Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the magic speed is actually 10% the speed of light.
What's magic about it?
It's fast enough to get us places in a reasonable amount of time (40-200 years), but reasonably attainable technologically.
Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 light years from Earth
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Re: Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 light years from Earth
#272Earlier quoted context omitted.
So, basically, this is cooler than just about any world that's been depicted in sci-fi.
I guess J.J. Abrams is somewhat forgiven for this, then: http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/startrek/images/2/29/Vul... [edited for direct .jpg]
I always thought that Firefly's scenario of a bunch of Earth-like worlds in close enough proximity to have regular trading ships flying between them was unrealistic. Now, not so much. This system even fits in with the "Abandon Earth en-mass, move to new set of worlds" backstory.
So, what did J.J. know, and when did he know it? And for that matter, how did he know?
Re: Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 light years from Earth
#273My favourite part of the press release: > The planets also are very close to each other. If a person was standing on one of the planet’s surface, they could gaze up and potentially see geological features or clouds of neighboring worlds, which would sometimes appear larger than the moon in Earth's sky. > In contrast to our sun, the TRAPPIST-1 star – classified as an ultra-cool dwarf – is so cool that liquid water cou…
Sounds like tidal forces would be extreme.
Re: Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 light years from Earth
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
Uh? I think it's widely accepted that our best models of small stars are fairly well understood, and predict that they will continue to fuse hydrogen in their cores for more than a trillion years.
Referring to an average of 1-2 trillion years as "trillions of years" is either misleading, uninformed, lazy, or a combination of the 3. When dealing with hard science it's important to choose your descriptors wisely. Most readers will not follow up.
Uh, "1-2 trillion" IS "trillions". I'm not sure how you can make that out to be misleading.
Stating "trillions" in lieu of "tens of trillions" or "hundreds of billions" might be misleading, but this is not.
Re: Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 light years from Earth
#275My favourite part of the press release: > The planets also are very close to each other. If a person was standing on one of the planet’s surface, they could gaze up and potentially see geological features or clouds of neighboring worlds, which would sometimes appear larger than the moon in Earth's sky. > In contrast to our sun, the TRAPPIST-1 star – classified as an ultra-cool dwarf – is so cool that liquid water cou…
I'm blown away the planets haven't torn each other apart or all collided by now...
Re: Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 light years from Earth
#276"Due to its mass, the star has the ability to live for up to 4–5 trillion years" So when the rest of the universe cools off and stars start to die, Trappist one keeps on shining and shining... We need to get there. But first, let's get rid of our genocidal tendencies.
It's not just that one. The vast majority of stars, by number (but not by light), are stars like these. The universe might dim, but it won't be dark for a long, long time.
Re: Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 light years from Earth
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was essentially thinking the same thing. I wonder if an elevator could be built between all of them?
One of the callers (a biologist, so not a crackpot) on TV suggested that given how close the planets were, he wondered if it were possible for there to be cross contamination between the planets given how close they are to each other. He referred to them being part of the same "ecosystem." I'm not sure how feasible that is as a non-astrobiologist, but it is an interesting idea.
Re: Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 light years from Earth
#278Every time I hear such news, I try to imagine how it feels being there, billions of miles away, looking at sky and saying "wow", I don't think we will be able to travel to distant planets in our lifetime, but thinking about it and trying to create that feeling always feels amazing to me.
Re: Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 light years from Earth
#279Earlier quoted context omitted.
> are there...hazards simply due to the proximity of a dim star Tidal locking [1]. Similar to how our moon shines at us ass first all the time, the planets around TRAPIST-1 would be expected to have one face locked to their star. Instead of an equatorial belt bookended with loops of temperate zones, as we have on Earth, we should expect, climatically, an "equatorial" face and a "polar" face separated by a tropic-to-t…
Fascinating! Also – off topic, but – this description reminded me of Twinsun[1], the planet in the game Little Big Adventure. It remains one of my fondest game memories of that era, despite all its weird bugs. I've thought about finding a copy and playing it again at some point, but I fear it might spoil my good memories of it.. [1]: http://lba.wikia.com/wiki/Twinsun
Dammit, why did you have to remind me... Both LBA and LBA2 stand out as extremely memorable from my childhood. It does look like there's a revival of game-styles from that era, given Thimbleweed Park[0], Pathway[1], and apparently 2Dark[2] from (one of?) the authors of LBA. Any more?
[0] https://thimbleweedpark.com [1] http://www.pathway-game.com [2] http://www.2dark.cc
Re: Seven earth-sized planets discovered circling a star 39 light years from Earth
#280Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think we do if you look at it in terms of acceleration. As I understand it, In space there is almost 0 friction so "fast" is more about acceleration than "top speed". In this view, 1g isn't that fast.
Doesn't energy required to accelerate keep exponentially increasing, though? ke = mv^2
Energy is relative to a frame of reference, and IIUC 1g acceleration of the space vessel is in The vessel's frame of reference, not earth's.