Should we move to other exoplanets that are similar to our earth?

Question

Astronomers have just found an exoplanet similar to earth just 20 light years away. Since our world population is still increasing at a rate that may one day dwindle our resources, should we think of going to one of these exoplanets in the next few decades? Possibly even colonizing them by the end of 21st century for our species future?

Answer 1

yes we should, but what you are suggesting is impractical.
interstellar travel is not something that we will be able to do in the next few decades unless a major breakthrough happens.
also, what the scientists mean when they say "similar to earth" is that the temperature and mass are not too far off of earth's. mars would fit in this category, but is not really an eartthlike planet

Answer 2

Yes, we need to move. Read Heinlein's Farmer in the Sky.

Population pressure is what causes wars. Colonization cannot reduce population pressure--you cannot build ships fast enough to do that--but it does insure that if there is a nuclear war or some other cataclysmic event, that civilization is not lost.

However, exoplanets are too far away to benefit us. Terraforming is the answer. Mars is a mere stone's throw away, and beyond that is an asteroid belt full of water.

Answer 3

I think we need to solve the whole problem of traveling at the speed of light before even considering that.

Answer 4

All we know about this planet is that it has twice the gravity and a similar temperature. It could be covered in sulphuric acid and we wouldn't know it. At shuttle speeds, you could be there in 800,000 years. Start packing.

Answer 5

what if it's already inhabited? do we slaughter the population like the europeans did when they colonized north and south america? first, we need to explore other planets, then think about inhabiting one which has no population, without destroying everthing we touch.