we wasted a few billion years; other systems may have evolved intelligence much more quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeta Reticulum Posted February 11, 2013 #28 Share Posted February 11, 2013 (edited) Well we wasted a few billion years; other systems may have evolved intelligence much more quickly. Agreed, and if Troodon wasnt wiped out in the dinosaur extinction 65 millions years ago, then our planet may well now have an intelligent grey skinned reptillianrace running it. And with 65 millions years jump on us, they couldve been into intestellar travel for millions of years already. Edited February 11, 2013 by Zeta Reticulum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Merton Posted February 11, 2013 #29 Share Posted February 11, 2013 I have a couple of problems with the red dwarf earth-like planet idea. To be in the comfort zone of such a star, you have to be close to it -- so close that in less than a billion years or so there will be a tidal lock, so that the planet always keeps the same face pointed at the sun. Also, I understand that red dwarfs are far more prone to violent flaring and that such flares are much worse than on the sun. If my understanding here is right, doesn't that kinda make all this talk about so many earth-like planets being so close to us a bit (actually way) premature? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bison Posted February 11, 2013 #30 Share Posted February 11, 2013 (edited) I have a couple of problems with the red dwarf earth-like planet idea. To be in the comfort zone of such a star, you have to be close to it -- so close that in less than a billion years or so there will be a tidal lock, so that the planet always keeps the same face pointed at the sun. Also, I understand that red dwarfs are far more prone to violent flaring and that such flares are much worse than on the sun. If my understanding here is right, doesn't that kinda make all this talk about so many earth-like planets being so close to us a bit (actually way) premature? Not all red dwarf stars are prone to flaring. Even in those that do, their severity seems to be linked to their size. Those at the high end of their mass scale are less a problem in this regard. It has also been discussed that a dense atmosphere, and strong magnetic field might protect some such planets from too extreme effects of flares.The main problem with tidally locked planets, seems to be the accumulation of heat on one side, and the freezing of the opposite. It appears possible that powerful convective cells of winds, or the heat distributing effects of oceans, or both, might make substantial portions of such planets livable. They could transport heat from the hot side to the cold side of these planets, moderating the temperature extremes to a substantial degree. There is also the possibility of terrestrial-sized moons of a Jovian planets near a red dwarf. Some of these moons would also be in the star's habitable zone. Their 'day' would be the period of the moon's orbit about the planet. This could be a fairly rapid cycle-- on the order of several Earth days. By the way, Proxima Centauri is about 280 million years older than our Sun. Supposing that the flares' effects on a planet of this star are not too severe, life could have had a 280 million year head start on us. I wonder how far we will have evolved in another 280 million years. Edited February 11, 2013 by bison 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JesseCuster Posted February 11, 2013 #31 Share Posted February 11, 2013 Around Proxima Centauri? I would not expect something to have a major head-start on us there because It is believed that the Centauri star system formed about the same time as our own Sun at 4.85 × 109 years. Humans went from being stone-age hunter gatherers to being able to put a robotic exploration probe on Mars in a matter of some thousands of years.That's barely a blink of the eye in astronomical terms. All it takes is for intelligence to have developed every so slightly earlier or later on another planet for it to make us look either way less advanced or way more advanced than them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psyche101 Posted February 12, 2013 #32 Share Posted February 12, 2013 Well we wasted a few billion years; other systems may have evolved intelligence much more quickly. I do not think they were wasted, we have no control over mass extinction, and surely a 3 star system would have a greater gravitational pull, and offer if anything more risk to life on surrounding planets. Not sure why anyone would be spared a Chicxulub event. We expect more of them yet ourselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psyche101 Posted February 12, 2013 #33 Share Posted February 12, 2013 Humans went from being stone-age hunter gatherers to being able to put a robotic exploration probe on Mars in a matter of some thousands of years. That's barely a blink of the eye in astronomical terms. All it takes is for intelligence to have developed every so slightly earlier or later on another planet for it to make us look either way less advanced or way more advanced than them. Yes, but why? We are close enough to detect a signal, the Alpha System is dead. Being such a close system it has garnered a great deal of attention, but no result. Isn't Barnard's star considered a far better option? There is much objection to any life being possible around a Red Dwarf, I would not expect it to factor as a high possibility. Little light, dangerous flares, they seem to have more problems than our planet did. As such, it seems unlikely that life would develop more quickly under more difficult conditions. I think it does not hurt to apply some methodology to what we know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psyche101 Posted February 12, 2013 #34 Share Posted February 12, 2013 Not all red dwarf stars are prone to flaring. Proxima Centauri is though. LINK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psyche101 Posted February 12, 2013 #35 Share Posted February 12, 2013 Agreed, and if Troodon wasnt wiped out in the dinosaur extinction 65 millions years ago, then our planet may well now have an intelligent grey skinned reptillian race running it. And with 65 millions years jump on us, they couldve been into intestellar travel for millions of years already. Darren Naish does not think Dale Russell was on the mark with his Dinosauroid. With this in mind, my feeling on dinosauroids and intelligent theropods and so on is that – if they were to evolve – they wouldn’t look like scaly, or feathery, people, but would instead be far more normal from the theropod point of view. A horizontal body posture, not a vertical one. Digitigrade feet, not plantigrade ones. A long tail, not a reduced one. The main theme here might be familiar to regular blog readers given that I’ve covered much of this before in a post on ground hornbills. While they aren’t particularly big-brained, ground hornbills can be regarded as avian pseudo-hominids, their evolution paralleling our own in several respects. The concluding paragraph of my ground hornbill post was… No, post-Cretaceous maniraptorans wouldn’t end up looking like scaly tridactyl plantigrade humanoids with erect tailless bodies. They would be decked out with feathers and brightly coloured skin ornaments; have nice normal horizontal bodies and digitigrade feet; long, hard, powerful jaws; stride around on the savannah kicking the **** out of little mammals; and in the evenings they would stand together in the trees, booming out a duet of du du du-du, a deep noise that would reverberate for miles around. LINK He makes the argument that the species would retain many of it's features, and would end up looking a little something like this perhaps: But I personally find the Conway Morris argument more plausible than either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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