Concept of the TPF Interferometer mission
Posted on 09/10/2009 3:47:43 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
...The Terrestrial Planet Finder is a mission which primary target is to search after Earth-like planets and currently under study by NASA. At the moment are two complementary concepts for this mission. The visible-light Coronograph and a formation-flying infrared Interferometer.
"There are countless suns and countless earths all rotating around their suns in exactly the same way as the seven planets of our system. We see only the suns because they are the largest bodies and are luminous, but their planets remain invisible to us because they are smaller and non-luminous. The countless worlds in the universe are no worse and no less inhabited than our Earth." Giordano Bruno (1584)The mission of the TPF is to study all aspects of extrasolar planets, from their formation and development in protoplanetary disks of dust and gas around newly forming stars to fully-fledged planets orbiting stars within a radius of nearly 50 light years (15 parsec (pc)). The TPF will measure the size, temperature, and placement of planets as small as the Earth in the habitable zones of distant solar systems.
(Excerpt) Read more at extrasolar-planets.com ...
Concept of the TPF Interferometer mission
 |
||
| · join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe · | ||
| Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar · | ||
ML/NJ
Read Article 1 and Section 8 of the US Constitution..
I think you mean Article I, section 8. They're not two distinct things. My guess is that I have have looked at the words of the Constitution a few more times than you have. If you think that patent clause gives the Federal government the power to research extraterrestial worlds then you probably would be more at home over at DU.
ML/NJ
There has been such a huge deterioration in educating people to speak and write in ways that use language and the meaning of words very clearly.
The sentence in the quote above is not an example of a clear communication helping to preserve the meaning of words and the clear differences in their meanings.
As far as we know, to date, there ARE "countless" suns [in the universe] but (as far as we know) there ARE NOT "countless earths all rotating" about them. Countless "planets"? Yes (possibly), but as far as we know there is only one earth in the universe just as there is only one earth in our own solar system (supporting an earth-like climate capable of supporting the immense diversity of carbon-based life, and the sentient life, that earth supports)
In fact the whole point of the exercise is that contrary to knowing their are "countless earths" out there, we in fact do not know of any "earths" but our own. If there are other "earths" out there, but the authors of this report are a representative sample of the intelligence in our efforts looking for one, no one should expect success.
Sorry I don’t mind our government spending money on projects like these... I consider this a drop in bucket...
You see, it's my money; and it's my neighbor's money. Why don't you pay for it yourself if you like it so much and it's so cheap and leave the rest of us out of it? Other people have projects they like that also Federal responsibilities, and because of your reasoning they are taking 40% of my income to pay for all of them.
ML/NJ
you do realize that the FED GOV spends more $$ for SS,MEDICARE, and NASA only gets less then 1% of the over all budget.
I say, "NO," to Unconstitutional spending. If the spending is so popular, you guys who want it should have no trouble raising funds privately. (And BTW, Medicare is Unconstitutional too. Kill it.)
ML/NJ
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat
Yeah, one of them was lost. We’re waiting now on the Non-Terrestrial Planet Finder satellite.
Take me off the Ping list please!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
