Should we send scientists to the of new Earth like planet that was discovered this week?

I don’t think that sending humans to the new-found Earth-like planet would be such a good idea just yet, until we know quite a bit more about the similarities of this planet to ours and whether humans, or any form of life could truly exist on this planet. An article on MSN stated that this new found planet is over 5 times the size of planet Earth and the sun within its solar system is only 1/5 the size of ours. Since the sun is significantly smaller and fainter in this solar system, it begs the question whether its effect on this planet is sufficient to sustain life on it.

This planet is also in a solar system 28,000 light years away. Would scientists be able to travel this distance in space safely? The sun within our solar system is approximately 93 million miles away from Earth, which is roughly 0.00001585 light years, a slight fraction of the distance scientists would have to travel to explore the new planet.

I recently read an article that noted that astronauts could potentially travel up to a few billions of light years in their lifetime, but only if rockets were invented that could travel at the speed of light. Even if they made space travels to far away distances, however, there are some challenges that astronauts would face. For instance, although it may take them only a certain number of years (10 to 30) to travel to a new location located many light years away, the time on Earth would elapse much faster than in space.

If the astronauts travelled too far to explore the universe within the 15 billion light year range that is reached by light from the sun, they could discover upon their return to Earth, that the planet and its sun no longer existed, since several billion (Earth) years could have passed in the meantime. Further, dark energy in space has caused an accelerated expansion of the universe, which puts a limit on human space exploration. Also, when attempting to return back to Earth from such a far away exploration, the spacecraft could miss Earth by thousands of light years and the space traveler would then be lost in space.

Based on this information, I think it is not yet the time for scientists to explore new planets located at this distance in person at this time. There are likely other means of exploration available to space explorers and scientists that would yield safer methods of studying the planet from Earth or from within our own solar system. Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/travel-spaceship/story?id=8674256&page=2.

And the answer is no, we cannot! I will presume you ask though because of the imagined possibility of 'life' on this newly found planet, because it is 'Earth like'! Note being 'Earth like ' is NOT a prerequisite for 'life' In fact what conditions on earth would you judge to be conducive to 'life'?

Just look at the varied conditions on our planets land masses (Desserts, Swamps, Rain Forrest's, Polar Regions) and the varied forms of life that thrive there. Now go deep into the oceans, living organisms have been found around 'hydrothermal vents' (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_smoker) The conditions here are, no sunlight, extreme pressures, extreme temperatures, highly acidic, rich in metal sulfides. About as far from 'Earth like' as you could imagine!

And yet life exists! Scientists are finding more and more forms of life in these extreme conditions and are begining to think that this is where all life on Earth started. http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=665 http://www.extremescience.com/deepcreat4.htm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2541393.stm.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.