New planet might support life

Scientists discovered a planet "only" 22 light years away that's theoretically capable of supporting life based on its distance from the star that it orbits.

Too bad there's no way to get there. Someone really needs to invent a Stargate.

Comments

[Matt in RTP]

Is space travel alpha or beta?

Captain Kirk and Captain Picard were clearly alpha. However, Luke Skywalker seemed like the ultimate nerd.

[Inkraven]

"Re-analysing data from the European Southern Observatory, the astronomers found Gliese 667Cc is a solid planet with roughly four and a half times the mass of Earth."

With a mass of 4.5 earths, wouldn't the extra gravity be a huge hurdle to overcome?

[sid storch]

Wouldn't the Civil Rights Act apply there too?

[josh]

I'm on it.

[Fetzen]

A lot of white nerds imagine that the XXIIth and XXIIIth centuries will look like their favorite SF novel or videogame, with galactic exploration, space conquest, genetic engineering, cryogenic pods, etc.

Personally, I predict the exact opposite: we are entering a new Dark Age that will witness the total extinction of scientific progress.

[JeremiahJohnbalaya]

"Personally, I predict the exact opposite: we are entering a new Dark Age that will witness the total extinction of scientific progress."

I know some people who are convinced they will be uploaded to the grid in the near future. I keep telling them that they better hope someone is around to keep the local power plant operational...

[anonymous]

"Is space travel alpha or beta?" - Matt

Space travel is aspie. All alone for months at a time. I get goosebumps just thinking about it.

[Sid]

"...Gliese 667Cc is a solid planet with roughly four and a half times the mass of Earth."

Yeah... I'm sorry, but there's no way a human being could enjoy that kind of gravity for long. A confounding factor is the gravity of a planet. If the gravity is too intense, we're crushed. If it's too light, then that's better, but over the long run it wrecks our bodies.

And for the record, space travel is undoubtedly alpha. Astronauts were heroes in the 60s and 70s, and every boy growing up has wanted to be an astronaut. If Luke was a whiny nerd, than Han Solo made up for it.

[Conquistador]

"Someone really needs to invent a Stargate." - Half Sigma

Or a mass effect relay though I doubt you or most of your readers know what that is. It's probably a generational thing.

[frmore]

"Someone really needs to invent a Stargate".

I have the working title of the script: "Escape from Negro Planet".

[Tanizaki]

"With a mass of 4.5 earths, wouldn't the extra gravity be a huge hurdle to overcome?"

Not necessarily. The force of gravity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the center of gravity, so it would depend on the planet's size. If the planet had twice the diameter of Earth, for example, the force of gravity at the surface would be approximately the same as Earth's. However, the result would be a planet a little over half as dense as Earth, about 3,000 kg/m^3. Not out of the realm of possibility, nut all of the terrestrial planets in our solar system have higher densities. (the moon is pretty close at 3350 kg/m^3.

The short version: having 4.5 times Earth's mass doesn't mean gravity would be 4.5 times as strong there, but it is likely to be a stronger force than on Earth's surface.

[Bill]

"Wouldn't the Civil Rights Act apply there too?"

-

Turns out the mean IQ of homo sapiens sapiens is 1.5 standard deviations below that of the average Gliesean. Prepare for enslavement!

[half canadian]

Prepare for multi-generational space travel. If a ship traveling at 1/10th the speed of light (have we reached that? no idea) would take 220 years, which would allow for ~10 generations born in space.
The type of society needed for this would have to be absolutely oppressive, just to avoid the types of disasters that could kill everyone.

[Sector 19]

Picard: "ETA at warp seven, Mister Data?"

Data: "Approximately 14 days, 17 hours, Captain."

Picard: "Helmsman, plot a course for the Gliesean system."

Helmsman: "Ay, Captain. Course plotted and laid in."

Picard: "Engage."

