Could there be alien life on Barnard b ?

[UM-Bot]

In a new study, scientists have highlighted the possibility of finding life around the nearest single star to the Sun.

https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/324769/could-there-be-alien-life-on-barnard-b

[Reignite]

Maybe, that's all we can say for now. We haven't been there so we can't exclude anything, but saying there is would be too hasty.

[Ell]

It's one of them observed phenomena that are asserted to be planets.

It isn't a planet.

[Nnicolette]

6 minutes ago, Ell said:

It's one of them observed phenomena that are asserted to be planets.

It isn't a planet.

Then what is it? An orbiting ball of matter that isn't a planet?

[freetoroam]

Quote

Situated a mere six light years away, 

could potentially harbor primitive extraterrestrial life forms.

https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/324769/could-there-be-alien-life-on-barnard-b

Chances are we will not be getting there in the near future to find out.

But any life form out there is possible, it just gets silly when some people think they are visiting us.

[zep73]

How about we start with Proxima b first. That's only 4.24 light years away. A 77,500 year journey.

It takes a minimum of 18,450 years to travel 1 light year - unless you can beat New Horizons speed record of 36,373 mph.

Edited January 13, 2019 by sci-nerd

[stevewinn]

2 hours ago, seanjo said:

"A mere six light years"!

Is it good form to click the heart on an automated post? I do click but it sometimes seems silly, then again I do it to show I found the story interesting.

the trophy, heart, confused, sad. options are poor. just doesn't make sense.

It should be thumb up for 'agree'

thumb down for 'disagree'

trash can / bin for 'rubbish'

trophy for 'informative post'

laugh face for 'funny'

sad face for 'sad'

on topic, we have to face the reality to date. were the only civilised high tech life form in our galaxy. probably billions of life forms out there but they simply havent made that leap to technological advancement. its taken earth 3.5 billion years and hundreds of millions of species to produce us. if a comet or natural disaster had befallen the earth a mere 250,000 or million years ago the galaxy would still be waiting.

[bison]

The Barnard's Star planet is inferred to be quite cold ~ 170 degrees C.  This is comparable to Jovian moons, where subsurface life is considered a reasonable possibility. These moons are warmed internally by tidal flexing, and the resultant friction, due to the gravitational influence of Jupiter. 

Barnard' Star b has an unusually eccentric orbit -- 0.32. That's 20 times the eccentricity of Earth's orbit. This could cause tidal flexing, too, giving the interior of  this planet a better chance for life. Barnard's Star has been observed to flare markedly. but on only one occasion. Subsurface life would be protected from such flares, which might well be lethal at the surface. 

[Reignite]

4 hours ago, stevewinn said:

the trophy, heart, confused, sad. options are poor. just doesn't make sense.

It should be thumb up for 'agree'

thumb down for 'disagree'

trash can / bin for 'rubbish'

trophy for 'informative post'

laugh face for 'funny'

sad face for 'sad'

on topic, we have to face the reality to date. were the only civilised high tech life form in our galaxy. probably billions of life forms out there but they simply havent made that leap to technological advancement. its taken earth 3.5 billion years and hundreds of millions of species to produce us. if a comet or natural disaster had befallen the earth a mere 250,000 or million years ago the galaxy would still be waiting.

What a load of crap. Whose realitiy is this? Yours? This is no more than a belief. Your belief that is. That you put your trust in a bunch of selected scientist and stop thinking for yourself, that is fine. But don't force your belief unto me please

[Skulduggery]

18 hours ago, stevewinn said:

the trophy, heart, confused, sad. options are poor. just doesn't make sense.

It should be thumb up for 'agree'

thumb down for 'disagree'

trash can / bin for 'rubbish'

trophy for 'informative post'

laugh face for 'funny'

sad face for 'sad'

There should be a pizza one, for 'pizza'.

[Essan]

14 hours ago, Reignite said:

What a load of crap. Whose realitiy is this? Yours? This is no more than a belief. Your belief that is. That you put your trust in a bunch of selected scientist and stop thinking for yourself, that is fine. But don't force your belief unto me please

It's the real world reality based on actual fact.  

Although in terms of how close we came to there being no known technologically advanced species in the universe, a major natural disaster just a few hundred years ago would have meant the total was zero.   And one tomorrow might result in the same .....   Life is common on Earth and likely common in the universe.  But out of all the many tens of millions of species known to have existed since the dawn of time, only one invented the radio.

 

[bison]

Most scientists accept the likelihood of intelligent life on a multitude of other worlds. One basis for this belief is the Copernican principle, named for astronomer Nicolas Copernicus, and his work showing that the Earth is not the center of the solar system, as formerly believed.

Because of the human tendency to think of ourselves as special, even unique, this kind of thinking has cropped up again and again. Various nations  each anciently  thought themselves at the center of (a flat) Earth, and uniquely favored by the gods.  Earth itself was later thought to be the center of the universe, and a special focus of a Creator's attention.

Somewhat later, when a vague sense of the disk-like shape of the galaxy was understood, we were assumed to be at the center of that! Planets were once assumed to be extremely rare, the creations of one star passing very close to another, and pulling matter out of each other to form planets. Each of these egocentric ideas have fallen away, one by one, in the face of new knowledge.

The Copernican principle is a generalized principle based on this history of human presumption. It states that it is unwise to assume that we are, in any way, living under special circumstances. To assume that we are unique, or even unusual, as intelligent life in this universe is to ignore this widely accepted principle. It is to give to ourselves and our tiny existence an exaggerated importance in the face of an immense galaxy, and an even more immense universe.    

Edited January 14, 2019 by bison

[Mr Guitar]

I couldn't care less about microscopic, primitive lifeforms - I want me some real live walkin', talkin', raygun totin' aliens who are able to carry on a conversation and teach us some neat stuff like faster than light travel and where to get replacement dilithium crystals. Or they might just decide we're the microscopic, primitive lifeforms and blow us away or enter us as another ingredient in "How To Serve Man".

Edited January 15, 2019 by Mr Guitar

[bison]

A physiology evolved in a different solar system would likely be very different from that of Earth organisms. We'd probably cause them severe indigestion, if we didn't poison them first!

[EBE Hybrid]

If it's orbiting it's parent star at roughly the same distance that Mercury orbits the Sun, would it not be flippin' hot! Last time I checked Mercury was the closest planet to the Sun?

[Essan]

1 hour ago, EBE Hybrid said:

If it's orbiting it's parent star at roughly the same distance that Mercury orbits the Sun, would it not be flippin' hot! Last time I checked Mercury was the closest planet to the Sun?

No, Barnard's Star is much, much cooler than  the Sun

[EBE Hybrid]

Thanks Sedan, I had no idea! Makes so much more sense now