Scientists discover potentially habitable planets

[CapitalistCartr]

We won't go to the stars until we're actually IN space. Not visiting, but there permanently. When people are born, live and die without ever being dirtside on Earth; when they live in habitats made from lunar and asteroidal materials, we're there. When we've colonized this system we will be prepared to reach out to another.

Now imagine these people, who've lived all their lives in wonderful space habitats, worked in ships and on other planets and such. I don't think they'll be looking for another Earth. Why would they? They'll think their space habitat is far more comfortable.

As far as interstellar travel is concerned, I'm certain we will solve longevity well before we travel to the stars. FTL won't be the big obstacle it seems now. When your lifespan is several centuries, spending 30-50 years of it traveling across the stars is as reasonable as our ancestors crossing Europe, the Atlantic or Pacific oceans, or the American Continent to colonize a new land.

Since their colony ship is a fine habitat, they won't be looking for an Earth-like planet; they'll be looking for a Sun-like star. Of which there are many. Humans can spread out at a sub-light speed across our arm of the Galaxy. But most trips will be one-way. Each colony must be self-sustaining. The best find would be an asteroid belt in the habitable zone. Cheap resources!

[blhack]

>They'll think their space habitat is far more comfortable.

I really, really, really doubt that. People who spend most of their time living on oil rigs now, or people who lived large parts of their lives on ships, did not end up losing the desire for dry land.

[flashman]

This is similar to the view of those in Iain M. Banks's "Culture" novels. They view living on a planet as hopelessly primitive and inefficient. Most of its mass is dead, useful only for the gravity it generates. Terraforming is artificial and arguably immoral. And you're subject to all sorts of astronomical and geological catastrophes... why wouldn't you live on one of the many lovely Orbitals?

[perilunar]

I don't think they'll even necessarily be looking for sun-like stars either - just energy and raw materials to make more habitats

[_kst_]

It's odd that the article doesn't mention the phrase "brown dwarf", which is what 2MASS J23062928-0502285 is. (See http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=2MASS+J230629..., linked from the article.)

The phrase "ultracool dwarf star" is descriptive, but both less familiar and less precise than "brown dwarf". Perhaps the author assumed the audience wouldn't know what a brown dwarf is, but a lot of us do (and the rest could have it explained easily enough).

[_kst_]

Perhaps it isn't really a brown dwarf. According to http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2016/05/03/three_ea... :

> TRAPPIST-1 is an M8 dwarf, only 0.08 times the mass of the Sun; just barely massive enough to fuse hydrogen into helium in its core. If it were much lower mass we wouldn’t call it a star at all (we’d say it’s a brown dwarf).

And the Wikipedia article on brown dwarfs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_dwarf

> Brown dwarfs are substellar objects not massive enough to sustain hydrogen-1 fusion reactions in their cores, unlike main-sequence stars.

Apparently TRAPPIST-1 is an actual star, which makes it a (small, cool) red dwarf, not a brown dwarf. But it is near the dividing line.

(A brown dwarf with planets would be interesting, but they probably wouldn't be potentially habitable.)

[ak4g]

"Brown dwarf" also doesn't command the same je ne sais quoi of "ultracool".

[rubidium]

At a mere 40 light years away :) But seriously, that's a good find.

2 planets are orbit-locked. I've always thought those make the best for sci-fi fiction, since they're effective halo's in terms of habitability.

source: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/natu... [paywalled]

Wikipedia already has some info on the telescope and findings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRAPPIST

[welterde]

Preprint of the paper: http://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/es...

Via the ESO press release: http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1615/

[kafkaesq]

The sizes and temperatures of these worlds are comparable to those of Earth and Venus, and are the best targets found so far for the search for life outside the solar system.

That's quite a variation in temperature. Especially since Venus generally isn't considered to be "habitable."

[s_q_b]

Venus could well have been habitable, but the runaway greenhouse effect stopped that. I'm sure there's thousands of types of planets out there "just like Earth, but..."

[hanniabu]

If we're going to make it to another planet that far away, we're going to either need to put our astronauts in some type of suspended state or be able to give birth and raise children on ships.

I wonder what the effects would be of a child forming in a womb, being born, and growing up in zero gravity conditions.

[s_q_b]

Build a 1g spinning section, if that's what's needed for a generational ship. Such "slowboats" are going to need to be:

1. Incredibly expensive.

2. Massive beyond the scale of anything ever assembled in orbit.

3. Big enough to carry a self-sustaining colony, above minimum population size for genetic issues.

So, newborns in zero-g, not necessarily needed, if we're really going to the stars the old fashioned way.

[SEJeff]

Very very early onset osteoporosis when they come back to somewhere with gravity?

[rajandatta]

Brilliant. Love the approach of using Trappist to search for candidates and then be able to turn to instruments like the Hubble and other land based big guys. It'll be amazing to see what the Hubble can see at 40 light years.

[cowardlydragon]

I thought planets in dwarf star habitable zones would be tidally locked / not rotating?

[ccallebs]

They mention that in the article -- they postulate that there may be "sweet spots" with the correct temperature to be habitable. These would be located close to where the planet transitions from light to dark.

[stuff4ben]

Curious what an ultracool dwarf star would like like from an orbiting planet considering it emits radiation in the infrared band? What would the flora/fauna look like? How do they evolve in an infrared environment?

[mrfusion]

Don't forget they might have habitable moons too!

[ultrasandwich]

Trying to figure out a great Belgian Trappist beer goggle joke and just dropping the ball...

[known]

80% of beneath the Oceans are NOT explored on Earth;

[eddiecalzone]

Awesome! Let's strip-mine it!

[Bluestrike2]

Lots of options a lot closer to home :).

[0xmohit]

Make habitable planets great again -- Trump for habitable planets.