[Reactionary_83]

I agree with Fetzen, we can forget about ever going to his planet. As the average IQ of the USA and Europe is reduced through 3rd world immigration and dysgenics, our ability to travel in space will decline. Charles Murray has talked about the development of a super-cognitive elite that will arise due to assortative mating. This is true, but they will have to take care of the ever growing mass of idiots. The only possibility is that China will implement a eugenics program and create geniuses that won't waste their brainpower on being liberals and actually invent stuff.

[sabril]

Surely I'm not the only HBDer who fantasizes about setting up a colony on another planet which is free of both Leftists and their NAM pets.

[Eugenick]

"Turns out the mean IQ of homo sapiens sapiens is 1.5 standard deviations below that of the average Gliesean. Prepare for enslavement!"

I thought we were already taken by a master race with at least 1 SD above the rest of us? Some of them wear funny hats and have a funky blue star with 6 points as flag.

[anonymous]

@sabril

Someone would just import Martians to do jobs others didn't want. Plus, Martians work cheaper.

[Matt in RTP]

"Surely I'm not the only HBDer who fantasizes about setting up a colony on another planet which is free of both Leftists and their NAM pets."

Space travel -- the ultimate white flight!

[Anonymous]

Paul Kersey at Stuff Black People Don't Like is fond of saying:

We could have been on Mars, but instead we had to fund Black Run America

[Prole Engineering]

How would the Stargate get there?

[AnotherDad]

FYI ...
Volume varies as the cube of distance; for a sphere: V=(4/3)(pi)r**3
Gravity varies directly with mass and inverse square with distance: g=GMm/r**2
Assuming a density that is more or less the same (reasonable assumption) the radius then rises as only the cube root of rising mass.
Slapping these two together, as you raise planetary mass and keep density constant, the r**3/r**2 gives you gravitational force on the surface varying directly with radius, which varies as the cube root of mass.

So under this equal density assumption, a planet 4.5 times more massive will have a radius about 1.65 times longer and 1.65 times the surface gravity.

At ... i just snacked ... call it 160, i'd weigh an extra 104 pounds ... which would suck. I'm uncomfortable in a backback over about 40lbs, though mostly that's due to it being a backpack. Feeling like i weighed 260 something, would be very unhappy. (I've been in 2g doing 60 degree banks in small airplanes--squishes me in my seat.) On the other hand i think i could manage it and would obviously start bulking up in the legs (and arms from lifting routine stuff). I'd become more alpha ... unfortunately all the other guys, and worse all the chicks, would too!

If we assume multi-generational space travel, during the journey these folks could increase their "artifical gravity"--craft spinning--from near earth to near Gliese 667Cc gravity they'd be fine. (Especially if they practiced some eugenics, didn't save the weaklings.)

But the 1.6 gravity ready chicks ... definitely not as hot. Think Serena Williams with smaller hoots.

[AnotherDad]

The take home from this little back of the envelope math … *this* is the planet we want to live on.

We’ve evolved to live here over the last billion (from slime) or five million (from common primate ancestor) years and since leaving Africa have gotten smarter, created agriculture, gotten smarter, created civilization and written language, gotten smarter, created modern science and technology, and principles of self-government. We know how to make a good life here, we’ve evolved to be here and evolved cute girls—for us—here.

What we need to do is defend it from destruction. Be relentless in fighting back—and just plain fighting—the sickening, smarmy leftism that viciously attacks western civilization and white people… while glomming on to us and feeding off us like cancer. (Actually that’s the analogy of leftism—a cancer with hate. Leftism hates its victims … but won’t leave us alone. It insists not on freedom for leftists to be leftists, but on having control of us, because it feeds on us.)

We need to say, this is *our* planet, we’re entitled to live in it as civilized human beings. Not run for the stars.

[Fetzen]

"And for the record, space travel is undoubtedly alpha. Astronauts were heroes in the 60s and 70s, and every boy growing up has wanted to be an astronaut."

I do agree. Even NAMs were fascinated by space travel. And people in foreign countries (esp. Asian) were fascinated by Whites, who were known as "those who walked on the Moon".

