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More on the Waterworld Goldilocks Planet 107

Posted by CmdrTaco from the wouldn't-wanna-live-there dept.
goldilocksmission writes with this snippet from Goldilocks Mission: "News spread recently about a super-earth-sized planet that has been recently discovered to contain one of the most essential compounds for life to exist in the universe: water. ... GJ1214b is a massive planet that can house about six earths and is about forty light-years away from us. ... The significant discovery leap of detecting Gliese 581d to the more goldilocks planet oriented GJ1214b is a testament to the advances in the technology of detecting earth-like exoplanets."
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More on the Waterworld Goldilocks Planet More

More on the Waterworld Goldilocks Planet

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  • Goldilocks? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Reason58 ( 775044 ) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @12:59PM (#30545556)
    I don't get the Goldilocks reference. Is it because this planet is "just right"? If so, shouldn't it be called the Baby Bear planet?

    • Re:Goldilocks? (Score:4, Funny)

      by Scrameustache ( 459504 ) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @01:02PM (#30545588) Homepage Journal

      I don't get the Goldilocks reference. Is it because this planet is "just right"? If so, shouldn't it be called the Baby Bear planet?

      If you find a baby bear planet you're probably about to be mauled by a mama bear planet.

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Maybe it's because like Goldilocks, we'll go in and still all of their resources.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Aeros ( 668253 )
        still them? As in use all their resources to make all kinds of spirits? Good idea!
    • let me Google that for you: http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=goldilocks+planet [lmgtfy.com]

    • Re:Goldilocks? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 24, 2009 @01:09PM (#30545666)

      As a serious answer, the Goldilocks zone is the orbital distance that lends itself to an earth-like amount of incident solar energy and (potentially) a higher likelihood of life friendly conditions existing.

      The porridge isn't too hot or too cold... it's just right.

      • So it is just one of those things like when people refer to the giant reanimated corpse as Frankenstein when it isn't.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Beardo the Bearded ( 321478 )

          We're Goldilocks; we're looking at the porridges and beds... er, planets, and finding ones that are too cold, too hot, too hard, too soft...

          and then we find one that's juuuust right.

          A planet that's (relatively) close that wouldn't require terraforming? There are no languages that have the words to describe how incredibly valuable such a find would be if we could get there. Humans forever -- even destroying Earth wouldn't stop us.

          I've always called Frankenstein's monster a Flesh Golem, but that's just me.

        • The flesh golem put together by Victor Frankenstein named himself Adam. And because he'd probably be legally the "son" of Victor Frankenstein (in the same way Pinocchio is considered Geppetto's "son"), he'd more than likely have inherited the surname had Victor not been so repulsed.

          • In the book, the monster only calls himself Adam in passing (when discussing Paradise Lost) before deciding that he's probably more like Milton's Satan (before dismissing that idea too, on the grounds that Satan was never as lonely as he is). He doesn't seriously take the name Adam; he remains nameless throughout.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by ncohafmuta ( 577957 )

        except that they estimate the surface temp. of the planet is 200 deg. C. how is that in the Goldilocks zone?

        -Tony

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by jonadab ( 583620 )
          > they estimate the surface temp. of the planet is 200 deg. C. how is that in the Goldilocks zone?

          They're desperate.

          You see, they want to find another planet besides Earth that's (at least potentially) capable of supporting life. If they found such a thing, even if there's no life actually on it, it would demonstrate the principle that inhabitable worlds exist besides Earth. This would help them to feel better about their belief that extra-terrestrial intelligent life must exist.

          So they're desperate to

          • i dont know, i'd rather rocky than 100% covered with methane oceans. i'm exaggerating of course.

            surely, taking in account the size of the universe and what we've found already, statistics would suggest that there's another earth-like planet out there, if not more.

            now if only we could figure out either:
            1. faster than light travel so we wouldn't be on death's door by the time we get there/transport people there.
            2. figure out how to make humans live to thousands of years old so faster than light travel doesn't

      • I really like this new term. It expands my vocabulary greatly. Instead of saying I want the right-sized monitor, I can say I want a Goldilocks monitor. Or instead of the right temperature in my house, I can say I want the Goldilocks temperature. Then people will have to ask me what the hell I mean, and I can enjoy answering. Of course I can't just say that it means "suitable"; I must tell a story involving bears and porridge.

  • Re: one of the most essential compounds for life (Score:5, Funny)

    by ibsteve2u ( 1184603 ) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @01:00PM (#30545576)
    I thought it was going to say beer.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by sconeu ( 64226 )

      mmmmm.... Beer.....

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      There should totally be an x-prize for discovering a beer planet.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jonadab ( 583620 )
      These guys are scientists, so they'd consider beer to be a mixture (or possibly a solution) rather than a compound.

  • something I could not figure out about waterworld (Score:5, Funny)

    by ravenspear ( 756059 ) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @01:07PM (#30545648)
    How did they get fuel for the fricking jet skis?

  • nothing new here (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dumuzi ( 1497471 ) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @01:11PM (#30545682) Journal
    If you RTFA there is nothing new here. In fact this is more of an advertisement for some wackjob organization called Goldilocks Mission. "The Goldilocks Mission is sending an open invitation to men and women around the globe between 18 and 34 years of age, healthy in every way and in top physical and psychological condition, and who have read the book, GOLDILOCKS MISSION: Man’s Next Migration." They are looking for "Skydets" who will live in a "Space Center" "in a corner of Southwestern New Mexico" to research humanities next migration to the stars. It has the feel of a new cult.

    • Re:nothing new here (Score:4, Interesting)

      by east coast ( 590680 ) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @01:21PM (#30545784)
      It has the feel of a new cult.

      That's exactly what the Vatican told Galileo!

