New super-earth detected within the habitable zone of a nearby star

This planet is the new best candidate to support liquid water and, perhaps, life as we know it, Anglada-Escudé said.

Only 22 light years from Earth? They ought give this system a better name because I've a feeling we'll be hearing about it for a long time.

Only 22 light years from Earth? They ought give this system a better name because I've a feeling we'll be hearing about it for a long time.

Agreed. I vote it should be named Vulcan.

Can one of you numbers folks tell me at 4.5 times the mass of Earth, what would the gravity be like?

If we could manage 0.5c it would still take 44 years just to get there and 22 years for data to wend its way back to Earth, so 66 years minimum would go by on Earth before you even knew if the probe worked.

If we could manage 0.5c it would still take 44 years just to get there and 22 years for data to wend its way back to Earth, so 66 years minimum would go by on Earth before you even knew if the probe worked.

It doesn't matter to us on Earth how close to c the probe achieves, from our POV it still takes whatever velocity is has as if it were still on Newton time. Besides, at 0.5c there wouldn't be much to write home about as far as shipboard time goes either. You don't get serious help relativity wise till you get to something like 0.8c or 0.9c. Whatever onboard time is like, our POV shows it still takes whatever speed it is at, so even if it were clocking along at 0.999c from our POV it would still take about 22 years to get there, even if it were only a couple of months for onboard clocks.

And if I remember my relativity correctly, time would pass differently for anything traveling at that speed.

This planet is the new best candidate to support liquid water and, perhaps, life as we know it, Anglada-Escudé said.

A very cautious statement indeed considering all the attending problems. Radiation in a 3-star system will be a problem. Gravitational forces for a planet 4.5 times that of earth will be a problem for life similar to earth. The stability of the stars outputs will likely also be a problem.
Hence of course the cautious statement above.

22 light years away; what purpose to knowing that NOW considering how long it would take humanity to reach that planet? Charles Stross, author wrote about some of the challenges (historical precedence) we face with long term planning in his blog "Designing society for posterity".

Regardless, I humbly suggest we work on the means for permanent/ longterm survival in space between Earth and The Moon first. Hollow out an asteroid and use the insides for building materials. Install an airtight liner on the hollowed out insides. Jonah had a whale.

But first, get industry out into space - presently we have only a few explorers of the edge, and on a very tight budget at that.

If we could manage 0.5c it would still take 44 years just to get there

And if I remember my relativity correctly, time would pass differently for anything traveling at that speed.

One, even baseball sized celestial jaywalker would do catastrophic damage to any craft

One, even baseball sized celestial jaywalker would do catastrophic damage to any craft

Baseball? How about a speck of dust. :)

. A planet with 5 earth masses and a radius 5

if one were to achieve 0.5c, how would collision avoidance be carried out?

"Gravitational forces for a planet 4.5 times that of earth will be a problem for life similar to earth."

Depends on the planets density and how far the surface is from the centre of mass.

if one were to achieve 0.5c, how would collision avoidance be carried out?

It wouldn't. Even the impact of a grain of sand has the force of a small atomic bomb at those speeds. No way you can look ahead far enough to detect/avoid that.

Now that's easy said than done.. Incredibly strong and huge magnetic fields (extending hundreds of km in front of the craft) will be needed to provide at least some degree of deflection

More evidence that cosmic evolution models ("swirling clouds of gas") are incorrect.

Neither is it impossible to have a hundred times rouge at roulette. But by that time the players will probably demand an alternative explanation from the croupier than "chance".

have ONE observation of an unlikely event

Look: No one is saying science already knows everything (that would be antithetical to what science IS). But your 'observations' of things that seemingly 'show' that the current model is completely false is just so far over the insanity horizon (and accelerating) that its not even funny to poke at.

Star formation will never be known by science because the alledged process cannot be observed on a human timescale.

So you think any process that takes longer than 120 years

Tree formation will never be known

Tree growth can be observed over several years. Star formation however is supposed to occur on timescales that lie beyond any human existence or meaningful human observation.

Star formation will never be known by science because the alledged process cannot be observed on a human timescale.

Furthermore, the underlying physics is questionable and many star systems go against the predictions. Even our own solar system cannot be explained by swirling dust clouds.

We see stars in all sorts of stages of being formed

Agreed. I vote it should be named Vulcan.

Can one of you numbers folks tell me at 4.5 times the mass of Earth, what would the gravity be like?

But there are still tons of variables involved to have habitability. Needs both nitrogen and CO2 atmosphere, etc.

We see stars in all sorts of stages of being formed

Only if you already assume star formation is true. That would make it a fine example of circular reasoning. The idea that these stages represent stellar death rather than birth is equally valid. It is also more plausible since we actually have observed star deaths (supernovae).