In a galaxy, far, far, away...

[McZiderRed]

You can bimble along quite happily, look up to the night sky and think "I wonder how many of those star's have planets?"

Then along comes the technology to pick up a star's wobble , which means that a planet or two is orbiting it. Great.

Now though, a gert plethora of the blemin' things have been found! Scientists announce planet bounty Where will it all end?!

The size of these so called 'small planets', is approx FIVE times the size of earth, none of which are in the habital zone. So no life there then...

However, the ability to see Earth size planets will soon be a reality, and so our next extraterritorial destination will be known!

This is all well and good, you may ask, and why are you boring me with this on a [enter day of the week here] with it! Well, with the prospect of NASA and possibly other countries going to the moon, new planets that are KNOWN to exist, that may harbour life, will excite the powers that can, to try to build space craft to reach the possible inhabitable planets! And launching from the moon is easier!

As they say in science fiction, and possibly soon in the Whitehouse, "Today the International Space Station, tomorrow Epsilon Eridani 1" *

What does everyone think then. "Forbidden Planet" here we come! Or are we lost in space (or possibly our own solar system!?)


*Not known if there is a planet around this star, even if it IS a star!

 

[Brogan]

Nice one McZ, that raised a smile

I just wish I was going to be born in 100 years.
I can just imagine Star Trek becoming reality*, but with more flattering uniforms.

I would love to be around when aliens finally come visiting.

I read a book many years ago about the statistical possibility of planets which are able to support life and it turns out there could be millions of them.
Obviously, like us, none of them have mastered the warp drive yet



*Can I be Riker?

 

[Speshal]

I'm constantly amazed by space, it was a totally clear night on saturday/sunday so I got the arctic sleeping bag and spent the night in the garden just marvelling at it.

They pointed the Hubble at a patch of sky the size of a grain of sand and this is what they found, you got to be very self centred to think we are the only ones out there.

*edit each one of these is a galaxy

 

[Brogan]

That reminds me of my thread from ages ago....Space.....the final frontier

Look, I even gave it a Star Trek themed title

 

[cider_and_toast]

This British documentary contains never before seen footage of the moons surface.

 

[teabagyokel]

That reminds me of my thread from ages ago....Space.....the final frontier

Look, I even gave it a Star Trek themed title

Well, McZiderRed went for the Star Wars themed title, so he's lower on the Nerd scale.

It is actually quite surprising how many outlandish Star Trek ideas have come to fruition; take the communicator that you flip open and speak to someone with (although I doubt you'd get a good signal where no man has ever been before).

Let's just all hope the jump-suit doesn't become de rigeur!

 

[FB]

I thought it worth posting the Eric Idle's wonderful Galaxy song lyrics, with special note being taken of the last 4 lines...

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'.
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.

With the obvious exception of all contributors to CTA

 

[Brogan]

 

[teabagyokel]

Happy 40th Monty Python!

 

[McZiderRed]

(although I doubt you'd get a good signal where no man has ever been before).

I wouldn't be so sure! TV signals have leaked into space for years, so I bet those pesky aliens have been alerted to our presence.

What with their highly sensitive antennae (possibly growing from there heads, but more likely ones they've built!), I bet they've also been listening in to our telephone conversations as well!

If we do one day manage to visit an alien world, we can ask the local aliens if we can borrow their antennae. Possibly listen to calls that have taken thousands of years to get there, and therefore maybe even listen to a call you made just last week!

 

[teabagyokel]

TV signals have leaked into space for years, so I bet those pesky aliens have been alerted to our presence

Yeah, but in a thousand years, the aliens brains will be withered by reality TV on Omicron Persei 8 and our invasion will be possible! Although thats not how it played out on Futurama...

 

[McZiderRed]

Talking about things that are "In a galaxy, far, far, away...", some galaxy clusters have been discovered that are a jolly long, long way away!! Say, about 10.2 billion light-years away, in fact!

Some nice chaps in Bristol have helped in the detection of the 'Most distant' galaxy group spied!

According to the BBC article, there might be some credit due to Nasa's Chandra X-Ray Observatory, that "possibly" made the discovery with their telescopes, but I'm sure the scientists at Bristol University are due the lion's wedge of the credit...

JKCS041 is at the farthest point at which scientists think galaxy clusters can exist in the early Universe.

So any stars close together that are further than 10.2 billion light years away are merely close associates, OK!

Just out of interest, given that the speed of light is the fastest that anything can travel in the universe, any life from these clusters that arrives here on Earth would be oooollllllddd! Who'd want to be visited by 10.2 billion year old aliens! You just know they'd arrive on a Sunday, sit in your favourite chair, insist on watching 'allo 'allo, smell like moth-balls and then, to top it all, they'd abduct your dog!

 

[cider_and_toast]

Just out of interest, given that the speed of light is the fastest that anything can travel in the universe, any life from these clusters that arrives here on Earth would be oooollllllddd! Who'd want to be visited by 10.2 billion year old aliens! You just know they'd arrive on a Sunday, sit in your favourite chair, insist on watching 'allo 'allo, smell like moth-balls and then, to top it all, they'd abduct your dog!

Is that before or after visiting some small town in the middle of nowhere, picking up the village drunk and doing something really bizarre to his bottom with a selection of alien medical equipment?