March 11, 2008

Alpha Centauri may have an Earth-like planet in the habitable zone.
posted by Hank Mabuse 16 years ago
  • great, but how long 'til they have a mortgage crisis, too?
  • It'd better have small furry creatures.
  • No, I think it unlikely to have the British.
  • Londo looks like he's just easing out a fart.
  • I can never hear the word "bastard" without mentally hearing Londo spitting out, "That bastarrrrd G'Karrrr!"
  • Too good to be true, I think. About Alpha Centauri, that is.
  • I think we should have a Mofi day out. Claim it for the Bashi and all that. I'll bring cheese and pickle sammiches.
  • Booray! Now perhaps we can rescue the Space Family Robinson!!
  • "Too good to be true, I think. About Alpha Centauri, that is." Mmmm, not really. Current findings suggest that Sol-like planetary systems are really common, far more common than we were lead to believe when we were kids. Or even 10 years ago, FTM. And the conditions at Alpha Centauri up the possibilities more than usual. But the problem is, what is 'habitable' in cosmic terms? If you recall me' post on Gliese 581c, a more securely identified 'earthlike' planet in the habitable zone of Gliese 581, its surface temperature is possibly about 95 C/203 F. So, we're not talking about sending guys down in red velour v-neck sweaters just yet. Earthlike != just like Earth. So really, maybe they should just shut their pie holes.
  • Mmmm. Pie holes.
  • Mmmm. Whole pies.
  • Mmmm. π ÷ 1
  • Hm. I was thinking about moving anyway.
  • Despite the attractive aspect of traveling to Alpha Centauri (no Celine Dion for one thing!) it could take awhile.
  • Not only the 18,000 years your article sites, but you also have to add in the security screening.
  • If it's a thousand times farther away than thirty years tavel on ion propulsion, what can ya do? Leave it up to the aliens. They would live in a three star system? Then might they support three times more population on one third the impact on each of their planets? Given a chance, their combined intellects might find a way to pollute our planet three times faster than we could ever hope to invade and pollute theirs. No, wait... it's up to us to take over these other near star eco-systems to fund 'development' (sorry, I couldn't resist).
  • Uh... Oh! I know! Wormhole! WORMHOLE WORMHOLE WORMHOLE!
  • I think at this point we're basically hoping that they will come to us. Or at least listen to one of our fancy gold records, which should arrive at Proxima Centauri in about 73,000 years. Visit sunny, M-class Earth! Seven continents, no waiting!
  • Or at least listen to one of our fancy gold records As long as it's not Celine Dion- sorry, I really gotta be adamant on this point. Thankfully, her career took off after Voyager was launched so we might be spared a retaliatory strike.
  • Ha! You think she's human?
  • Good point, Hank!
  • Fortunately, they chose wisely. Given the date of the record (1977) I was scared they'd put some Bee Gees on there. Londo might not dig the tracks on the V'ger record, but I bet Vir would.
  • Or at least listen to one of our fancy gold records Once they hear the Blind Willie Johnson recording, they'll come. Speaking of (and I haven't checked how many of the links are still live), if you didn't see it, y2karl made a fantastic post about that track in the blue awhile back. An uncharacteristic recording for Mr. Johnson, one for the history books, and one of the few recordings to leave the solar system. It may be my favorite blues recording ever, but it has some stiff competition (Son House's recording of "Death Letter" being a big one). Also, if you like Voyager stuff, you should listen to this episode of Radiolab about space, which includes quite possibly the most romantic story I have ever heard. Ever. In human history. And the episode ends with the last transmission from the moon. You could do worse with an hour. I listened to that particular podcast while most of the way through my first ever 20-mile run (which was supposed to be an 18, but I got lost), and call me a sap, but I nearly cried a couple of times during that run. Only one other time have I come closer to crying during a run, and that was during the St. Jude marathon, when I passed one of their pediatric cancer patients somewhere around mile nine, a little boy in an umbrella stroller who had lost all his hair to chemotherapy and was so weak that he could barely wave to us runners -- and yet there he was, parked in his stroller on the sidewalk, cheering us on and waving as much as he could manage despite his quite evident exhaustion. I went two miles with zero pain on that kid alone. Jesus, I'm blessed.
  • MCT, I heard that show- it was very touching without being maudlin. It made me like Sagan even more. Your St. Jude story though- time to break out the kleenex. Dying children is a subject that is pretty tough to contemplate- doubly so, now that I have kids of my own.
  • I have bookmarked that podcast and will listen anon. Thanks. Even though I've never listened to a podcast before. Will I get pregnant?
  • No. Too evil.
  • NIckdanger: SHUT YOUR WORMHOLE!!!!
  • I wonder if they have Mars Bars at Alpha Centauri. And if they have Mars, do they also have Milky Way?
  • Damn, would it be cool to know that some life form on that planet was posting a message to the Ethertubes excitedly proclaiming the same thing as this post, 'cept the other way round. If you get my meaning. And MCT, shut it with the bragging about the running! :) Yeah I know it's all warm and sunny down there in Jebusland, Southern USA but we still have snow on the ground here and I want to go run but it's all slick ice and slushy and ferchristsakes I'm gettin' jealous. And probably out of shape a bit.
  • Fear not, frogsy. Injury got me into rehab and severely dialed down my mileage. I can't do more than three at a stretch, still diagnosing problems, and I've easily gained 5-10 pounds as a result. I have no stamina right now.
  • All's I know is, somewhere in a private place I pack my bags for outer space, and now I'm waiting for the right kind of pilot to frickin' come, already.
  • Wouldn't it be hilarious if there were some kind of crazy space-hitchhiking machine? And then somebody wrote a guide book for hitchhiking all across the universe? And the book was called The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down?