Comments on: Why you should care about the planet found orbiting Alpha Centauri, even though it's not a good place to live

By: DougSpace

DougSpace — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 04:48:00 +0000

Yeah. You’re right. Hate to say it but you are.

By: Autonymous Media Daemon

Autonymous Media Daemon — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 01:52:00 +0000

Obviously we should name it Chiron.

By: Autonymous Media Daemon

Autonymous Media Daemon — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 01:49:00 +0000

Interstellar exploration (and eventual colonisation) is a matter of life and death for seven billion (and counting) people, and the rest of life as we know it.Dealing with the staggering problems which beset us here and now is critical, but that shouldn’t mean that we should turn our backs to the stars.

By: An Infinitude of Tortoises

An Infinitude of Tortoises — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 20:30:00 +0000

Lemoutan: Smith had, on various occasions, diamonds the size of rock candy, platinum by the pound, even some cosmonium (“the quintessence of the living force”); he was also declared king of a well-off alien civilization, which has to count for something (until the regicide clause goes into effect, anyhow).

The problem, of course, is that none of this bought him anything, except perhaps trouble.

By: Lemoutan

Lemoutan — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:10:00 +0000

But Dr Smith had no disposable income.

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:17:00 +0000

I doubt that the first mission to Alpha Centauri will be launched from the surface of the Earth.

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:13:00 +0000

Even back when that show was on TV I wondered how they could be such bad navigators. You go south and stop at the first star.

By: Dan Burman

Dan Burman — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 05:10:00 +0000

Over a long enough time scale, ANYTHING happening becomes pretty damn likely. So yes, I would say that there is a very real likelyhood that we will come up with very fast methods of transportation indeed, particularly when it becomes something that we need to do (i.e. if the Earth becomes inhospitable) rather than something that would just be pretty cool.

By: John Barber

John Barber — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 05:02:00 +0000

I was wondering how one pronounces Alpha Centauri Bb. Is it Alpha Centauri B flat?

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 04:54:00 +0000

Ah, Vir…

By: ujin

ujin — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 04:32:00 +0000

The phrase “other Centaurian worlds” did amazing things to my imagination.

By: An Infinitude of Tortoises

An Infinitude of Tortoises — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 03:04:00 +0000

They sometimes know how to get back to Earth, or think they do, but for the most part they are indeed lost … in space. However, they (excluding Dr. Smith, obviously) remain steadfast in their hopes of reaching Alpha Centauri.

As for the family’s supposed unwillingness to sell Will into prostitution, I will merely note that they seem quite comfortable letting him hang out with Dr. Smith and leave it at that.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 02:01:00 +0000

But throughout their peregrinations, they often know how to return to Earth. They just don’t have the fuel or aren’t willing to sell Will into prostitution.

By: An Infinitude of Tortoises

An Infinitude of Tortoises — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 01:09:00 +0000

But consider, Dan: this is perhaps the most dramatic evidence to date suggesting that ours is a universe (or at least a galaxy) full of planets. Even our [next-]nearest stellar neighbor has them! Consider the implications of that.

By: An Infinitude of Tortoises

An Infinitude of Tortoises — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 01:03:00 +0000

Pelham it’s not.

By: An Infinitude of Tortoises

An Infinitude of Tortoises — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:57:00 +0000

2063? Ha, everyone recalls that the first colonization mission to the Alpha Centauri system departed in 1997!

(Granted, things didn’t quite work out for it….)

By: An Infinitude of Tortoises

An Infinitude of Tortoises — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:53:00 +0000

With a crewless probe, of course, there’s no particular reason to stick to the 1G acceleration rate (or even the deceleration, if it’s a fly-by mission). Then again, even achieving such an acceleration over a prolonged period is no doubt challenge enough!

By: An Infinitude of Tortoises

An Infinitude of Tortoises — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:49:00 +0000

Not that we’d even want to attempt it with our current technology, to be sure. However, when our technology is up to the task, consider that the benefits of relativistic time-dilation may come into play, improving the trip duration somewhat.

