First direct image of another planetary system located about 300 light-years away.

[Warden_of_the_Storm]

Really? We're currently having to fight a war against the Muslim colonizers of Palestine, and you want to do more colonizing? Probably a bad idea.

Probably the most disingenious comment I've seen with regards to colonizing planets.

 

[Bradskii]

The first part of this post will be pedantic and a bit disingenuous, but the second part will be ingenuous. You say the image is "fantastic" which means the stuff of fantasy, and "incredible" which means not to be believed. You're both saying you don't believe the image is real.

I suspect what you're actually saying is that the image is "very cool". My sincere question is why is this image cool? A single cell of a blade of grass here on Earth is infinitely much cooler.

I'll try to treat your post as a serious question.

The everyday is indeed cool. The mundane is fantastic. The run-of-the-mill is incredible. You don't even have to leave your chair to be truly amazed and more likely confounded by what you experience. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio...

I'm in the process of reading a book that has more about neurology than I expected. But every few paragraphs I'm thinking variations on 'wow - that's so cool'. In fact, being 'cool' is the most popular way the author has of describing something that he finds truly fantastic (in case you're interested, he is Robert Sapolsky and the book is Determined). And I am constantly amazed by his way of describing mundane biological, electrical and chemical processes that are happening inside my head. Literally as far from a planet umpteen light years away in another solar system as you can possibly get.

I guess that if you're interested in cellular biology a blade of grass will always hold more interest than if your are an astronomer looking at distant planetary systems. But for people like me splashing around in the scientific shallows, every new snippet of information is 'wow...that's so cool.'

 

[Chesterton]

I'll try to treat your post as a serious question.

The everyday is indeed cool. The mundane is fantastic. The run-of-the-mill is incredible. You don't even have to leave your chair to be truly amazed and more likely confounded by what you experience. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio...

I'm in the process of reading a book that has more about neurology than I expected. But every few paragraphs I'm thinking variations on 'wow - that's so cool'. In fact, being 'cool' is the most popular way the author has of describing something that he finds truly fantastic (in case you're interested, he is Robert Sapolsky and the book is Determined). And I am constantly amazed by his way of describing mundane biological, electrical and chemical processes that are happening inside my head. Literally as far from a planet umpteen light years away in another solar system as you can possibly get.

I guess that if you're interested in cellular biology a blade of grass will always hold more interest than if your are an astronomer looking at distant planetary systems. But for people like me splashing around in the scientific shallows, every new snippet of information is 'wow...that's so cool.'

Okay, fair enough. I guess I'm just not that into space. There's too much of it, for one thing.

 

[Neogaia777]

Really? We're currently having to fight a war against the Muslim colonizers of Palestine, and you want to do more colonizing? Probably a bad idea.

Well, it's probably not going to happen for awhile, if it ever happens at all with the amount of time we probably have left here, but I love space, and any and all ideas about the possibility or exploring space, or traveling to other star systems, and colonizing other planets, etc, but without quite a few very innovative jumps with our current technology right now, it's probably going to be awhile, and be much more time than we probably have, so...?

But I love everything "space", and love learning about it, and exploring the possibilities of it, even if it's only in our minds right now, etc.

I believe it can help in expanding our minds right now by just considering it, etc.

Sure it's big, and vast, but the numbers involved in it are really not all that difficult to handle. Might be a little bit overwhelming at first, but not after a while, etc. After a while you can actually picture it in your mind, the whole entire universe, and all it's "scale", etc.

God Bless.

 

[Neogaia777]

Well, it's probably not going to happen for awhile, if it ever happens at all with the amount of time we probably have left here, but I love space, and any and all ideas about the possibility or exploring space, or traveling to other star systems, and colonizing other planets, etc, but without quite a few very innovative jumps with our current technology right now, it's probably going to be awhile, and be much more time than we probably have, so...?

But I love everything "space", and love learning about it, and exploring the possibilities of it, even if it's only in our minds right now, etc.

I believe it can help in expanding our minds right now by just considering it, etc.

Sure it's big, and vast, but the numbers involved in it are really not all that difficult to handle. Might be a little bit overwhelming at first, but not after a while, etc. After a while you can actually picture it in your mind, the whole entire universe, and all it's "scale", etc.

God Bless.

We would probably have to find something nearby (300 light years is a little bit far, but might be doable, depending), and without faster than light travel, or like a grav-drive, or something similar to that (the closer we could get to the speed of light the better) but at half light speed, it would take 600 years of travel to get to a system 300 light years away, so there are a lot of hurdles to overcome, like probably having to be being put into some kind of stasis, or hibernation, or something like that, etc, the ship itself being automatically piloted by a computer, or A.I., or something like that, etc, then a different kind of propulsion system would probably have to be invented as well, etc. But the closer, the better. Alpha Centauri is only four light years away, etc, and would only take eight years to get there at half light speed, etc, 50 light years away, 100, etc, etc, etc. The people sent there would have to be very, very carefully selected, and probably not very many, but would hopefully be some of the very best of us, etc, which would hopefully prevent a repeat there, of what we are right now currently doing here hopefully, etc.

