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RE: Seven temperate terrestrial planets around the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1
February 23, 2017 at 5:25 pm
This might be a whole thread unto itself, but I wonder how long, if ever, it would take to not only colonize, but form a city on another planet about the size of, say, Albuquerque. I just really am fascinated by the possible governance and physical architecture of such communities.
If we or our evolutionary successors ever get that far.
"For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan
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RE: Seven temperate terrestrial planets around the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1
February 23, 2017 at 6:11 pm
(February 23, 2017 at 11:40 am)Alex K Wrote: (February 23, 2017 at 10:17 am)Anomalocaris Wrote: It would have to be one enormous black hole for it to be possible to cut parsecs off of the slingshot distance around it. You would barely feel the gravity of any stellar massed black hole from even 1 parsecs away. Also, wouldn't relativistic effects mean the trip would actually take longer if the trajectory cuts too close to the event horizon?
I'll try to do the math for a supermassive black hole and get back to you... He'll have to do hyperspace as well to travel parsecs, so it's not clear what the physics of that would be though...
It's way, way simpler than any of that. Catch Kenobi's expression in response to the twelve parsecs thing; Han is trying to bullshit them about his skills and Ben ain't falling for it. The script confirms it - the direction for this line goes something like "Obi Wan reacts to this obvious misinformation". In other words, Lucas knew exactly what a parsec is and assumed that the audience does too. But trust the True Fans to come along and rationalise every little thing. I bet any money there's dozens of volumes about the cloak that disappears in the jumpcut when Luke activates his saber that first time; how it was a Sith changeling that popped into a wormhole to warn the Emperor or something.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
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RE: Seven temperate terrestrial planets around the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1
February 23, 2017 at 6:19 pm
Who is the bigger Star Wars geek? The geek who knew what a parsec is, or the geek who knew what the script says?
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RE: Seven temperate terrestrial planets around the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1
February 23, 2017 at 6:31 pm
That's a very intriguing interpretation, Stimbo. Han Solo just BSing his way to a comission, would fit the character.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
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RE: Seven temperate terrestrial planets around the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1
February 24, 2017 at 2:07 am
(February 23, 2017 at 5:25 pm)c172 Wrote: This might be a whole thread unto itself, but I wonder how long, if ever, it would take to not only colonize, but form a city on another planet about the size of, say, Albuquerque. I just really am fascinated by the possible governance and physical architecture of such communities.
If we or our evolutionary successors ever get that far.
Without a strong magnetic field around the planet nothing's going to live, solar radiation will kill off everything. Especially with these planets, they do not rotate on their axis.
GC
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.
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RE: Seven temperate terrestrial planets around the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1
February 24, 2017 at 2:11 am
(This post was last modified: February 24, 2017 at 2:12 am by Cyberman.)
(February 23, 2017 at 6:31 pm)Alex K Wrote: That's a very intriguing interpretation, Stimbo. Han Solo just BSing his way to a comission, would fit the character.
And one that fans, generally, have missed all these years owing to the need to fill in plot holes that aren't even there. I'm not judging; I'm a diehard Doctor Who fan from way back.
(February 23, 2017 at 6:19 pm)Anomalocaris Wrote: Who is the bigger Star Wars geek? The geek who knew what a parsec is, or the geek who knew what the script says?
How about both?
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
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RE: Seven temperate terrestrial planets around the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1
February 24, 2017 at 6:53 am
These planets are 40 light years away. For all we know, the Romulans destroyed them 15 years ago.
And, for the record, until we determine that an exoplanet has kangaroos and fish and chip shops, we should stop describing them as 'Earthlike'.
Boru
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RE: Seven temperate terrestrial planets around the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1
February 24, 2017 at 7:09 am
If we can reach speed of 100 million miles an hour we can get there in 200 years.
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RE: Seven temperate terrestrial planets around the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1
February 24, 2017 at 7:38 am
(This post was last modified: February 24, 2017 at 7:39 am by ignoramus.)
We're never gonna leave this rock! Let's just embrace that simple fact!
If by some chance we do, it'll be so far into the future, we probably couldn't even be called homo sapiens by them.
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Know God, Know fear.
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RE: Seven temperate terrestrial planets around the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1
February 24, 2017 at 7:51 am
(This post was last modified: February 24, 2017 at 7:52 am by Jehanne.)
(February 24, 2017 at 7:38 am)ignoramus Wrote: We're never gonna leave this rock! Let's just embrace that simple fact!
If by some chance we do, it'll be so far into the future, we probably couldn't even be called homo sapiens by them.
Eventually, our World is going to die, and so, if we want to survive as a species, even if we evolve in an entirely different direction over time, we'll need to pack-up and move on. Mars may have enough water to be habitable for a short period of time (500 million years at most), but it will take millennia of effort to colonize it. Inevitably, small interstellar spaceships will have to be constructed to ferry some groups (100 or so) of human beings to other stars, as they pass close by ours. The only way that I could see this happening would be to construct some sort of high-speed sling-shot device that would rapidly accelerate a spacecraft beyond the escape velocity of the Sun; after that, it could perform course corrections, and finally, use its on-board rockets to slow itself down. This may be technologically impossible to do, of course. It all depends on whether our species will start cooperating with itself.
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