"Captain's Log... The damned ship is talking to me again right in the middle of my favorite Stooges!"
Captain? We are receiving the latest future edition of The New York Slimes. And I don't think Mr. Sulu or I are going to like it!
Posted on 02/19/2006 12:10:25 PM PST by KevinDavis
ST. LOUIS - An astronomer involved in a NASA mission to look for Earthlike planets beyond our solar system has winnowed through thousands of stars to come up with a top-10 list that includes some of the favorite haunts for science-fiction aliens.
Actually, the lineup from Margaret Turnbull at the Carnegie Institute of Washington is broken down into two top-five lists: one for the radio-based search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, and the other for the NASA mission, known as the Terrestrial Planet Finder.
The SETI stars will be on the list of targets for the privately funded Allen Telescope Array in California, which is due to begin limited operation with 42 linked radio dishes this spring. But the top prospects for the Terrestrial Planet Finder are currently in limbo, because NASA has put the mission on indefinite hold.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
You afraid the tutorial will bite you?
And remember Seti Alpha 5?
And remember Seti Alpha 5?
Imagine taking a 5 minute ride on a glass bottom boat, in a harbor, then pretending to know about the oceans.
Are you still afraid the tutorial will bite you?
Knowledge is great, and we should seek all we can.
My point was we know relatively little.
If that offends you, then I am sorry you are so easily offended.
An astronomer involved in a NASA mission to look for Earthlike planets
And it's even more amazing why tax dollars are even wasted on something like this. But there does appear to be good news...
Jill Tarter of the California-based SETI Institute said NASA's budget proposal, released this month, would cut funding for astrobiology research by 50 percent.
Now just cut the other 50 percent and we'll be getting somewhere.
"We are facing an increasingly difficult financial threat," Tarter said. Although NASA's official view is that research is being deferred rather than canceled, she said "we are all finite in our lives and our careers. ... Significant delay is in fact cancellation."
Perhaps Ms. Tartar can find a private organization that wishes to invest in what could possibly be a good capital investment eventually. Otherwise, shut it down
"Captain's Log... The damned ship is talking to me again right in the middle of my favorite Stooges!" Captain? We are receiving the latest future edition of The New York Slimes. And I don't think Mr. Sulu or I are going to like it!
All you have to do is click on the link and take the Cosmology Tutorial. Your knowledge about the Cosmos will be dramatically improved. Or are you still afraid the link will bite you?
My point was we know relatively little.
Since you refuse to click on the link and read the tutorial, the astute reader will conclude that your ignorance is self-induced. Ignorance is to be overcome, not celebrated. If you wish to live your life with your head in the sand, no one can force to you to learn anything.
VirtualIgnore™ now engaged. Disruptor troll identified and logged for tracking.
I clicked the link, and I still recognize how limited our knowledge is of the universe.
Whoever doesn't recognize how limited that knowledge is, suffers from an extreme form of arrogance.
O you horrible man!
In the history of the world, only a tiny fraction of all the people who ever lived have had the opportunity to ask highly qualified scientists direct questions, and learn from their wisdom. Happily, because of the internet and places like FR, it is now possible for people from all walks of life to converse directly with all sorts of scientific experts; we have physicists, microbiologists, mathematicians, astronomers, and chemists, to specify but a few, roaming these threads, and eager to explain what they know and how they know it to virtually anyone willing to ask an intelligent question.But there is another segment of people on these threads who, instead of asking these learned folks intelligent questions and thus expanding their knowledge and understanding, insist instead upon bludgeoning them with their ignorance, and questioning the patriotism, honesty, and intellect of people who have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of scientific knowledge.
I submit that such people are not here to learn anything, but are in fact interested in quite the opposite. I submit they are here to interfere with the dissemination of scientific knowledge that they find offensive. They don't want other people to ask the experts questions and learn from them; no, they are here to attack the experts and cast doubt upon their wisdom, in the desperate hope that others will turn away and not listen to them.
IMHO that is why the same people show up over and over again parroting the same refuted diatribes and misinformation, and spewing the same bogus out-of-context quotes designed specifically to disrupt the dissemination of scientific knowledge. That's why the same people show up over and over again misrepresenting what scientific theories and laws are, despite having had it explained to them 1720th time; they are here to instill confusion and spread their ignorance, not to disseminate knowledge.
The experts here on these threads ought to be revered and thanked for sharing with us their insights and explanations of the natural world around us; instead scorn is heaped upon them and their knowledge by the belligerently ignorant. I submit that these purveyors of unknowledge should be treated for the intellectual disruptors that they are. They stare the best opportunity any of us will ever have to gain more insight and understanding in the eye, and spit in the faces of those who offer and have the knowledge to help make that a reality.
Behold, I give you the belligerently ignorant, the intellectual Luddites of our time. Know them for the anti-knowledge disruptors they are.
If I remember correctly, Algol varies in brightness because one star is eclipsing the other from the standpoint of the earth--there is a large drop in the magnitude when the dimmer star is in front of the brighter star, and a smaller drop when the dimmer star is hidden on the far side of the brighter star.
Thanks for noticing.
;-)
How many planets have your awesome magesties discovered?Signed,
The number of planets? What a question! Surely there will be billions and trillions, each with thriving extraterrisal civilizations far more advanced then yours. Where Scientists, such as We, your Gods, rule!Sincerely,However becuase Luddite politicans in YOUR puny backward culture have not opened the entire treasury of your nation to us, young Bobby, so far our efforts over ten years plus have only turned up 150 ir so! All because of the backwards religious anti-science bias of your mud-pit culture, young man.
Alpha Centauri has always interested me. It's a triple system with two basically sunlike stars and a third, very small red dwarf. Alpha Centauri A is very similar to the sun, but a bit bigger and brighter. Alpha Centauri B is a bit cooler and smaller, more "orange" in color, but still warm enough to potentially support a habitable planet.
Also a good answer for the question in post 5.
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