Humans likely alone in universe, study reports

Not sure. But I would think there are basically three funding sources. Gov't,(tax payer dollars), corporations, or individuals who have lotsa money.

 

For one, any solar flare will be regional. Secondly, shutting off any regional grid would cost billions in economics and enormous disruption if not death which no Government wants. Third knowing where the impact will be is at best iffy making further research needed (like this mission) and very broad shut down required. Finally would be the warning times having logistic limitations.

How would you react if your country decided to black out your states for a couple days? Would you expect them to replace the food in your fridge and would you just avoid driving when the signal lights didn't work? What of the lack of water when all pumps no longer worked....sewage?

 

Have you forwarded your expert opinion to the people charged with being in charge of thse things? Or did you pause to consider that you might not know what you are talking about?

 

I need to stay in the realm of science to explain and/or theorize stuff...

 

Solar flares are not predictable. They are detectable and ever how long it takes them to reach Earth is the warning time...they happen daily but it's the bigger ones which can effect equipment and humans. Most all research is a good thing...

 

$20 billion a year is a lot of dollars just for a variety of guesswork, double-speak, hyperbole, and
'artists impressions' about deep space? But hey, they're your dollars. And if your military budget is that much then I suggest you stop engaging in misbegotten wars all over the place?

 

And for an adult you seem to be extremely gullible; but I'm not going to get into name-calling. But one last thing - Mars has a hostile environment and humans would be unable to live there; and that's even if they could actually get there themselves, plus the conveyancing of all the raw materials to build the infrastructures for the required towns and cities - can you imagine that? - and the soil to make fields in which to grow fruit vegetables - fruit and vegetables won't grow in dust you know (or 'star-dust' as we have to call it ). Oh, not forgetting an ocean or two so we could have fish to go with the vegetables. Do I really have to explain those basic facts?? I mean, sit down and think about it all, instead of just blindly believing everything you're told without questioning it???

 

I'm afraid some things are impossible to predict, and solar flares are one of them because they're so frequent and more importantly haphazard. Not everything in nature is how we would prefer it to be?

 

Sunspots and solar "Sound" are indicators, probes like the one you complain of and SOHO also allow for a measure of prediction. This will inevitably improve but, absolute prediction is not possible.

 

Considering the vastness of the universe, and our limited ability to view it as it exists at this moment in time, a much more appropriate conclusion of the study should be that we will likely never know if what we call human life forms exist elsewhere.
One thing for certain though, is that all life on Earth, and the Earth itself, will eventually cease to exist, if not by our own doing by nature a certainty.

 

We can see them happen in real time and they travel at about 1 million mph ( IIRC), so we have about 93 hours to do something.

I recall reading awhile back that they thought of turning satellites off for the big flares. Not sure where that went.

 

Emissions from the Sun take about 8 minutes to reach the earth, and they travel at the speed of light or about 670 million miles per hour. It takes about 5.3 hours for the Suns emissions to reach Pluto.

 

I agree a Mars colonization isn't going to happen because of all of those difficulties except one , you don't need great soil or any soil at all for growing plants, just water...

 

you completely avoided acknowledging the cost of switching off the entire globe...that $20billion, that's technological research and development that the entire globe is benefiting from that came from NASA...what you're using every time you get on a computer or cellphone... computer and electronic miniaturization was driven by NASA,...foil blankets, memory foam, wireless headsets, CAT Scans, LED's, advanced home insulation , artificial limbs/robotics, computer mouse, the laptop, water purification and many, many more...so trillions of $ for $20 billion, a very good return on investment dollars spent....

 

But why must they 'touch the sun' ( ) in order to overcome the switching-off problems? What can going there tell them? The spontaneous flares are going to happen anyway, so why not just concentrate on protecting the satellites etc. and not bother with the prodigious expense of going? I'll tell you why - because they want to get as much mileage out of this as possible to justify the funding and their jobs for life. And who could blame them? Not I - they're not my dollars.

 

No, as I keep up on this stuff myself. But we don't really let naysayers stop us from aiming high. Else we wouldn't have airplanes, or vaccines.

 

So, you know that solar flares are "haphazard"?

Really?

 

Whatever! You obviously can't discern the difference 'twixt real science and fake science, and I can tell when I'm on a hiding to nothing.

 

If they're not, how often do they occur and on what timescale?

(Jesus!)

 

Says the guy saying ridculous things about the topic from a position of very obvious ignorance...you're just trolling. Fine, embarrass yourself all you like.

 

Did you bother to go look up the answer yourself? Of course not.

 

Humans/animals are just along for the ride...but since most of us cannot comprehend geologic time spans, we recklessly carry on as if our time on Earth is unlimited...as you point out...it is not...

 

forget geologic time spans I still can't really comprehend historical time spans, even a thousand years is hard to conceptualize...

 

Now you are starting to get closer to what this mission is about.

It appears that NASA hasn't accepted your answers at this point.

 

Whether or not life exists on other planets, is ABSOLUTELY dependent on HOW the origin of life started here. And we DONT KNOW.

Thus, it is ENTIRELY OPEN whether or not life exists elsewhere.

IF life on earth starting was a fluke, then not likely other places. Particularly if it only could occur early. ETC.