[ETL]

[ETL]

On October 16, 1997, the United States is gearing up to colonize space. The Jupiter 2, a futuristic saucer-shaped spacecraft, stands on its launch pad undergoing final preparations. Its mission is to take a single family on a ninety-eight year journey to an Earth-like planet orbiting the star Alpha Centauri.

The Robinson family consists of Professor John Robinson, his wife Maureen, and their three children: Judy; Penny; and Will. The family is accompanied by U.S. Space Corps Major Donald West.

The Robinsons and Major West are to be cryogenically frozen for the voyage, and they are set to be unfrozen when the spacecraft approaches its destination.

Dr. Zachary Smith, Alpha Control’s doctor, is revealed to be a saboteur working on behalf of an unnamed nation. ...”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_in_Space

[Redcitizen]

If the solar flares wipe out the Na’vi so we can exploit resources, I’m all for it.

[ecomcon]

But it's not impossible for alien life to exist there.

lol

[mylife]

[zeestephen]

Great graphics, ETL.

If they had taught astronomy with illustrations like that in the 1950s, I would have had a much deeper understanding of the universe around me at a much younger age.

Even when Star Wars came out in the 1970s, I was still fundamentally baffled about what the universe looked like and where planet Earth was relative to the galaxy far, far away.

I actually visited the great Planetarium in Chicago several times in my youth, but it took decades for me to intellectually understand that the universe was expanding and almost everything in it is moving away from Earth.

[smokingfrog]

Bad neighborhood. Redline it.

[DannyTN]

I just sent my Centauri girlfriend $10,000 so she could come to me. And now she’s not responding. I hope she’s okay.

[Verginius Rufus]

Alpha Centauri was discovered long before 1839. That may be the year that astronomers discovered that it was a double star.

There are white dwarfs, red dwarfs, and brown dwarfs. Why no black dwarfs? Is the universe racist?

[who_would_fardels_bear]

A number of star systems have more than one star. If two or more of those stars are within an order of magnitude of size of each other, then the planets that orbit them will have extremely eccentric orbits which will plunge those planets into periods of intense heat and intense cold. See the Three Body Problem.

If the star systems have one large star and one or more of these small red dwarfs then the planets in those systems will be regularly blasted with radiation.

I know there are numerous SF books and movies that take place in binary star systems, but those now appear to be entirely unscientific and pure fantasy.

[backwoods-engineer]

Proxima Centauri has been known to be a flare star for a long time. It’s a red dwarf— most of them are flare stars. This is news?