But yeah, without some major advancements in our current technology, it's probably not going to happen for awhile, etc, and I'm very, very skeptical about us having that much time also, etc.

It's literally a race against time to save or preserve our species short of divine intervention I think, which could also maybe happen first, etc.

The largest threat right now I think is a global collapse at some point that resests our technological and educational advancements to the point that it takes us a really, really long time to get back to where we once were again, let alone beyond that after that again, etc, because that could really set us back, etc.

Maybe the elites that go deep underground could preserve some of it though, etc, and re-introduce it again upon their emergence, or resurgence, etc.

But it would probably take a really long time (and a lot of somewhat educated workers) just to get the infrastructure back, etc. And depending on how many people are left, and how long it would take to re-educate them after something like that?

Anyway, take us quite a while just to get back to where we were, let alone go beyond that, after something like that, etc.

God Bless.

 

[Chesterton]

Well, it's probably not going to happen for awhile, if it ever happens at all with the amount of time we probably have left here, but I love space, and any and all ideas about the possibility or exploring space, or traveling to other star systems, and colonizing other planets, etc, but without quite a few very innovative jumps with our current technology right now, it's probably going to be awhile, and be much more time than we probably have, so...?

But I love everything "space", and love learning about it, and exploring the possibilities of it, even if it's only in our minds right now, etc.

I believe it can help in expanding our minds right now by just considering it, etc.

Sure it's big, and vast, but the numbers involved in it are really not all that difficult to handle. Might be a little bit overwhelming at first, but not after a while, etc. After a while you can actually picture it in your mind, the whole entire universe, and all it's "scale", etc.

God Bless.

Why would you want to colonize a planet?

 

[Bradskii]

Why would you want to colonize a planet?

Why did we leave Africa?

 

[dlamberth]

Why would you want to colonize a planet?

I think it's in human nature to explore. And than to settle down in what is explored.

 

[Chesterton]

Why did we leave Africa?

I have no idea. Why?

I think it's in human nature to explore. And than to settle down in what is explored.

You realize that is very politically incorrect, don't you?

 

[dlamberth]

I have no idea. Why?

You realize that is very politically incorrect, don't you?

How is human nature politically incorrect?

 

[Chesterton]

How is human nature politically incorrect?

You don't know that "colonizer" has become a four-letter word in recent years?

 

[dlamberth]

You don't know that "colonizer" has become a four-letter word in recent years?

Well what ever. But it does answer your question. That's all I was doing.

 

[Shemjaza]

You don't know that "colonizer" has become a four-letter word in recent years?

Seeking out new places and settling there isn't the problematic part... it's the displacing or killing people who already live there that for the term a bad rap.

 

[Bradskii]

I have no idea. Why?

Maybe you're not the type of person who wonders what's over the next hill.

 

[Neogaia777]

Why would you want to colonize a planet?

Probably wouldn't be me personally, but some select few members of the human race.

Because I'd like to see humanity survive and spread it's wings a little bit, and seed itself as widely as possible, etc.

God Bless.

 

[Neogaia777]

Seeking out new places and settling there isn't the problematic part... it's the displacing or killing people who already live there that for the term a bad rap.

More than likely would only be animal life or other primitive life at some stage of development, more than likely.

We could become a part of that ecosystem, etc.

God Bless.

 

[Shemjaza]

More than likely would only be animal life or other primitive life at some stage of development, more than likely.

We could become a part of that ecosystem, etc.

God Bless.

We're more likely to have to bring our own ecosystem... a truly alien biosphere would be fascinating to study, but it probably wouldn't be healthy for either life forms to interact too closely.

No body wants a sci fi Colombian Exchange.

 

[Neogaia777]

We're more likely to have to bring our own ecosystem... a truly alien biosphere would be fascinating to study, but it probably wouldn't be healthy for either life forms to interact too closely.

No body wants a sci fi Colombian Exchange.

It's impossible to predict everything, but I'm sure we would bring our own seed bank of probably both plants and animals maybe, etc, and ways to grow them and such, etc, and introduce them to the new ecosystem probably, etc, depending on how primitive/not primitive the new ecosystem is, etc, in an effort to make it our own, etc

God Bless.

 

[Neogaia777]

It's impossible to predict everything, but I'm sure we would bring our own seed bank of probably both plants and animals maybe, etc, and ways to grow them and such, etc, and introduce them to the new ecosystem probably, etc, depending on how primitive/not primitive the new ecosystem is, etc, in an effort to make it our own, etc

God Bless.

I think the chances of us running into other intelligent life like us, so very close to us, are extremely, extremely rare, etc.

If there is other life, it would probably be some other life instead at some other stage of evolutionary development, if we could find such a planet/star system to begin with, etc.

Shouldn't be too difficult to insert ourselves into it, if we could find such a place/planet, etc. The problem is both finding one, and getting there with everything we would need, and then setting ourselves up and surviving and hopefully thriving afterwards, etc.

God Bless.

 

[Warden_of_the_Storm]

Why would you want to colonize a planet?

Why wouldn't we? To set forth on a new planet, something unlike Earth itself, would be amazing to witness, let alone study.

As to your 'colonizer' claim... again, the most disingenious claim against extra-planetary exploration that ever existed.