Run of out land in what way, though? We've certainly got enough space for billions of more people. Resources, maybe, but then if we have the technology to make Mars habitable and productive, then I'm pretty sure we have the technology to increase our crop yield without terraforming another planet. It's much more likely that we'll start mining asteroids and comets for any kind of other resource we're lacking.
Astronomy & Space Exploration
- Thread starter MrMarcello
- Start date
We shouldn't run out of land given that we're wasting so much of it in places like Mongolia, Russia, Canada, Australia, Kazakhstan etc. - basically very large countries with low population densities. We would need to get rid of nation states as we know them today to facilitate easier migration to lesser populated areas of the world to harness all the land the planet has available. Of course, I don't think any of this will come into play for many decades when many of us won't be around anymore.
Yes I was going to ask the same thing.
What is absolutely vital is making sure that we reduce the worst effects of man made climate change here.
Mars is very very far from Ideal for humanity
I am all for space exploration.
But I am highly doubtful that we will ever find another planet even remotely as hospitable as Earth.
There aren't that many stars within say 20 LY of Earth.
It wont be. It wont even be desirable.
Any resources gained will be lost getting to and from the planet. Its an objectively dumb idea to be honest.
A research station or two and maybe a refueling, launch station for exploration beyond is possible. Everything else is total bolox for hundreds of years in the best case scenario.
Deducing is not fact or proof though, its just assumptions and we won't truly know if life exists anywhere in the Universe, if we don't find any actual signs of life in our Solar System on Mars or Europa etc.
That's true, although it wouldn't exactly move the needle if we discovered microbial life on Mars since most already believe its entirely possible, and by extension, it wouldn't be surprising to one day learn its not uncommon given the amount of exoplanets there are.
What about if organic gases are discovered in their atmosphere?
Organic gases may have a geological origin. What we need to be detecting are gases like CFCs and HCFCs, gases which are synthetic and not naturally occurring.
Yeah, the Webb telescope has found Co2 and methane on exoplanets, but it's not proof of life just proof of carbon.
It has possibly found dimethyl sulfide though which needs more study to make sure it has, and that is only produced by life as far as we know.
https://www.nasa.gov/universe/exopl...hane-carbon-dioxide-in-atmosphere-of-k2-18-b/
Thank you.
I think realistically we are looking for signatures of microbial life. Even Earth wouldn't have shown any evidence of technology until about 150 years ago.
For exoplanets in systems older than ours I think it's reasonable to look for synthetic compounds, but those of a similar age you are probably right.
I wouldn't expect it to be so deterministic how long it takes to evolve to a technological civilization on a planet so I think even for much younger planets I would also look for that. The last massive ice age ended about 580 million years ago (massive as in "Snowball Earth", almost the entire surface covered in ice). So Earth had less than 600mln years of a climate stable enough to allow the development of complex life, despite being 7 times that age in total. Other similar planet's might not need 4 billion years to reach that stage, so could be billions of years ahead in the development of complex life even if the planet is younger than Earth.
On the other hand there is no automatism for evolution to select for the capabilities that enable a species to develop a civilization at all.
I knew I put that stuff somewhere
Shooting annoying celebrities who are too rich to know what to do with their money into space is awesome. But why do they let 'em back in?
I've just been hoping Elon will convince Trump to become the first president in space so we can shoot him into the sun.
Why shoot them into the sun when you can shoot them into Uranus and get an infantile giggle out of it, too?
Well several posters above must be very pleased that their wishes for JWST to detect organic molecules in the atmosphere of exoplanets only produced by life here on Earth has been discovered.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c39jj9vkr34o
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c39jj9vkr34o
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c39jj9vkr34o
Scientists have found new but tentative evidence that a faraway world orbiting another star may be home to life.
A Cambridge team studying the atmosphere of a planet called K2-18b has detected signs of molecules which on Earth are only produced by simple organisms.
Scientists have found new but tentative evidence that a faraway world orbiting another star may be home to life.
A Cambridge team studying the atmosphere of a planet called K2-18b has detected signs of molecules which on Earth are only produced by simple organisms.
Its 124 light years away, so we'll never really get concrete evidence will we?
Only if they have invented concrete.
Faraway planktons.
How the feck can you detect molecules from 700 trillion miles away ffs.
We will likely get better evidence when better telescopes and instruments become available. A really exact proof however is very unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future.
But with next gen telescopes we will get to know more, the ELT for example just reached a major construction milestone, work there goes well.
In 124 light years we'd be winning the league...
The light passing through the atmosphere changes it ever so slightly, and we can see that.
Just Google Streetview it, you luddites.
Have you tried to use streetview with a 124-year lag? Really ain't fun.
Scientists find 'strongest evidence yet' of life on distant planet
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c39jj9vkr34o
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/science/astronomy-exoplanets-habitable-k218b.html
"Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, have detected the chemical fingerprints of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and/or dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), in the atmosphere of the exoplanet K2-18b, which orbits its star in the habitable zone. On Earth, DMS and DMDS are only produced by life, primarily microbial life such as marine phytoplankton. While an unknown chemical process may be the source of these molecules in K2-18b’s atmosphere, the results are the strongest evidence yet that life may exist on a planet outside our solar system".
-----------------------
A deeper dive here.
All molecules have a unique signature.
The JWST can detect such signatures surprisingly accurately such that distance is not really a problem.
Distance is still a huge problem. K2-18b is actually one of the closest transiting planets to Earth which is why it is so well studied.
Thank you for this.