Tue Oct 05, 2010 7:19 pm ET
Somewhere in Orbit (Krapsody) - At risk of sounding like a total nerd, I'm a bit excited. A new planet was discovered. It might be a place that only a lichen or pond scum could love, but astronomers believe that they've found it capable of harboring water on its surface potentially making it a home for plant or animal life.
Nobody from Earth will be visiting anytime soon: The planet, called Gliese 581g, is orbiting a star about 20 light-years away in the constellation Libra.
But if the finding is confirmed by other brainiacs, the planet, which is three to four times the mass of Earth, would be the most Earthlike planet yet discovered, and the first to meet the criteria for being potentially habitable. Which is a lot more than I can say for Detroit.
In a news conference, Dr. Vogt an astronomist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, says he believes that, "the chances of life on this planet are almost 100 percent."
But caution is expressed about this particular planet, noting uncertainties about its density, composition and atmosphere, and the need for another generation of giant telescopes and spacecraft in order to find out anything more about it.
Perhaps a manned space mission will be planned in the future..but since the U.S. has such a dire financial crisis that will take years to recover from, perhaps NASA should allow another country the option to explore it first. Japan and India are space program newbies, let's see what they have going on...
Japanese Space Program
Indian Space Program
Looks like this could take a while...
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Listening to: Space Oddity - David Bowie (perf. as Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars)
posted with Last.fm
7 Comments:
How about sending them an invitation to visit us? I don't see why we Earthlings always have to go places. Ferris Bueller should definitely have been drafted into the Indian space program for being a smug little chickenshit.
I have great faith in the Japanese Space Program. The only thing I could add to the benefit of this particular space program is perhaps having a group of armed tea baggers shooting at the funny little Asian "astronaut" twirling in the air.
Your Indian Space Program video accurately shows what it's like to get customer service when stranded out in space. As usual, when this happens to me in outer space, I hold my breath for a real long time as I pinch all 3 of my nipples.
As for that planet they recently found, I hope for it's sake, it has the kind of life that can devour a human being in one bite. No world deserves the plague of humankind. Even far off into the future.
@ Signore Gorzilla Bonanazas: But Stephen Hawking says that sending invitations to space aliens would be a horrible idea. It'd be just like Columbus and the Native Americans..they'd kill or enslave us, take whatever they wanted, and rape our women..basically, Mr. Hawking believes that space aliens are worse than Italians. I wonder if their cuisine is any better? Oh wait. SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!
@7masterheathen (Kelly): Armed tea baggers might have more fun chewing on your nipples. Everyone knows they're space aliens and this is what space aliens enjoy doing to Earthlings.
@ Gorilla Bananas: p.s. if you didn't catch it, it's implied that Ferris Bueller is a supervisor at Mission Control India.
It wasn't that he was drafted, so much as it being his only logical career choice...OR I should say his ONLY option for a career after his shameful antics in high school.
From the looks of things it appears as if little has changed. =)
No way, Hawking is an an ass when it comes to understanding living beings, ask anyone in Cambridge. Any alien species that was technology advanced enough to develop space travel would have to be morally superior to imperialist humans, otherwise they would have wiped themselves out. Think Swedes or New Yorkers in Greenwich Village.
@ Gorzonanas! I agree with you about Mr. Hawking. Who knows what he's really thinking or trying to convey. His electronic speech synthesizer could be making all of it up.
For all we know he could be trying to communicate something entirely different than what his electronic speech synthesizer is translating for him:
Mr. Hawking's speech synthesizer: "I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road."
*(rough translation of what Stephen is really thinking to himself)
"Why did the chicken cross the road?"
*(rough translation of what Stephen is really trying to say)
"I'm hungry. How about some of that leftover chicken gruel...? Liquid nutritional feeding is YUM YUM!"
But there's no question a man of his genius doesn't eat or poop, nor think about those things, ever. In his case the poop tube is the input to his feeding tube anyway... he's like a self-contained ecosystem.
I'm kidding, of course.
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