Posted on 05/28/2018 5:16:16 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
...nearest stellar neighbor, the Alpha Centauri system, is located about four light years away. While that's not very distant in cosmic terms, it's wide enough for our solar system to not be influenced by these alien stars. But in about 1.3 million years, a star named Gliese 710, which is about 60 percent as massive as the Sun, is projected to interrupt the Sun's hermitude by crashing right on through the far-flung reaches of the solar system. While astronomers have been aware of this stellar meetup for years, new observations from the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite, released on Thursday, have constrained the trajectory of Gliese 710's impending visit, and charted out nearly 100 other upcoming close encounters with wandering stars. According to the Gaia team, Gliese 710 will swoop through the Oort cloud, a vast shell of icy debris at the outer limits of the solar system, at a distance of roughly 90 light days, or 1.4 trillion miles. To put that into perspective, the star will be about 16,000 times farther from the Sun than Earth. That may sound like a good stretch of space, but it is well within the boundaries of the Sun's domain. During the encounter, Gliese 710 will shine nearly three times brighter in Earth's skies than Mars. It could also spitball comets and ice worlds from the distant reaches of the solar system toward Earth, increasing the likelihood of deadly impacts... it's worth noting that it is far from the only star Gaia has identified as a potential trouble-maker... scientists have plotted out the trajectories of 300,000 stars over the next five million years, and discovered that 97 of them will breach a radius of 93 trillion miles around the Sun.
(Excerpt) Read more at thescinewsreporter.com ...
SunkenCiv said: If you didn't want it to be taken that way, you'd A) not put it that way in the first place,
Maudeen did not admit to putting it the wrong way, rather she (thinking Maudeen is a girl name?) said she was sorry that SunkenCiv took it the wrong way.
...and B) not post it in a science topic, where it has absolutely nothing to do with the topic.
Not related at all? The relation is pretty simple, the topic is about something very concerning happening over a million years from now, and Maudeen was commenting on the relevance of that to humans on her view.
If one finds comments that include religious doctrines intolerable in discussions about a scientific topic, then one can post articles where one has more control over policing them. For example creating a subreddit. Just a thought.
He’s trying to make it interesting to non-scientists with a bit of colorful verbiage, that’s all.
Crap! 1.3 million years from now? I better start stockpiling now!
I’ve always wanted a Samantha Carter.
If one finds comments that include religious doctrines intolerable in discussions about a scientific topic, then one can post articles where one has more control over policing them.
That works for you and Maudeen as well. Post irrelevant sectarian comments in a science or history topic, and you've got no complaint coming when I let you have it. Understand, jackass?
Guessing that baggage from older discussions may be involved here?
Yes, yours.
If we’re good, maybe God will let us watch.
‘Well and truly spoken’
Uhm, in order to let anyone have it one needs ammunition.
When I was little I asked for a Lost In Space robot. The advertisement said “walking, talking, Life Size”. I thought how cool would that be!!!
It was about 8 inches tall, apparently life size meant the size of an advertisement. Walking meant it had a small wheel that would awkwardly propel it forward, and talking meant, that if you pulled string it would say “Danger Will Robinson”. Groot had more expressions.
I’ve never trusted advertisers since.
I’ve also never lost my interest in Robots. I few years ago, after realizing servo motors had fallen to where I might acutally be able to build something, I built a robotic finger. Which led to no end of jokes at work such as “Where’s that finger been?”, “Have you given anybody the finger?”, WHich finger did you build?”
Haven’t had much time to work on it, but I kept Dad’s power wheelchair as a mobile base. I have small monitor destined to be a face. I have a couple of small cameras for eyes, a couple of pan and tilt systems to mount the eyes on. I three layer body that looks suspiciously like a square shelving unit. In fact Dad’s caregivers used it as such.
One day, I’ll get there. And if I can give it enough skills to replicate itself, I can expand my robotic empire exponentially and take over the world!!!
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