James Webb observation shows TRAPIST 1e could have Earth like Atmosphere

[gortex]

TRAPPIST-1 is a Red Dwarf Star that hit the headlines a few years ago with the discovery of 7 roughly Earth sized planets in orbit around the Star 3 of which are in the Star's habitable zone , obviously when the Webb telescope was launched the TRAPPIST-1 system was the favourite of Alien hunters to go explore so a team of scientists booked some time on the telescope to take a look , at just 40 light years away they could be our neighbours.
 
The observations so far haven't been promising with TRAPIST-1 b and c having no atmosphere's due to their proximity to the Sar and d likely has a thin atmosphere for the same reason , last week the results for TRAPIST-1 e were announced  ruled out a thin atmosphere or one dominated by Carbon Dioxide like Venus but there are indications TRAPIST-1e could have an Earth like atmosphere dominated by Nitrogen , water , CO2 and Methane. 

TRAPIST-1 is a small dim Star and the planet is likely tidally locked to its parent due to proximity but life could exist in the band between the light and dark side of the planet or heat from the light side could be transferred by the atmosphere so life could exist in the shade of the Star's flares , TRAPIST-1 is estimated to be up to 10 Billion years old so may not be as boisterous as it was as a youth.

15 more observations of TRAPIST-1e are planned before December so I guess the data is quite interesting , expect more detail early next year.

[Kenzo1]

Well the place look`s promising , but there is no way to reach it .


Cant they try finding places more near us ?

[F2d5thCav]

Well the place look`s promising , but there is no way to reach it .


Cant they try finding places more near us ?

The other challenge will be to find life that has not gone extinct.  Be ironic if Trappist E had ruins of a former civilization on it.

[gortex]

Well the place look`s promising , but there is no way to reach it .


Cant they try finding places more near us ?

We have a way to reach it mate but it would take a long time , with an ion drive powering a spacecraft at a constant 1g it would take less than a year to achieve near light speed , then we'd have to wait 40 years for the signal our probe sends back to reach us.

Proxima Centauri b , 4.5 Light Years away , its in its star's habitable zone and it's a bit bigger than Earth , I'm guessing that'll be our first extra-solar destination.

[F2d5thCav]

Has anyone even got a concept for a functional ion drive ?  Sounds like something Musk would be interested in deploying for grins.

ETA: https://patents.justia.com/patents-by-us...ion/60/202

[Kenzo1]

Well the place look`s promising , but there is no way to reach it .


Cant they try finding places more near us ?

We have a way to reach it mate but it would take a long time , with an ion drive powering a spacecraft at a constant 1g it would take less than a year to achieve near light speed , then we'd have to wait 40 years for the signal our probe sends back to reach us.

Proxima Centauri b , 4.5 Light Years away , its in its star's habitable zone and it's a bit bigger than Earth , I'm guessing that'll be our first extra-solar destination.

I dont think i see this in my lifetime i'm afraid   

Last time America was in Moon was 1972 . They should speed up litle bit is my sincere hope .

---

Has anyone even got a concept for a functional ion drive ?  Sounds like something Musk would be interested in deploying for grins.

Romulan empire ? or....klingons.

[gortex]

Has anyone even got a concept for a functional ion drive ?  Sounds like something Musk would be interested in deploying for grins.

ETA: https://patents.justia.com/patents-by-us...ion/60/202

NASA used ion thrusters and engines on the Dawn spacecraft which went out to investigate Dwarf Planes Ceres in 2007 then on to Vesta , I think with new technologies like ion engines and AI to pilot a craft we are getting closer to sending a spacecraft out there to investigate potential neighbours , perhaps 3I/Atlas is such a craft checking us out.

Two ion propulsion engines are required to provide enough thruster lifetime to complete the mission, and the third engine serves as a spare. Since launch the spacecraft has used each of the three ion engines, operating them one at a time. Dawn will use ion propulsion with interruptions of only a few hours each week to turn to point the spacecraft's antenna to Earth. Total thrust time to reach the first science orbit will be 979 days, with more than 2,000 days of thrust through entire the mission. This surpasses Deep Space 1's 678 days of ion propulsion operation by a long shot.

The thrusters work by using an electrical charge to accelerate ions from xenon fuel to a speed 7-10 times that of chemical engines. The electrical power level and xenon fuel feed can be adjusted to throttle each engine up or down in thrust. The engines are thrifty with fuel, using only about 3.25 milligrams of xenon per second (about 10 ounces over 24 hours) at maximum thrust. The Dawn spacecraft carried 425 kilograms (937 pounds) of xenon propellant at launch. Xenon was chosen because it is chemically inert, easily stored in a compact form, and the atoms are relatively heavy so they provide a relatively large thrust compared to other candidate propellants. At launch, the gaseous xenon stored in the fuel tank was 1.5 times the density of water. At maximum thrust, each engine produces a total of 91 millinewtons—about the amount of force involved in holding a single piece of notebook paper in your hand.

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/dawn/te...ropulsion/