NASA TESS Observatory Will Hunt For Alien Life On "Super-Earth" Exoplanets 112
An anonymous reader writes "Kepler may be down, but now NASA has another planet-hunting tool in mind. The space agency is preparing the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) observatory in order to follow in Kepler's footsteps. NASA has been searching for alien planets for several years now. Learning about strange exoplanets such as enormous, hot 'Jupiters' and 'rogue planets' that actually cruise through space without a parent star certainly adds to the body of research concerning our universe. Yet what scientists are really interested in are the Earth-like planets that may hold the potential for life."
Dear slashdot mods (Score:3, Insightful)
As a regular reader I ask you kindly, please do something about the vulgar AC that first post trolls this site. If you can't IP ban the troll then at least delete their posts. This is not reddit, please disrespect the "free speech" of vulgar trolls that add nothing to the conversation.
I hate these threads (Score:4, Insightful)
Every time Slashdot posts a story about the search for extraterrestrial life, at least a half-dozen scientifically illiterate people complain (often quite stridently) that NASA (or whoever) is too narrow-minded because they're only looking at signs of terrestrial-like (carbon-based, oxygen-metabolizing) life. And every comment of this sort gets at least another half-dozen replies, from people who actually know at least a little bit of science, explaining, very patiently, that we have no idea what other forms of life might look like, chemically speaking, no way of knowing if such life forms exist, and thus no way of detecting their presence. It's so predictable, and so inane. This is one of the most fascinating open questions in modern science, but these threads simply get clogged up by idiots upset that NASA hasn't considered their ill-informed speculation.
Re:Never a serious activity (Score:5, Insightful)
there were thousands of reliable documented UFO sightings covered up by the US government with such ridiculous explanations as 'moonlight reflecting off of swamp gas'
Put yourself in their shoes for a moment. You're testing supersonic spy planes in an era where our largest adversary had successfully stolen nuclear weapons research from us, and you're trying to stop the local yokels from asking too many questions about the unimaginably fast, jet-black craft that keep whooshing overhead. What do you tell them that will shut them up, without saying "we're testing top-secret spy planes that will overfly the Soviet Union"?
If extraterrestrials really did visit Earth as often (and for as long) as you claim, btw, there would be actual hard evidence. There is none. The simplest explanation is that a) people freak out when confronted with rapid technological change, and b) the human brain is a superb pattern-finding machine - so good that it often finds patterns where none exist. And if we're going to treat ancient Hindu scrolls as reliable documentary evidence, why not just take the Book of Genesis at face value too, and have the government stop funding evolution research? (Or medical research, for that matter - clearly divine intervention can cure disease more effectively than modern medicine.)
Re:Never a serious activity (Score:4, Insightful)
The truth is out there. But not many will ever find it. And many forget it's a constant quest to keep it up to date and patched.
Americans don't want to believe that their lifestyle choices are dictated by media and personal misjudgment. As opposed to being dictated by circumstance and technology. Because of this people are particularly resistant to the idea that there might be more advanced societies interacting with certain humans or that our power elite might actively be perusing those "aliens".
Or that our religions are heavily influenced ala, late Star Trek opener. The planet was Niburo and the Enterprise totally became an icon of those primitives. This is a not so subtle comment by your betters in Hollywood. I of course think that such influences are passing fads for a few generations like many things in human culture. But become more subtly embedded over time through repetition or interaction with other influences.
Either way religions need to be looked at objectively. And we need to assume we are being watched to take the next steps as a society. This doesn't invalidate spirituality. Or modern science. It is in addition to those things we cannot explain. Simply saying "there's nothing over the ocean" is far worse then saying aliens did it. Or "We must go find out whether aliens did it!". One creates stagnation in society. While the other mentality seeks the truth.
People who are investigating this process on their own are much further a long the path of truth then those who just repeat wrote memorized lessons from official sources of information provided by your exalted overlords.
Re:Larger planet; more gravity. (Score:4, Insightful)
What if we find a planet that is just like Earth; and has a thriving ecosystem; but has much more gravity than Earth? We would need exoskeleton suits to walk around until we got used to it. But I guess we will find Earth 2.0 eventually that is just right. But even a planet like Venus could have life in the upper atmosphere. And there are theories that even Neutron stars harbour life under the surface. Life will always find a way. Not all aliens are humanoid with funny things on their foreheads.
If we find a planet with life on it (ie. is habitable), our chances of getting there is slim to none. We don't need to worry about exoskeletons or genetic upgrades because we do NOT have the tech, not even close, to be able to travel to another solar system.