God this sort of (astronomical) news depresses the hell out of me...

[Neil]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7183563.stm

We'll know so little more than we do now before I die :(

I want to see what other planets look like... I want to see what other life looks like... I want to talk to something from elsewhere...

[capncnut]

I know exactly what you mean. There is so much vastness out there, so much to see and discover but our technology is such that it will be doubtful our generation (plus kids and grandkids) will see anything outside of the solar system. The distance is staggering. For example, it could take hundreds of years for Voyager 2 (which was launched in the 70's) to leave the solar system entirely and even then, contact with it will be long since dead. The theoretical Oort Cloud could be up to five times the distance from the Sun to Pluto...

...but we can see these things outside our domain. And it's fascinating. We can only hope a major technological advance will occur sometime soon. The information of what is known about our solar system and beyond has come along in leaps and bounds in recent years, and that makes it all the more interesting. But nonetheless depressing.

[Legion2213]

I doubt we will ever make contact with other beings, I don't doubt that they exist, I just don't ever see any communication between races or us even having the ability to locate each other or come up with a viable way of speaking if we did.

Space is so God damn vast! :(

[clanglee]

They could always come to us. ;)

[SymphonicX]

Its always been a dream of mine to gain some sort of ability whereby I lose the physical elements of my life, and fly up to the stars and literally get right up close to one....or imagine hovering just above the rings of Saturn where millions of particles and debris are being span around at an unbelievable rate...or witnessing first hand the implosion of a star and the subsequent blackhole....amazing...

[Neil]

Its always been a dream of mine to gain some sort of ability whereby I lose the physical elements of my life, and fly up to the stars and literally get right up close to one....or imagine hovering just above the rings of Saturn where millions of particles and debris are being span around at an unbelievable rate...or witnessing first hand the implosion of a star and the subsequent blackhole....amazing...

Somewhat like Carl Sagan's 'ship of the imagination' in the TV series of Cosmos...

[Mike70]

neil you will see an image of an exoplanet in your life time. the next generation of space telescopes are going to make hubble look like a magnifying glass. the one is especially interested in is the terrestrial planet finder - which will be able to detect earth sized planets around stars within a few hundred light years of earth.

we have already measured the atmosphere of one exoplanet. the TPF will allow the atmospheric content of planets the size of ours to be assessed. once that happens any planet whose atmosphere contains:
1. carbon dioxide
2. methane
3. water vapor
4. ozone

would in all probability harbor some sort of biological activity.

ozone would the dead give away in combination with the other 3 things. oxygen , if you know anything about chemistry, is one of the most psychotically reactive and nasty elements out there. it reacts (often badly) with just about everything. the only reason that huge amounts of it exist in our atmophere is because it is being constantly replenished. so coupling ozone with CO2, methane and water vapor would be tantamount to a smoking gun.

cheer up folks - 106 years ago people couldn't even do something as basic as fly- until two bicycle shop owning brothers from dayton, ohio did something about it. hell, 200 years ago everyone was crapping in buckets. so who can tell what even the next 40 years will bring?

[slickwilly13]

I'm curious about technology 10-20 years from now. Especially, electronics and nanotechnology.

[Mike70]

I'm curious about technology 10-20 years from now. Especially...nanotechnology.

resistance is futile. you will be assimilated.:D

[Neil]

neil you will see an image of an exoplanet in your life time. the next generation of space telescopes are going to make hubble look like a magnifying glass. the one is especially interested in is the terrestrial planet finder - which will be able to detect earth sized planets around stars within a few hundred light years of earth.


Aren't they doing a 'mod' to the hubble to make it 10x (??) more powerful?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7164139.stm

[capncnut]

Aren't they doing a 'mod' to the hubble to make it 10x (??) more powerful?
Good stuff, then maybe we can get some juicy far off (but still nonetheless blurry) pics of Pluto and it's three moons. Maybe Sedna and Eris too.

That said New Horizons will arrive at Pluto in seven years, which will be interesting. It made a flyby of Jupiter's moon, Io last Feb and caught some wicked images of Tvashtar erupting (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Tvashtarvideo.gif).

[Neil]

neil you will see an image of an exoplanet in your life time. the next generation of space telescopes are going to make hubble look like a magnifying glass. the one is especially interested in is the terrestrial planet finder - which will be able to detect earth sized planets around stars within a few hundred light years of earth.

Are you sure :rolleyes:

A telescope actually seeing a planet even just 10 light years away sounds rather scifi for me!

Remember the resolution hubble looking at just the moon is like a 100 meters or something...

[Mike70]

the TPF homepage at JPL

http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/TPF/tpf_index.cfm

[Publius]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7183563.stm

We'll know so little more than we do now before I die :(

I want to see what other planets look like... I want to see what other life looks like... I want to talk to something from elsewhere...

This is good news for the chances of finding a terrestrial planet in the Alpha Centauri system. Still won't get there in my lifetime, but we'll probably know for sure whether one exists, and whether it has signs of oxygen and water.

[slickwilly13]

resistance is futile. you will be assimilated.:D

Hey I won't resist. *L* I would be a test subject right now for nanotechnology if asked.

[Neil]

This is good news for the chances of finding a terrestrial planet in the Alpha Centauri system. Still won't get there in my lifetime, but we'll probably know for sure whether one exists, and whether it has signs of oxygen and water.

Probably won't get there for many hundreds of years yet...

[Publius]

Probably won't get there for many hundreds of years yet...

We'll see. If we find out that Alpha Centauri has a terrestrial planet with liquid water within the next 10-15 years, who knows how much that will stimulate space research? And if we find out that it doesn't, well, not getting there isn't such a big loss. ;)

[Neil]

We'll see. If we find out that Alpha Centauri has a terrestrial planet with liquid water within the next 10-15 years, who knows how much that will stimulate space research? And if we find out that it doesn't, well, not getting there isn't such a big loss. ;)

Current techonology would get us to Alpha Century in thousands of years (even tens of)...

[Neil]

We'll see. If we find out that Alpha Centauri has a terrestrial planet with liquid water within the next 10-15 years, who knows how much that will stimulate space research? And if we find out that it doesn't, well, not getting there isn't such a big loss. ;)

Current techonology would get us to Alpha Century in thousands of years (even tens of)...

[Publius]

Current techonology would get us to Alpha Century in thousands of years (even tens of)...

True, with current technology. Hence the focus on research. If interstellar travel were enough of a priority to make the world throw enough minds and money at the problem, it's not inconceivable for a few decades of research to produce a feasible nuclear pulse rocket (more likely) or fusion rocket (less likely), either of which could plausibly make the trip in less than a century. And if increased focus on the problem leads to a technological breakthrough (e.g. an economical means of producing and storing antimatter), the sky's the limit. Sure, the chances of getting there, or even starting the trip, within my lifetime are effectively zero. But if he's lucky, my son might be able to see the launch during his.

[Mike70]

True, with current technology. Hence the focus on research. If interstellar travel were enough of a priority to make the world throw enough minds and money at the problem, it's not inconceivable for a few decades of research to produce a feasible nuclear pulse rocket (more likely) or fusion rocket (less likely), either of which could plausibly make the trip in less than a century. And if increased focus on the problem leads to a technological breakthrough (e.g. an economical means of producing and storing antimatter), the sky's the limit. Sure, the chances of getting there, or even starting the trip, within my lifetime are effectively zero. But if he's lucky, my son might be able to see the launch during his.

yes. yes. yes. the nuclear pulse rocket ought to be one of the top research priorites for any entity public or private that fancies itself serious about space exploration.