It's after that it went downhill, and stopped being cool to become a geek/nerd affair. The end of the State and mass media support is clearly responsible, and I don't think it was entirely linked to the end of the Cold War. There was something else. Someone in high places must have decided that it was "time to stop".

"I agree with Fetzen, we can forget about ever going to his planet. As the average IQ of the USA and Europe is reduced through 3rd world immigration and dysgenics, our ability to travel in space will decline."

That's what Slashdot/Reddit-type nerds, who often deny HBD, do not understand: their dreams of stem cell regenerative medicine, space travel, DNA enhancements, bionic enhancements, Singularity and immortality will come to a cruel end because of the very NAM they worship today.

"Charles Murray has talked about the development of a super-cognitive elite that will arise due to assortative mating."

I don't know if such a cognitive elite really exists. According to a Psychology Today article, intelligence genes in a baby come from his mother rather than his father, i.e. to have a smart kid, it's more important to have a smart wife than a smart husband. And rich people, who, I suppose, are the cognitive elite Murray refers to, tend to prefer sexiness in a wife to intelligence. Only Jewish people tend to seek smart wives, but I don't know if this trend is continuing or if they, too, have become hedonistic and nihilistic.

"This is true, but they will have to take care of the ever growing mass of idiots."

I don't think the world will stay forever socialistic and redistributionist.

The problem is rather one of probabilities (the less smart people in a country, the less mathematical chances of witnessing an invention) and workforce capabilities (even the best Western general can't do much with a Negro army; it's the same in the business world).

"The only possibility is that China will implement a eugenics program and create geniuses that won't waste their brainpower on being liberals and actually invent stuff."

China is indeed the only superpower left in the world that can "make it happen", because it combines an autocratic government (necessary for eugenics: try convincing masses that they shouldn't breed for their own good), and a non-Christian morality (necessary for eugenics too).

It's for this reason that I've seriously thought about doing lobbying and attempting to convince the Chinese Politburo of the truth of HBD. But there is compelling evidence to show that they're already aware of it.

[anonymous]

"But the 1.6 gravity ready chicks ... definitely not as hot. Think Serena Williams with smaller hoots."

With that kind of gravity, if they weren't smaller then they'd be down around her ankles.

[Fetzen]

Halfsigma, I'd really like your thoughts on this: http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/04/opinion-fox-net-innovation

The author makes the point that technological innovation is actually slowing down, and that there hasn't been any real invention in the XXIth century.

[Yeep]

I read an article approximately 7 years ago in either Scientific American or Popular Mechanics (and I may not be right even about these). Anyway, it was an article written by several NASA scientists discussing what it would take to engage in real space travel, as in developing a craft to take us to planets like Gleise or Alpha Centauri.
Their consensus? That we currently have the technology to build a spacecraft that could travel at 10% of the speed of ligth.
But the cost to build this thing...their estimate was 150 billion dollars.

[Yeep]

I'm sorry--I made a mistake above.

The estimated cost wasn't 150 billion. That's almost chump change in this day and time.

It was 150 TRILLION.

[Fetzen]

"But the cost to build this thing...their estimate was 150 billion dollars."

Peanuts. The money spent on welfare by the USA is far above that.

[lil mike]

We, as in the United States, will never build any sort of interstellar spacecraft, even if the price was a relatively bargain-basement 150 trillion.

We don't even have the ability to get in Earth orbit without hitching a ride with the Russians; the power we defeated in the Cold War, let alone go to the moon, a feat we accomplished several times 40 years ago.

The psychology of the country has changed since those days. 40 years ago, if a Presidential candidate had mentioned establishing a moon colony, it would have been taken as a serious next step, now said candidate is considered a nut case for even entertaining the idea.

Some other civilization may eventually build some sort of interstellar generation ship, but it won't be us.

[Ode]

"I agree with Fetzen, we can forget about ever going to his planet. As the average IQ of the USA and Europe is reduced through 3rd world immigration and dysgenics, our ability to travel in space will decline. "

Ever seen the movie District 9?
It is about aliens from outer space visiting Earth.
These aliens have a two tier class system, a cognitive elite class and a grunt class.
A society does not need a high average IQ to be technologically advanced. What is needed is a small proportion of smart people doing the heavy thinking while everyone else does the grunt work.

