Newly-Discovered Star may be Third-Closest

spaceref.com ^ | 21 May 03 | staff

[Darksheare]

It was an article in Astronomy magazine a couple years back.
And he was smug in stating that they'd mapped absolutely everything within several lightyears and there couldn't possibly be anything left out there. (Or words to that effect.)

I chuckled my butt off about it.
Did have a hard time figuring out their definition of a 'couple' of lightyears.
But since they'd mentioned Barnard's Star, I took it to mean out to ten at most.

Makes one wonder why some of those guys are even in the field anyway. If some of them are so sure there isn't anything close in to find anymore...
Nothing would surprise me anymore, with the universe.
I wouldn't be surprised to find that our solar system has a brown dwarf in it way out there.
I also wouldn't be surprised to find out that the oort cloud is quite real and slightly larger than they initially figured.

[Darksheare]

Had heard that there was one in the blue sky idea area, but hadn't heard that there was serious backing and planning being done.
Thanks for the link.

[gitmo]

So we cannot even see the NEARBY stuff????

Nearsighted astronomers.

[MikeD]

New Horizons is scheduled for launch in January 2006, with Jupiter Gravity Assist in 2007, and arrival in mid-2015/2016 (depending on launch vehicle).

NH will feature an optical/IR camera, a UV spectrometer (ALICE -- one of my current assignments), a couple of particle experiments, a radio "telescope", and a dust counter.

Critical Design Review for the whole project is later this summer. After that, it's free sailing as long as the environmentalist whackos don't hold up the RTGs (plutonium power plants).

MD

[Darksheare]

I seem to remember the environuts protesting 'nukes' in space recently.
So they might hold up the powerplants some.

[MikeD]

For better or for worse radioactive materials can only be launched via Executive Order. However, between the fact that the President is from Texas (home of Southwest Research Institute) and NH will have no Earth fly-bys, there should be no problems launching the plutonium power plants.

The sad thing is that no nuclear reactions occur on the spacecraft -- the heat released by radioactive decay drives the generators.

MD

[Darksheare]

Well, no Earth fly bys would be a major selling point.
The Press played it up with Galileo that it's powerplant would scatter "deadly" radiation over a portion of Earth should it accidentally de-orbit back when it made it's fly by.

[longshadow]

Heck, we haven't done much science with the far side of the Moon yet...

That was thoroughly researched by a team of crack British Space Scientists from Cambridge in the early '70's. They were known as "Pink Floyd".

;-)

[biblewonk]

I have a book, I think it's the one called galaxies which states that galaxies are very evenly distributed throughout the universe. This was great because the even distribution worked perfectly with the big bang theory. What a shock to find that their distrubution is anything but even/homogenous.

It is also very interesting to study just how we figure out the distances to the various objects in the universe. Parallax is by far the most accurate and from then on it becomes more speculative.

[RightWhale]

The Press played it up with Galileo

Also Michio Kaku, physicist. Don't know how he expects us to get to be a Type One civilization without doing some of these things.

[Darksheare]

Yes, I think I know which book you are talking about.
They were VERY surprised to find that there's "Bubbles" and "walls" out there.
Very funny, actually.
Just goes to show how very little we understand the very environs we live in as well.

"Man is such an amusing creature." -quote author unknown.

[Darksheare]

Maybe he thinks we'll be an evil civ bent on galactic conquest.
(Would be cool, though.)

[RightWhale]

we'll be an evil civ bent on galactic conquest

Aside from the fact that we own the galaxy by birthright, we're not evil. No way.

Bwahahahahaha

[Darksheare]

I'd like to be the first to discover sentient ices, and eat them like Carvel ice cream.

But that's me and my sense of humor.

[MikeD]

Would it be mean to suggest that Syd might have visited?

Yeah, probably. I feel bad for Syd...

MD

[Calvin Locke]

There was that epi of South Park where the tv producer appeared as a taco that cr@pped ice cream. Close enough?

[Darksheare]

Hmmm..
True enough.
A sentient taco is too close to what already exists near where I live, though.

[longshadow]

Would it be mean to suggest that Syd might have visited?

From what I can gather, Syd was in another galaxy, not just on the backside of the moon.

Floyd trivia: Syd unexpectedly walked into the recording studio (after many years) just as the band finished recording "Shine on You Crazy Diamond", which they wrote in honor of him as the founder of the group. Weird.

[Thinkin' Gal]

We discovered this star in September 2002 while searching for white dwarf stars in an unrelated program," said Teegarden.