Major scientific inaccuracy of ED based on recent discoveries

Vasious

Vasious
Den Tarr said:
Well I follow this efforts to descover exo-planets with a lot of interest, too.
A few things to remember:

They can only determine mass, distance from star, and orbital period. This together with the data about the star allow for "estimates" about viability for life.

Considering those parameters our solar system has 3 earth like planets. Venus, Earth and Mars. All three have the right mass and orbital parameters.

And we all know how earth-like Mars and Venus are...

Sometimes scientific terms are simply misleading.
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Yes, we are in agreement here, I hope I don't read as I am suggesting the opposite.
As someone else posted above, it comes down to what is Earth-like, as in game it means can without terriforming it can support human life, which is different from supports life, which is different from having the right mass and orbital parameters terriformable or not as you say.
 

Unfluffydave

U
Commander Pickle said:
Anyone who has explored in Elite Dangerous knows that finding an Earth-like planet is hitting the jackpot. They are RARE.

In fact, they are common in the galaxy. So common that our galaxy is practically drowning in them. Scientists have calculated that there are hundreds of billions of earth-like planets and exo-planets.

If ED were accurate, we'd be finding them in the majority of star systems. In fact, we'd probably be finding a few at a time. This of course implies a much greater chance of finding life...and perhaps intelligent life.

I wish ED reflected this reality.

For reference : http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/science-billions-earth-like-exoplanets-milky-way-galaxy-02472.html
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There was nothing in that linked article that presented evidence to back up the claim that there are 2 planets in the goldilocks zone which is the cornerstone of your theory. Care to post a link to something supporting that?
 

Yomamas Fett

Yomamas Fett
I missed the Aliens in every System aproach of the original Elite, Frontier killed them all off (written out) I guess because Frontier was Serious-Stuff, and the generated Aliens of Elite sometimes very goofy. I miss the Avians, it would be fun if occasionally we could make a little Rep and 100c doing "Egg Sitting" missions while a Faction Bigwig goes out for the evening :)



OT: If you accept the Theory of Panspermia (and TBH it's kind of hard to argue against), then Earth-Likes must be relatively close to us, and probably everywhere they can be. So the game is pretty stingey on Earth-likes.

Also, I;ve never been able to work out what the game decides are Terraform Candidates. I've seen planets with the right mix of xygen/Nitrogen/Nobles, the right temperature, and surface water with Ice-caps that scan as "High-Metal Content"; more than once. And Water-worlds, surely some of them are habitable to Humans, but none of them seem to be.
 

Oddball

Oddball
I would just like to add that 'earth like' can be misleading by astronomers as well as game designers.
Yes, many planets like Earth have been found and within their star's 'goldilocks zone' but these tend to be 'Super Earths'. Planets
that are much larger and greater in mass making them unsuitable for Earth-based humans.
 
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the100thmonkey

the100thmonkey
Oddball said:
I would just like to add that 'earth like' can be misleading by astronomers as well as game designers.
Yes, many planets like Earth have been found and within their star's 'goldilocks zone' but these tend to be 'Super Earths'. Planets
that are much larger and greater in mass making them unsuitable for Earth-based humans.
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That's possibly due to methodological bias - Kepler uses the Doppler method to locate planets, which favours worlds with larger masses and therefore higher gravities.

We're not far off direct imaging of exoplanets now. In fact, JWST is supposed to be capable of it. Atmospheric spectroscopy ftw!
 

CMDR Alonso

C
Problem is, a planet can be earth-like, but not be a "garden world" (I think that is a correct term, it is at least not misleading), think that not only orbital period, distance from star and mass affect it, accidents can make it be a wasteland for millions of years, or maybe no life is developed in first place (taking the theory of life being created with such "accidents" (chemical reaction that formed the first cells) so it would also be either a water world with deserts or just a planet full of deserts.

There are lots of things that have to be counted in this that we cannot know irl and even if we could, maybe in the few, or lots, years it would take us to see an earth-like garden type planet, something like an asteroid impact or a massive solar eruption could happen.

Take the earth-likes of E: D as garden worlds
 

Ziggy Stardust

Ziggy Stardust
edd said:
I think we should just wait a couple of hours before continuing with this discussion...

edit: to be less obtuse - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/sci...und-another-Earth-in-corner-of-Milky-Way.html
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I can see my house from here!

286253main_kepler-_3384701b.jpg

Bran Tse Mallory said:
Recently here in the UK we had a rather good Horizon documentary on the subject:
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Yep, watched that, it's quite good.
 
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Lima

Lima
NASA definition of Earth-like: Rocky planet rougly the size of Earth.
Elite definition of Earth-like: Rocky planet with an atmosphere and a liquid ocean.
 

raineer

R
Commander Pickle said:
Anyone who has explored in Elite Dangerous knows that finding an Earth-like planet is hitting the jackpot. They are RARE.

In fact, they are common in the galaxy. So common that our galaxy is practically drowning in them. Scientists have calculated that there are hundreds of billions of earth-like planets and exo-planets.

If ED were accurate, we'd be finding them in the majority of star systems. In fact, we'd probably be finding a few at a time. This of course implies a much greater chance of finding life...and perhaps intelligent life.

I wish ED reflected this reality.

For reference : http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/science-billions-earth-like-exoplanets-milky-way-galaxy-02472.html
Click to expand...

Agree, remove faster than light travel while you're at it ;)
 
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