So this new planet then - are we going to get there in my lifetime?

Question

This new planet:-
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/new+planet+may+support+life/466372

what's it called Gliese 581 C - what's the bloody C stand for?
Shouldn't it be P for planet - and why can't these damn astronomer scientist have a bit more imagination anyway - why couldn't they have called it Gliese Junior or something? That would seem to make a lot more sense to me since it's orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 581 - see even that's got a bloody number! I think these damn astronomers have been watching too much 'Trek' don't you and are obsessed with Borg Designations - geeks, nurds, anoraks whatever you want to call that they are?

Seriously though, 20.5 lightyears or 120 trillion miles in English - now just how near are we to travelling that distance?

Now even I know that when you're doing those kind of distances you're not talking about speed but time and Einstein said time travel was possible didn't he?

I know in one of my previous questions - a long, time ago in a galaxy far, far away in a now suspended account I asked a question about Area 51 (that's probably why it got suspended now I come to think of it - and I always thought it was the porn!!!) and someone told me that Einstein was working on 'temporal displacement' or whatever its called when he died and then there's that Philadelphia Experiment that went pear-shaped and recently I remember seeing a documentary narrated by Nick Hurst I think's his name, from the highly reputable Jane's Defence Weekly who came across someone in Seattle who had managed to make some delicate craft that used an anti-gravitational field - anyone see that - if you did - could you give me more info about it please - from data from an extra terrestrial source or something - you know like some of that technology that goes into 'stealth bombers' etc.,?

And this Stargate SG1 thing - we turn information into electrical impulses and back into information, be it radio waves tv airwaves etc., now I know someone has managed to 'transport' an atom or two but there's that irritating Mr Heisenberg and his Uncertainty Principle getting in the way, but The Philadelphia Experiment notwithstanding how far are we away from 'folding space', which is what I believe Einstein was on about and what the Sci Fi series Stargate SG1 uses as its premise - if we could get this right 20.5 or 120 trillion miles would be a piece of cake wouldn't it?

Sorry forgot the word lightyears after the figure 20.5 - there's just a tad of difference between miles and lightyears OK?

Answer 1

No, not in your lifetime.

The c is because this is the third planet discovered that orbits star Gliese 581. The first two planets discovered around that star are Gliese 581a and Gliese 581b.

We are nowhere close to sending any object that distance, even a robot spacecraft. The most distant spacecraft we've sent anywhere is currently about 100 AU from the Sun. Gliese 581 is more than 1,000,000 AU from the Sun. So our best effort so far has gotten us 1/100th of 1 percent of that distance, and it took us 25 years to go that far.

Contrary to popular belief, Einstein never said time travel was possible. And it's not.

Answer 2

Its named C because its the third celestial body from its local star. Its just catalog code so that its easier to keep track of planets and their positions relative to other objects. If every planet had a P at the end, you wouldnt know which one it was.

We are nowhere close to traveling that distance. Not in the shuttle. But when fusion reactors are stable, we should have enough power to play around with the fusion rocket engine, which is pretty much already being developed and theorized on.

The specific impulse that such an engine has the potential to give its vehicle (spacecraft) is many many times more than the thrust the shuttle can produce, and on much more reaction mass (fuel). SO!

It is possible. Going that far? might take the crew a very long time, but you might see such a spacecraft leave our atmosphere in your lifetime, If you are about 20 years old.

Problem with getting there is, the time it takes them to reach such a high velocity where it is feasible to get there within the CREWS lifetime, unless its completely unmanned. Also, at such a velocity, the risk of impact with even a dust particle are pretty high, and a marble will probably penetrate the hull and cause a mass explosion, unless there is no pressurization.. or if the hull is double-tween, shielded with a static layer, has ultra-high density composite armor, and is robotic.

Answer 3

No way. In half a lifetime we have gone from orbit to the moon and now we are just orbital again.

We have 2 probes that have left the Solar System, but it took 30 years for them to get beyond Pluto. The nearest star is 10,000 times as far, and this new planet is another 5 times as far as that.

You do the sum.

Fact is unless someone comes up with a fantastic new way to travel, we will never be able to go 20 light years.

Sorry, mate. You'll have to be content with Mother Earth. get out of your room and have a look around - it aint half a bad place. And nobody really knows whether this new planet is habitable - it just happens that it is possibly in the right range to have a temperate climate. That is certainly not the end of the story.

PS - as with the naming convention - supposing in 20 years there were 200,000 extra-solar planets discovered. If you gave them all names like you suggest you'd soon run out of names. And with 200 billion stars in the galaxy, the number of planets could eventually be a trillion.

How would you come up with a trillion names? get real, and stop being so angry about something that doesn't need anger. grow up.

Answer 4

What are you guys smokin at channel 14 these days anyway?
The sky is divided up into sections that are given letters to
each sections. In each section, each planet or star that is found is given a number. So what you have as Gliese 581 C
is Star Gliese, Planet 581, Section C. If you really thought,
you would realize that there are too many celstial bodies out
there to give interresting names to, and it would be too cumbersome as a way of classification. As far as travelling
that distance, who knows, maybe we may be closer than you think.

Answer 5

The answer is not the actual distance we have to travel but a way we can short cut around the travel time. Take for instance you dot two points on a piece of paper and ask someone what is the quickest way between the two points, they say a straight line? wrong! Fold the paper in half until the two points are touching, thread a needle through the two points and thus you have an instantaneous time warp.

Answer 6

C means the third planet around the star Giliese 581. All we know is the gravity is twice earth's and it's the same temperature as earth. It may not even have an atmosphere.

It's so close that using the shuttle we could get there in a mere 800,000 years ..start packing. Einstein said time travel is a no no as does quantum physics.

Answer 7

Yes. If you were the astronaut that were to travel to the planet on a mission from earth there would be a very good chance you would make it to the planet in YOUR lifetime. Depending on how fast you were traveling.

Ex.

If you were traveling near the speed of light in a spacecraft you would have hardly aged by the time you made it to the planet thanks to time dilation, this is also known as twins paradox. The faster a being travels through spacetime the slower its internal clock runs, traveling near the speed of light puts your internal clock to hardly running. But what would the point be if everything you had known was gone when you returned you were still nearly the same age when you left and everyone had aged 50+ years.

They are working on technology to power a ship to run that fast. I think the engine is known as the ion drive? It continually accelerates... hence will reach near the spped of light.

A mission such as this would cost trillions of dollars and who ever were to fund it would not have any information in return for 50+ years. A journey such as this would never take place by traveling through space. A better means to travel through space will have to be discovered before we travel such distances.

Answer 8

I believe the "C" is the third planet in the system (ABCect), and unless we find a whole lot of physics slight of hand we can't travel that far in anyones lifetime, though it has been said that this new generation will be the first to have the capacity to live "forever". There will be a whole lot more habitable planets found very soon, and don't forget Mars. It falls under the definition of habitable, and easily so.

Answer 9

>

> In answer to your question, "why is it called Gliese 581 C",
> (roughly your question was that), it is for the same
> reason a nebula(NGC 604) or a galaxy(NGC 4414, a > typical spiral galaxy) are given those names.
> The reason is, that this is how astronomers, and other
> related scientists, catalogue galaxies and nebulae.

> I guess they(scientists) realized they can never think
> up enough *normal* names, and this is an easier
> way to keep track.


<<<<<<<<

Answer 10

No. If we sent a craft from Earth this second, and it travelled 50 mps, it would still take about 77,000 yers for it to get there. A single light year isn't a big distance in cosmic scales, but when it comes to our technology, 1 light year is gigantic (5.879 trillion miles).