NASA briefing in HOURS: 'We are upon the CUSP of finding ANOTHER EARTH'

Everyone knows the Kepler space telescope, whose six year mission (so far) has seen it discover many planets orbiting other stars - the task it was specifically built for, indeed. Now, it would seem, it has found something unusually important, as NASA has announced major press briefing on Kepler for later today. All the space …

[John Robson]

Or a space mirror?

XKCD: http://m.xkcd.com/1532/

[Annihilator]

Re: Or a space mirror?

Karl Pilkington wanted to put a mirror on the moon - so he could look up and see his reflection.

[Anonymous Coward]

"We are on the cusp of finding.."

..that Noon EDT is actually 5pm UK...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "We are on the cusp of finding.."

cool, gives me time to get home from work

[AbelSoul]

Re: cool, gives me time to get home from work

Bugger - means I can't watch it at work.

[Anonymous Coward]

How much like?

If its Mondas, we're screwed.

[Simon Harris]

Re: How much like?

Equally screwed if it turns out to be LV-426, in which case I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit..

[SteveK]

Re: How much like?

Equally screwed if it turns out to be LV-426, in which case I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit..

It's the only way to be sure.

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this

Part of Jade Helm or the Meteor strike next month? does this one have wings?

I really have trouble keeping up with the program ing.

[Anonymous Coward]

NSA wants in first

The NSA will be fighting hard to ensure that they are the first to place a coms network parallel interface... ( and I don't mean the kind that you use for printers).

AC - obviously

[Nuno]

@AC

If they really want to know who you are, they don't need your username on the post...

[Erik4872]

Hmmm...

Finally, a good reason to migrate to IPv6.

[Geoffrey W]

Re: Hmmm...

Which star system is that in?

[Your alien overlord - fear me]

And it's only 5 light years away - so make sure your passports are up to date.

[Crisp]

Only 5 light years away?

What's that in lifetimes?

[Anonymous Blowhard]

Re: Only 5 light years away?

So is it OK to do the "Space is big" quote?

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Space

[Geoff May]

"Space is big" quote

I prefer this one www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/h/hawkwind/black_corridor.html#!

[RogerT]

They're still arrest you for having an out of date passport on your return...

If you return.

[Jagged]

Where did you get the number of 5 light years, I read 1,400?

[Mystic Megabyte]

Trump

They have that his ego is so immense that it is forming an impenetrable shell around the Earth

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Trump

Am I the only one who giggles at trump because its a colloquialism for fart?

[dogged]

Re: Trump

No.

Not when it's so appropriate.

[CmdrX3]

Re: Trump

They could call it Hair Net

[snowweb]

A bankrupt country's tax payer's money well spent?

Even if they are right (which I doubt), what relevance does this have for the average citizen which has and is paying for such non-sense research?

Don't the US Government have anything better to spend their tax payer's very hard earned cash on?

[Fibbles]

Re: A bankrupt country's tax payer's money well spent?

The NASA budget is tiny, it's about 0.5% of GDP. The budget for the Kepler programme specifically is even smaller.

The USA spends more money per year catching and imprisoning stoners than it does on space exploration.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: A bankrupt country's tax payer's money well spent?

What happened to the dinosaurs? We (our species) may be on the cusp of having an extinction level DR plan - that is a monumental achievement*.

* Maybe

[Christoph]

Re: A bankrupt country's tax payer's money well spent?

"Don't the US Government have anything better to spend their tax payer's very hard earned cash on?"

Back to the trees!

[Triggerfish]

Re: A bankrupt country's tax payer's money well spent?

It's called investing in the future, and its probably a better investment than spinning money to F35's, or bridges to nowhere.

[JaffaMan]

I can't help but feel I might be a tad disappointed with this.

It will most likely pan out to be;

Sun like star.

Earth mass planet.

Habital zone.

"We don't know if there's liquid water but there could be".

End of conference.

I would be delighted if it was the above and;

"Spectrographic analysis of reflected light or light passing through the atmosphere during occulation has identified water vapour, methane and CFCs (or other gases only possible by artificial means)."

and

"we've pointed a huge radio telescope at it and detected signals consistent with being artificially generated".

and

"it's only 5 light years away so a conversation within our lifetimes is potentially feasible should we choose to go down that route".

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you're dreaming, but so am I, it would be so awesome if your wish list came to be.

Although can we get them a little farther than 5 light years and still be able to communicate? Preferably so they couldn't get here in my lifetime, just incase they are a warp-capable hostile species.

