Kepler discovered a system of 11-billion-year-old PLANETS!

[AsukaZ]

So more term in the Drake Equation becomes a little clearer then.
Yes Interesting.

 

[WalterHWhite]

Regardless of FTL (and the age of any potential civ over there), our radio transmissions have travelled a fair portion of that distance. I wonder whether any civ that's surpassed our technological achievements would care to listen.

 

[Bluefalcon8560]

maybe there should be a dedicated astronomy thread where people talk about all the new neat stuff that's being discovered, like this, J1407b, etc...

^^This
Seems to me that this is exactly what we need as we are all getting more astronomical. I hope the devs are listening.

BF

 

[AsukaZ]

Regardless of FTL (and the age of any potential civ over there), our radio transmissions have travelled a fair portion of that distance. I wonder whether any civ that's surpassed our technological achievements would care to listen.

Maybe they might be as pleasantly surprised as we would be.
Or maybe as Douglas Adams put it -

" ... and in some of the more civilzed areas of space, human thought is classified as 'Noise pollution' ... "

 

[KellyR]

Sure, 117 ly is a breeze with an upgraded FSD. Not sure if backyard is really the terminology when FTL is by current understanding, never going to be possible.

You've obviously never heard of the Alcubierre Metric. This posits that space can be contracted in front of the craft and expanded behind it. The craft remains motionless within the bubble, but the bubble itself travels faster than light. Also, NASA is in the infant stages of researching warp fields. Google IXS Enterprise. It's just a concept, but NASA is taking it seriously.

Just give it some time (like 100 years or so) and we'll be flying through space faster than light. You know us humans. We exhaust all logical avenues and then start looking at illogical avenues until we find a solution.