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972 Comments
- Razyael, on 11/13/2007, -9/+1195Actually it's a giant mirror 10 lightyears away.
- rnwen2750, on 11/08/2007, -41/+919I think it is nothing but hubris to think that, in all of space, we are the only planet with sentient life.
- d2002, on 11/04/2007, -17/+661At the rate we're going, it is smart to look for some replacements.
- obiethedog, on 11/04/2007, -5/+470Only 20 light years? We should be there in no time. :)
- Desolite, on 10/31/2007, -6/+362its hard enough to find intelligent life on this planet...
- da_bradler, on 11/11/2007, -1/+339gonna suck when we find out it blew up 19 years ago
- hybridcreation, on 11/11/2007, -11/+281It will have its first Starbucks this time next year.
- BadAstronomer, on 10/27/2007, -46/+281This news is six months old.
- zengonzo, on 10/27/2007, -4/+231Well, technically, six months and twenty years ..
- EBFoxbat, on 10/31/2007, -6/+172The odds that we ARE alone are astronomically small. Finding a planet like this has no mensurable effect on the odds of us being alone. It does however, minutely, increase the change that we FIND intelligent life. The two a distinctly different.
- bcarl314, on 10/26/2007, -6/+167Actually, if WE traveled at the speed of light WE would be there in no time, but observers not traveling with us would think it took 20 years. It's that whole "relativity" thing ;)
- bmartin, on 11/07/2007, -2/+146Wouldn't that mean we could see 20 years into the past? How awesome would that be?
- NinjaBoy, on 10/26/2007, -3/+147We are either totally alone in the universe, or we are not. Either way its mind blowing.
- jmkiii, on 10/24/2007, -3/+121They all have crazy mullets.
- krets, on 10/24/2007, -7/+113It says the planet is 1.5 times the size of Earth. Assuming there is life there, I wonder what evolutionary changes would result from increased gravity on the surface?
- cyberdork33, on 10/26/2007, -8/+113In fact, we should be there in about 20 years if we travel at the speed of light...
- chris9902, on 10/24/2007, -3/+101we have to warn them about the 90s. quick, no time to waste!
- wendelgee2, on 10/26/2007, -5/+99My brain, it melts.
- NonpareilNagle, on 10/21/2007, -5/+95Don't tell the oil companies :P
- fowleryo, on 10/24/2007, -1/+91do you really want to see the 80's?
- neave, on 10/24/2007, -0/+86No it's still there, it means the light from the planet has taken 20 years to reach us, so we're now seeing at as it looked in 1987.
- bonjourmr, on 04/25/2008, -5/+90FIRE ZE MISSILES!
- walkingdogs, on 10/26/2007, -13/+97I understand that we have laws of life that we like to think all life adheres to, but I don't understand with as open minded as scientists are, that there HAS to be water or oxygen or the such to support life. I say check all planets for signs of life and maybe we can break some of these laws and really make steps towards discovering alternative methods of life and maintaining it. And I fully agree with you rnwen that it is quite pompous for us as humans to even consider the idea that our planet is the only one with life. It's amazing for how technological our western society has become that so many of us are small minded and conceited enough to believe that we are the only one out there. If that was the case there is NO need for the rest of the Universe or the Galaxy for that matter.
Put down those Bibles, Torahs, Korans and other religious texts and pick up a science book and start learning people. If we all put as much effort into furthering our scientific knowledge and advancement as we did arguing religious semantics who knows what scientific breakthroughs we would have by now. Hell we may have already gotten to mars or further. - SteaminTmann, on 10/24/2007, -6/+86Saggier boobs
- darny, on 10/23/2007, -10/+88FTA: "...water, an essential ingredient for life"
That's about as narrow-minded as thinking we're alone in the universe. - ButchersBoy, on 10/21/2007, -14/+88Have they got oil? Yes? Are they a democracy? No?! Terrorists! INVADE!!!
