Falcon Tours ?
How long to do the Kepler run ?
NASA appears to be transforming itself into an intergalactic travel agency after issuing a series of cheery posters of exoplanets. "Kepler-186f is the first Earth-size planet discovered in the potentially 'habitable zone' around another star, where liquid water could exist on the planet's surface," said NASA's blurb. Visit …
"If plant life does exist on a planet like Kepler-186f, its photosynthesis could have been influenced by the star's red-wavelength photons, making for a color palette that's very different than the greens on Earth."
Different palette maybe, but if the light is mostly red, that's the part of the spectrum to absorb to get most energy, so the reflected light would be blue-green. Kentucky in space, no less.
Also note that the window for the visible spectrum on Earth is actually dictated by the molecules in the atmosphere, and the chemistry of any photosynthetic pigment is dictated by the same laws of physics and chemistry as here on Earth. Life on other planets may be very similar to life on Earth, at the cellular level.
Though in order to absorb *all* the light energy they receive, leaves would have to be black when seen in the light of the sun they are growing under, no matter what the colour of that sun. And that includes viewing with cameras or eyes that can see outside the visible spectrum.
"Different palette maybe, but if the light is mostly red,"
Wouldn't a large proportion of it be infra red around a red dwarf?
Also , another problem with planets around red dwarves in the goldilocks zone is that they orbit so close they get tidally locked. I wouldn't be surprised if this supposed earth like world is like that with a parched sunlit side and a frozen dark side.
Probably not, looks like this guy's work to me.
http://www.stevethomasart.com
And lighten up about your tax dollars, it's better than spending them denying climate change or promoting anti-vaxers.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/08/11/dirty_deniers_campaign_to_shame_global_warming_deniers.html
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2012/12/04/congress_hearing_on_vaccines_is_a_farce_of_dangerous_antivax_nonsense.html
"[...] lunch-time frivolity"
As far back as the days of Faraday - science has engaged the imagination of lay people and children by "entertainments" that illustrate a scientific fact or principle. The current Royal Society Christmas Lectures are evidence of the value of that communication.
@Mark 85
Not sure that 'boffins' created these but I see no problem with money being spent on such things. Sure, as an Australian it's not my money but it's being used to publicise some of the achievements of a field in a fun an appealing way, which has flow-on effects such as greater interest (and thus potentially better funding for real work) and capturing the imagination of young people who might consider a career in these fields.
Money well spent if you ask me.
I heartily welcome the excitement that the exo-planet hunt, Rosetta and Curiosity are bringing to space news. Along with Dragon and some of the new private sector initiatives. Publicizing this stuff should encourage more public interest.
The real shame is that these are not the parts of NASA that are getting much budget. They are operating on shoestrings, comparatively.
17 years to launch a $750M sat:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0816525226/ref=pdp_new_dp_review
Kepler-16b has an unusual feature not mentioned in the article. Possibly the first visitors there can write up a scientific paper describing why the shadows appear to be the wrong colors.
I'm not really a shadow-scientist, but I would expect shadow from the white sun, since it is illuminated by the red sun, to have the more reddish color. The shadow from the red sun should be neutral in color, since it is illuminated by a white sun.
If you act now and deposit $.10 (USD) by the time that we have developed safe travel where you could make a round trip within your lifetime, you could afford the ticket price. Or rather one of your heirs could.
Unless of course you double that deposit and wait until we develop a time machine which will then pick you up at your current time, let you do the trip yourself.
They give people hope. They give people a vision for the future, even if it's far off, it both shows a long term goal (setting on far away planets) as well as immediate steps to take towards that direction (finding exoplanets).
Unfortunately finding exoplanets is unlikely to find new ways to kill "the enemy" or spy on people or make a new "smart"-phone. That's why it is so badly funded.
Correct -- at terrestrial density HD 40307g would be twice the radius/diameter (8x volume). At twice the distance from the center of mass, the 8x mass only provides 2x gravity (cut to 1/4 due to double distance). If you can carry your own weight on your back on earth, then you could theoretically walk there (ignoring the probable need for a space suit). If it's gaseous, then hard to define a surface, but it will have a much greater diameter, and lower gravity at the "surface." If it's a rocky core surrounded by lots of gas, it gets trickier, because the gas could be dense enough at the rocky "surface" to provide significant buoyancy (possibly even liquid, depending on temp and pressure -- we might then define the surface as the top of the "ocean").