By: An Infinitude of Tortoises

An Infinitude of Tortoises — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:45:00 +0000

Yes, I'd like to think so (to both parts of that that). But first, remember, "a series of deep-thrust telescopic probes" (no doubt prompted by the theories of planetary habitability developed by Dr. Donald West) must "conclusively [establish] a planet orbiting the star Alpha Centauri as the only one within range of our technology able to furnish ideal conditions for human existence." The one just discovered certainly doesn't fit that bill. Note, however, the propitious day of the announcement!

By: An Infinitude of Tortoises

An Infinitude of Tortoises — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:39:00 +0000

From the writers’ perspective, assuredly!

By: An Infinitude of Tortoises

An Infinitude of Tortoises — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:38:00 +0000

Actually, they weren’t hijacked so much as sabotaged — ineptly, so that the saboteur remained stuck with them.

One might say they were, as a result, spatially misplaced.

By: niktemadur

niktemadur — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Zefram Cochrane? I’m thinking Trevize, Pelorat, Bliss and Bander making their way to New Earth in Asimov’s “Foundation And Earth”.

By: eldritch

eldritch — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 21:57:00 +0000

Ooh! I know! Call it “Tantalus”! Always seemingly within reach, but never actually obtainable!

By: eldritch

eldritch — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 21:55:00 +0000

Don’t forget first contact with the Vulcans! That’s the most interesting part. I mean, honestly – meeting another sapient species that not only is humanoid, but also by strange coincidence named themselves after ancient earth mythology? AND they speak English? That’s proof of a god, right there!

By: eldritch

eldritch — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 21:53:00 +0000

Agreed on the second and third points, but the first point contains a colossal IF in it.

What real likelihood is there that we ever find a way to travel at large fractions of the speed of light? To say that this puts an exo-planet in our grasp is staggeringly premature.

By: eldritch

eldritch — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 21:50:00 +0000

Lots of things are awesome. Doesn’t mean they’re good for people as individuals or as a species. Setting off a nuke is pretty awesome (as a planet we’ve done it 2053 times!), but at worst it vaporizes cities and at best it poisons remote regions of the planets for eons to come and wastes untold resources in the name of ideological proxy warfare.

The returns are too little, the costs too high. We have more pressing business on our own world – literally matters of life and death that concern millions and millions of people.

By: eldritch

eldritch — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 21:41:00 +0000

It’s a distance that would take CENTURIES to traverse, even with technology that today is only theoretical.

It’s a waste of time. Let’s work on problems at home first. The universe can wait for us to grow up as a species, learn to controll ourselves and live without brutality and greed.

By: Little Mouse

Little Mouse — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 21:29:00 +0000

Ah, but the real question is which faction of humanity will join with the native planet mind to become a god?

On a more serious note I find this incredibly cool. I hope one day in the not extremely distant future we’ll at least be able to send probes to the closest star systems. How do their rocks and dirt compare to ours? Do any of these potential planets have weather systems like us (or even like the gas giants/ Titan)? Do they have tectonic plate movement? How strong are their magnetic fields? So many things to find out about…

By: penguinchris

penguinchris — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 20:53:00 +0000

We do already know the timeline – it’s not an eternal “5-10 years out” thing here. Zefram Cochrane makes his first successful warp flight in 2063. NASA could probably do it earlier, but WWIII gets in the way.

I am not sure why I feel that a geektastic discussion of Star Trek history is more relevant than correcting Maggie’s math, but I do. In case anyone didn’t understand the reference, Zefram Cochrane eventually settles on an Alpha Centauri colony (among the first interstellar colonists from earth) after inventing the warp drive.

By: Roger Nattkemper

Roger Nattkemper — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 19:58:00 +0000

This irritated my nerd bone.
Kansas City to Tokyo = 6255.5 miles = Dkct
Distance to Alpha Centauri = 2.57^7M miles = Dac
Distance to Mars = 140M miles = Dm

(Dm/Dac) * Dkct = ~40 ft

In other words, our trip to Mars, if Tokyo was Alpha Centauri, would be the equivalent of travelling about 40 feet from the center of Kansas City.

Space is mindbogglingly huge.
(I don’t need to say this, but if I made an error let me know and I’ll fix)