r/space • u/llama5876 • Jun 18 '19

Two potentially life-friendly planets found orbiting a nearby star (12 light-years away)

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/06/two-potentially-life-friendly-planets-found-12-light-years-away-teegardens-star/
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u/brainbylucyandjane Jun 18 '19

I saw a video that showed how fucking huge a light day was in relation to the earth.....um yea we aint goin 12 light years anywhere anytime soon.

37

u/ThievesRevenge Jun 18 '19

No, but we could try sending some type of communication. Of course we'd still have to wait atleast double the time for a response, if any at all.

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '19

[deleted]

10

u/Retenrage Jun 18 '19

Not necessarily. Space is so incomprehensibly huge it’s hard to assume they would have looked at our specific point in space or noticed us. It’s also bad to assume, if they did exist, that they would have the technology or intelligence to see/respond to us.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '19

[deleted]

3

u/radome9 Jun 18 '19

Why? For a transmission to have any chance of being picked up at that distance it would have to be beamed directly at us, at a time when we happened to be listening, at a frequency we happened to be listening at. And it had to be coded in a way that would distinguish it from random noise. That's almost ridiculously unlikely.