I think that will be the ultimate fate of human society.

[JayMan]

Earth-like planets could be a lot closer to us than this one; we haven't ruled out an Earth-mass planet orbiting in the "habitable zones" (where the planet would be just the right temperature to support carbon dioxide and liquid water cycles) of either Alpha Centauri A or B, which are "only" 4.4 light years away. In general, the technology is not yet good enough to detect planets smaller than a few Earth masses, so many such objects could be residing in our stellar neighborhood undetected.

God bless Half Sigma for bringing this up. It's great to hear HBD'ers' ideas on space travel, which are...interesting, to say the least. This discussion about whether astronauts are aspie or whatever is great; people, realize that astronauts are frickin' awesome. Thanks to the rigorous mental and physical standards they have to meet, astronauts are the cream of the crop both in terms of IQ and their physical health. If you ever had dreams of breeding a master race, astronauts would be a good starter population.

We will not have interstellar travel for the foreseeable future, not unless some really new aspects of physics are discovered. That said, humanity will make an effort to reach for the sky. Elon Musk, the Google guys, and James Cameron are at it right now (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57419801/asteroid-mining-venture-backed-by-james-cameron-google-ceo-larry-page/). Even if our government is reticent about continuing to explore space, someone, somewhere always will; there are plenty of high-IQ visionary people still in the world to do the job, rest assured.

With regards to the sci-fi vision of the future, I do have to say that one great irony is the future as portrayed in Star Trek. Most to all of the humans portrayed are clearly high-IQ and of largely upper class temperament, something that is probably impossible without some seriously different sort of evolutionary selective pressures between now and then; yet, genetic engineering of any sort is illegal in the Star Trek world, as was the focus of this DS9 episode (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Bashir,_I_Presume%3F).

[Firepower]

I looked up the years it takes to travel ONE light year a few months ago when they discovered a planet a "mere nine" away.

Each light year = 38,000 years.
Astronomy is the highbrow fap-luxury of Western Society.

Think of it as displacing Ballet.

[JayMan]

"Astronomy is the highbrow fap-luxury of Western Society.

Think of it as displacing Ballet."

Very true, both are luxuries afforded to us by modern civilization. Only ballet doesn't show us our place in the grand scheme of things and allow to seek answers to fundamental questions about our very existence. Hence, I'll remain all for astronomy.

[Underman]

"What we need to do is defend it from destruction. Be relentless in fighting back—and just plain fighting—the sickening, smarmy leftism that viciously attacks western civilization and white people… while glomming on to us and feeding off us like cancer. (Actually that’s the analogy of leftism—a cancer with hate. Leftism hates its victims … but won’t leave us alone. It insists not on freedom for leftists to be leftists, but on having control of us, because it feeds on us.)"

AnotherDad, your anti-Semitism is uncalled for. Just think: without Jews, where would the West be?

[Reactionary_83]

Ode,

Bryan Caplan has raised a similar argument that 'brain' and 'brawn' factions can ostensibly produce greater returns by cooperating than either can on its own. Theoretically, this should work out, but like many economic models certain factors are neglected that are difficult to ascertain or to measure accurately.

The grunt classes will demand equality. Most humans are not conditioned into accepting inferiority status. But many of the cognitive elite class will also find the system repugnant. I know, people with a high IQ should think rationally and try to continue the system as it maximizes the productivity of both classes. A highly advanced society will have all the basic tasks automated; there simply wouldn't be a need for a grunt class (or for a grunt class to work).

District 9 was loosely based on the old apartheid system and one could say this was a close approximation to a hypothetical 2-tier society. It provided a better standard of living for the average white and black person than is the case today. Yet many of the intelligent whites could not predict this and actively helped to bring it down. This is possibly due to fact that a higher IQ is coupled to a greater level of sensitivity, and this overrides the logical thought processes that would have convinced them apartheid was preferable to the current political situation in SA.