      • Re:nothing new here (Score:4, Insightful)

        by FooAtWFU ( 699187 ) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @03:57PM (#30546884) Homepage

        No, it isn't. First, his employing university told Galileo that teaching this sort of bleeding-edge science, some of which was outright wrong (including, for instance, his theory of the tides, and his characterizations of pendulums), and furthermore wildly contrasted with the current philisophical-scientific consensus. If you were the dean and your faculty started teaching the Electric Universe, you might be concerned too, even if those kooks ended up being right in another 200 years. Then when he wrote a book on the matter and Urban VIII asked him to try and go for a neutral point of view on things (a la Wikipedia's design standards, perhaps) he called the Pope's geocentrism guy "Simplicio" and made him look like an idiot. Bad political move. Then Urban acted like a typical 17th-century Italian nobleman - if anything, probably he was somewhat mild for that archetype.

        A tragedy of politics and underdeveloped notions of scientific rigor in the extant culture, but cults hade nothing to do with it.

    • Re:nothing new here (Score:5, Funny)

      by Snarkalicious ( 1589343 ) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @01:21PM (#30545792)
      This KoolAid is juuusssst right.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      Slashdot definitely got trolled. The article itself is pretty funny. Besides the bits you mention about the "Goldilocks Mission," they also think the planet is habitable but they might have to build a space elevator because it's thick atmosphere will block out light.

      I wonder how many 18-34 year old women in top physical condition they get, who are willing to live in a "Space Center" in the desert?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Nutria ( 679911 )

      It has the feel of a new cult.

      Not only that, but they have the inane thought that a planet 1/40th of the distance from Mercury to Sol might actually be habitable because "a red dwarf ... is significantly more than three hundred times cooler than our own", neglecting the inverse square law, and that it would be red light, not the rainbow spectrum we require.

    • If you RTFA there is nothing new here. In fact this is more of an advertisement for some wackjob organization called Goldilocks Mission. "The Goldilocks Mission is sending an open invitation to men and women around the globe between 18 and 34 years of age, healthy in every way and in top physical and psychological condition, and who have read the book, GOLDILOCKS MISSION: Man’s Next Migration." They are looking for "Skydets" who will live in a "Space Center" "in a corner of Southwestern New Mexico" to research humanities next migration to the stars. It has the feel of a new cult.

      It's not cult. The organization is in its early stages. They are quite serious about it. In fact, the goal is to do it within the next three decades. Emerging technologies today will continue to develop quite rapidly as we have seen in the past 60 years alone. I would highly recommend reading the book Man's Next Migration http://www.goldilocksmission.com/mans-next-migration-book.html [goldilocksmission.com].

  • Higher Ice Phases (Score:3, Informative)

    by mbone ( 558574 ) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @01:20PM (#30545780)

    A "waterworld" would actually have a fairly shallow ocean, on the order of 75 to 100 km deep for an Earth size planet, as other ice phases would form at the bottom of the ocean [arxiv.org] at depth.

  • I was hoping to read about a planet full of blond beauties in bikinis

  • Inaccurate article (Score:5, Informative)

    by plavchan ( 1707148 ) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @01:42PM (#30545982)
    Contrary to what the article states, MEarth is not an amateur astronomy group. MEarth is headed by the former Discover Magazine's Scientist of the Year, Harvard professor David Charbonneau. The business of identifying tiny changes in the brightness in the star from among an ensemble of thousands of carefully selected targets is no easy task. That being said, many amateur scientists have been able to follow-up and confirm transiting planets. I say amateur, but many have telescope rigs and detectors costing upwards of $50k (USD). In that sense, the amateur community has contributed greatly to the follow-up of transiting planets. Also, the article mentions GJ 1214 to be 300 times "cooler" than the Sun. It's 300 times less luminous, not cooler (although the stellar surface is cooler by a factor of a few). I will wait for the confirmation of water from transit transmission and absorption spectroscopy.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jonadab ( 583620 )
      > Contrary to what the article states, MEarth is not an amateur astronomy group. MEarth is
      > headed by the former Discover Magazine's Scientist of the Year, Harvard professor David Charbonneau.

      Being headed by someone of high qualifications does not in any way preclude being an amateur group, especially in the older senses of the word "amateur".
    • I agree and apologize for using the "amateur" word. They are great scientists and should be commended for this discovery. I will ask the blog writer to amend that part including the part about luminosity.

  • Reading the article doesn't add much credence to what they are claiming. Seems like an advertisement for some fringe group. The article is lacking in scientific explanation. How do they know there's water on the planet etc...

  • I'll say it... (Score:5, Funny)

    by shaitand ( 626655 ) on Thursday December 24, 2009 @02:40PM (#30546382) Journal

    The real question on everyone's mind is when can we start having sex with the exotic natives?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mevets ( 322601 )

      I must be getting old. I was wondering how they would be best cooked....

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You first, my good man. We sincerely await your forthcoming J. Astrobio. paper, "Surprising Prevalence of Vaginal Dentata Amongst Tripedal Natives of GJ 1214" .

    • The real question on everyone's mind is when can we start having sex with the exotic natives?

      Look around you. Everything non-human on this planet would qualify as 'exotic natives'. I'm fairly certain most would only go for the humanoid species, but what makes you think that any intelligent alien life form would be prettier than an orangutan?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by jonadab ( 583620 )
      You may not want to. The way it works for them is, the female captures a male, forces him into her reproductive organ, and clamps down, smothering him. As the male suffocates, his body convulses rapidly (which brings the female pleasure). When he is finally dead, the reproductive pods on his surface rupture, releasing his genetic material, which impregnates the female (if she is not using contraceptives). The pods also release a hormone which causes the female more pleasure. Her reproductive cavity the

  • Waterworld Goldilocks? (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I was half expecting Kevin Costner with long blonde hair.

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