[Florida1920]

I would be delighted if it was the above and;

"Spectrographic analysis of reflected light or light passing through the atmosphere during occulation has identified water vapour, methane and CFCs (or other gases only possible by artificial means)." etc

Be careful what you ask for. All that stuff would mean it might also be inhabited by Kardashians.

[TitterYeNot]

"Be careful what you ask for. All that stuff would mean it might also be inhabited by Kardashians."

Not a problem. If they're Kardashians, their arses and egos would be so massive they'd be unable to escape their planet's gravity well.

[Anonymous Coward]

The fact that this announcement is audio only also implies it might not be as grand as we think. Let's face it, if this was an historic event wouldn't you at least live stream it with video?

[Anonymous Coward]

Presentationalism

"Let's face it, if this was an historic event wouldn't you at least live stream it with video?"

As I recall, the Higgs boson was discovery was announced in Comic Sans MS.

[Triggerfish]

Re: Presentationalism

I always thought that was a test to weed out the idiots too concerned about the font to understand the significance.

[Yag]

... detected signals consistent with being artificially generated...

The signal says "Our neighbors 5 LY away are tastier than us"

[Ana Cronym]

The only system within 5 light years in the Alpha Centauri system. I do hope the news is more than the likely pan out you have shown but I too, doubt it.

[Anonymous Coward]

That NASA is a bloody tease.

It'll be something pretty inconsequential to all except the nerdiest of space-buffs.

Though I really hope that I am wrong.

[x 7]

so wheres the link for the live feed? Must be one if the news is that important

[0laf]

Like last time?

Remember the last time NASA has a big announcement about 'alien life' and it turned out to be a bacteria in a hot spring in the USA that really liked Arsenic. Interesting but not what was implied.

The cynic in me thinks that NASA is going to announce an Earth sized rocky planet in the habitable zone of another star which 'could' support liquid water (depending on another thousand variables).

I really hope it's more than that, but I doubt it.

[spot]

A meteorite would fit the bill

- if they've found a vertebrate fossil in it, and worked out where it came from.

5 minutes to go.

[Spoonsinger]

Well, as there are only a few minutes to go:-

Options:-

1) It's some boring 'there is a planet nearby' thing, (well light years away, but shows signs of being a planet) - a previous poster did that more eloquently.

2) There is a planet nearby and it has life, (and not the bacterial kind - the radio transmitty coming to suck your brains type thing). But... It's just a Watchmen type ruse to make us all, (i.e. current humanity), hug together in a Princess Diana type emotional explosion. (Resulting in an age of scientific fervor and zealot theological endeavour - so no change there).

3) It's not a Watchmen type ruse, and they are coming to get us.

4) It's just NASA doing what they do. (Which is generally quite boring if you were brought up on 70's NASA conspiracy movies).

[AbelSoul]

Re: It's some boring 'there is a planet nearby' thing

Not boring to me but yes, it does indeed seem to be this option.

"Close cousin to the earth and our son."

[hplasm]

Well-

It's bigger than, older than and 1000 lightyears away from Earth... so not quite what was speculated above.

http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-kepler-mission-discovers-bigger-older-cousin-to-earth

[web_bod]

YAEP #Yawn

Yet another exoplanet - just what we need, a small warm rock 1,400 light years away and 1.5bn years in the future.

[Phuq Witt]

Spoiler Alert

Can't listen to the broadcast as it's "not supported on your device". Are they using Flash?

But you can get the gist of it from reading the Press Release package: http://www.nasa.gov/keplerbriefing0723

TL;DR:

* Kepler 452B

*60% larger than Earth

* In the 'optimistic' goldilocks zone

* 385 day year

* 1,5 billion years older than Earth/Sun

* 1400 light years away [which kinda spoils the chances of picking up any signals or evidence of technology, I'd think]

[CrosscutSaw]

Wait

So "we" are the aliens that are visiting. Not the other way around. Woah.

[VinceH]

Optional

I'm a bit late reading this, and have yet to read about the discovery itself, but I'm just a touch confused.

They were saying that "astronomers are on the cusp of finding..." and set the time of the media call for 5PM.

I want to know how they were so damned sure they were going to find what they were on the cusp of finding by that time? What if they didn't find it until 5:07PM. Or even didn't find it at all?

They would've had egg on their faces then!

[Dr Patrick J R Harkin]

I've seen that film.

It seems attractive at first, but it NEVER ends well.