- goeatsmsht, on 10/24/2007, -8/+76I see what you did there
- jonnyeh, on 10/24/2007, -0/+58said by Arthur C Clarke. Give credit where credit is due.
- RogerStrong, on 10/23/2007, -1/+59Being that close to the star, I'd bet the planet is tidally locked - one side always facing the star the way that one side of our moon always faces earth. Or the way that Mercury is *almost* tidally locked to the sun. Or the way that Pluto and Charon are tidally locked to each other.
If so, the atmosphere may be a frozen puddle on the dark side of the planet. - lacronicus, on 10/26/2007, -0/+56fortunately, the number of planets is astronomically large.
- manageMyRights, on 10/24/2007, -0/+56Helios is actually the fastest man-made space object at 70.2 km/s or 252,792 km/h. This means at 20 light years it would take about 85,350 years.
(((1.89210568 × (10^14)) / 252 792) / 24) / 365.4 = 85 349.755 - thcobbs, on 10/24/2007, -3/+58Yeah, but gravity is gonna be a bitch once you get there.... Don't take any women because they'll complain about the 50% increase in weight.
- CountBlah, on 10/24/2007, -2/+57The planet is 20 light years away. That means they are watching all those old 80s sitcoms. We're screwed.
- manageMyRights, on 10/26/2007, -1/+53If there is life there it is certainly adapted to this gravity, and when they invade Earth it will give them super strength. Not good.
- aliengoods, on 10/26/2007, -0/+51I studied relativity in college. Each class took forever.
- Matteos, on 10/24/2007, -4/+52Dibs!
- itspuddingtime, on 10/21/2007, -1/+471.5 times size doesn't mean the gravity will be 1.5x. Gravity is determined by the mass of the planet. Might be greater, might be less than earth
- griz, on 10/24/2007, -0/+44Unless something destroyed the entire planet in the past 20 years. It's still there.
- tyywebb, on 10/24/2007, -0/+39I think he meant 0.99999 the speed of light.
- sorrow, on 10/24/2007, -11/+49Yeah: a dumb pun with poor internet slang to follow.
- stephenodotcom, on 10/24/2007, -3/+40Currently, the fastest space traveling object created by humans is Voyager 1 which travels at 17km / sec. Taking into account that this is 20 light years away using our current speed record it would only take about 357,000 years to reach it.
- Scarfy, on 10/31/2007, -0/+35Digg seems like Oxford when you're watching MTV.
- RabidAngel, on 10/18/2007, -1/+34Ok, "an essential ingredient for life as we know and understand it".
- djphatjive, on 10/31/2007, -0/+33I'm packing my *****, Lets go Gliese 581-c or bust!
- OrangeCrush, on 10/31/2007, -1/+33Ummm . . . no. Evolution takes millions of years. Humans have barely changed (biologically) in the past quarter million. This planet's only 20 light years away--well beyond present capabilities, but an interstellar probe is reasonable over the next few centuries. We could conceivably send a generation ship to this planet (assuming it's habitable and worth the effort) within 1,000 years. Biological evolution won't budge on that timescale.
- MagicCake, on 10/24/2007, -0/+32Then we could record what comes back from the mirror and have a bunch of comedians make lame stabs at it. It'll be like VH1.
- chrismgtis, on 10/25/2007, -2/+33Even more so on Digg.
- sakuraz, on 10/18/2007, -11/+41When can I logon to this planet?
- GeyserShitdick, on 10/24/2007, -0/+30If we waited a little bit, we could see back to when this article was news!
- walkingdogs, on 10/25/2007, -13/+42Yes it did. We are living in a country that is trying to inject religion into science curriculum and hold back the younger generation to new ideas such as string theory and quantum physics. There are scientists working on teleportation, and bending space and time, stem cell research and gene therapy while many of our states our still trying to decide if they should teach creationism or evolution. Let's put our younger generation on the path of true scientific breakthrough instead of holding them back with antiquated ancient mythology.
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