Will SIM PlanetQuest find "Vulcan"?

[docm]

Link....<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p><b>Mission Could Seek Out Spock's Home Planet</b><br /><br /><b><i><font color="yellow">Science fiction may soon become science fact. Astronomers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have recently concluded that the upcoming planet-finding mission, SIM PlanetQuest, would be able to detect an Earth-like planet around the star 40 Eridani, a planet familiar to "Star Trek" fans as "Vulcan." 40 Eridani, a triple-star system 16 light-years from Earth, includes a red-orange K dwarf star slightly smaller and cooler than our sun. Vulcan is thought to orbit that dwarf star, called 40 Eridani A.</font></i>/b><br /><br /> When pondering the idea that SIM might be able to detect Vulcan, astronomer Dr. Angelle Tanner at Caltech had two questions: Can a planet form around 40 Eridani A? Can SIM detect such a planet?<br /><br />She consulted a planetary theorist, Dr. Sean Raymond of the University of Colorado, Boulder. "Since the three members of the triple star system are so far away from each other [hundreds of astronomical units - the Earth-Sun distance], I see no reason why an Earth-mass planet would not be able to form around the primary star, 40 Eridani A," he said.<br /><br />If Vulcan life were to exist on the planet, the orbit of the planet would have to lie in a sweet spot around the star where liquid water could be present on its surface. Water is an essential ingredient for any organism to live long and prosper. For 40 Eridani A, this spot, or "habitable zone," is 0.6 astronomical units from the star. That means Vulcans would get to celebrate a birthday about every six months.<br /><br />The SIM PlanetQuest instrument will be so accurate, it could measure the thickness of a nickel at a distance from Earth to the moon. Using a set of mathematical models based on Newton's Laws, Tanner was able to conclude that SIM would be able t</b></p></blockquote> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[saurc]

nice...<br /><br />btw wasn't Vulcan (not in Star trek) supposed to be within the orbit of Mercury? But they haven't found anything there though

 

[qso1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothetical_planet<br /><br />The link above gives a brief description of the hypothetical planet your referring to. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[dreada5]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>If Vulcan life were to exist on the planet, the orbit of the planet would have to lie in a sweet spot around the star where liquid water could be present on its surface. Water is an essential ingredient for any organism to live long and prosper.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />I've never understood the reasoning for this and why all scientist repeatedly say this.<br /><br />Is Earth carbon-based life the only possible form of life?!!!

 

[3488]

No thats right. Alan Sterne PI for New Horizons took part in a search, using a telescope mounted on a F16 (I think) a while back. Nothing was found.<br /><br />The 40 Eridani (Omicron 2 Eridani) system is a strange one anyway. One K Type Main sequence star, one red dwarf & one white dwarf. AKA Keid.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[themanwithoutapast]

Is Earth carbon-based life the only possible form of life?!!! <br />------------<br />It is very, very likely the only possible form of higher life due to the fact that long reactionless, stable large molecules are naturally only possible through the use of carbon. If there is primitive, virus-like life (that is if you assume a virus is to be categorized as "life") based on something other than carbon, we just don't know. Still laws of physics tell us that anything not based on carbon cannot be a basis of higher lifeforms due to the restrictions in building long complex molecules (necessary to store information - for instance as DNA or RNA).

 

[themanwithoutapast]

By the way, "the upcoming planet-finding mission" is a bit an overstatement for a mission to be launched NET 2015/2016...

 

[MeteorWayne]

Nice, eddie, thanx! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>I've never understood the reasoning for this and why all scientist repeatedly say this. <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Well, the smart-alec response is that for Spock to have lived there, there would have to be liquid water. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> Star Trek Vulcans are virtually identical to humans, apart from the funny ears/eyebrows and ability to mind-meld.<br /><br />On a more serious note, the "liquid water" restriction mainly comes from the fact that water has some really amazing properties that make it singularly useful for life. While in principle you could imagine life without water, it's more challenging than you might expect.<br /><br />For instance, water is perfectly neutral -- in fact, chemically speaking it can be considered both an acid and a base. This is a unique feature of water, and it's related to why it's such a good solvent for a surprisingly large number of chemicals.<br /><br />Another interesting feature of water is that it becomes less dense when it freezes. This is very unusual; most liquids, when chilled to their freezing point, will have crystals precipitate to the bottom. A liquid methane lake will freeze from the bottom up, for instance. The problem with that is that if you have a situation where lakes freeze in the winter, organisms living in the liquid will have a much harder time enduring the winter. They'd have to endure freezing solid. This might be possible, but it is a challenge that must be overcome.<br /><br />Water is also very stable, chemically speaking -- more so than a lot of the alternatives. That also works very much in its favor as the liquid solvent upon which a particular lifeform depends.<br /><br />So those are some arguments in favor of water. There's also a simple question of practicality. Absolutely all life on Earth is dependent on liquid water. As a consequence, everything we know about life is informed by the presence of liquid water. Wo <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[kdavis007]

That is neat.....

 

[mooware]

Star Trek Vulcans are virtually identical to humans, apart from the funny ears/eyebrows and ability to mind-meld. <br /> <br /><br /><br />Of course another difference, as McCoy pointed out was that green icewater Spock calls blood.<br /><br />

 

[docm]

Contact telepaths, heart on the right below the diaphragm, prefer temps >100F (38C), hemocyanin (copper "hemoglobin) based blood, nictating eyelids and they get drunk on chocolate. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>