'Twin' solar system 'like ours'

reply to post by yeti101


We would be long gone before we build something of that magnitude. Until they build a non-traveling self sustaining space station, there is no reason to believe they will build one that could travel at speeds we have yet to even reach.

If the technological singularity happens sooner rather than later (or we just have some amazing technological breakthroughs), then who knows what we'll be able to accomplish in the next 50 years? Technology can easily change the future. We never know what will happen until it happens. We could destroy humanity in 50 years or end up colonizing Mars. Sure, there might not be plans to colonize another planet yet, but technology is good as inspiration for new plans. I suppose I'm just sorta trying to be optimistic though.

[edit on 28-10-2008 by GrayFox]

To be honest a lot of the ideas expressed in this thread are novelistic.
I can name a lot of books, movies that could show us the way
Star wars, Star trek, The Saga of Seven Suns, Phoenix with out Ashes, Stargate SG-1, Battle Star Galactica, Space Balls, Serenity and Firefly, the list goes on.
However among these books, movies and other things we can find ideas that may work for human salvation. I’m not saying we will see Jedi running around using the force. I’m saying we will see a factual hyper drive, or Terraforming machines. The series 'The Saga of Seven Suns' by Kevin J. Anderson talks about generation ships that take hundreds of years to get to there destinations. This is where I think we as the human race will next look.
Yes this solar system is an amazing discovery, the next chapter of Human exploration starts. It started with Alexander the Great, hundreds of years ago. Who knows who will take the next foot step?
As earth becomes starved, and we all know it is we will run out of options. I see this all coming together in the next 50 to 100 years as nations realise how much of a situation we are all in.
We already have a vast number of resources in our solar system. Jupiter has H3, asteroids containing many excellent construction metals as well as ice and other gases and radioactive material. At the moment our options are endless, our imagination is ending.

reply to post by GrayFox


I like your thinking, I mean as soon as a computer hits the store shelves its out of date. Who needs 16Gb of ram any ways lol and thats in the space of a week or two

reply to post by GrayFox


Its not about technology, its about implementing that technology into tangable results. The technology is, for the most part, here, or a mere few steps away. DOING it, and building it all, is almost unimaginable.

The technology would have to evolve in such a way that its not currently heading in. Fact is, the aims to produce such things are not currently in the workings. Its not a top priority, or even close.

It would take a person of extrodinary vision and persuasion to move the masses to get behind getting people off earth, and within a short period of time. Nobody will go for their money being put to such efforts unless they will benefit from it in some way.

So yes, the idea "travel within our lifetimes" IS a constraint, because the funding for such projects will never come into existance in the amount needed unless results get produced in our lifetimes.

"We'll you won't see that solar system...but your great great great grandchildren will!"
^Hardly anyone will give money for that.

So yes, a generation ship is not practical, because no average person is going to go for it. They aren't going to have huge amounts of their money going to something they will be dead for, before the project is even completed.

Without funding, you have no ship, no resources, no nothing.

I'm not being pessimistic, just practical and realistic. Technology is not the only boundry that has us grounded on earth indefinately.

[edit on 28-10-2008 by grimreaper797]

I think you guys are talking about Michio Kaku, hes a good guy.

Anyways, Im sure we have the technology to get there faster than you might think..............Government black projects, UFO back engineering and all that.........jjust a speculation.

Wouldint it be cool if we could somehow transport anywhere we wantd instantaneously using the properties of quantum entaglement.....darn near impossible.....but dammit I can dream.

The government is finally letting us know about something else they want us to know about. HAHA.. They have probably known about this since 1978 and felt that we are now mature enough to hear about it. I mean they can discover the universes tiniest start 400 light years away but they couldnt find a whole solar system 10 light years away. Cmon give me a break.

Very cool find OP!!
I guess the first thing I thought of when reading the article was of the beginning of the great bombardment of planet Earth , and then it downed on me, "Wouldn't it be cool to see if there is a similar situation to create a moon similar to ours, and be able to actually watch it happen?!!"

Since then, much of the material has been swept out of the Solar System or sent plunging into the inner planets in an event known as the Late Heavy Bombardment. The Moon's heavily cratered surface is the result of this violent episode in the Solar System's history. Epsilon Eridani's star system might undergo a similar episode of dramatic upheaval in the future, the astronomers believe.

There have been some spectacular evidences to derive too the fact a planetoids of about the size of Mars had careened into the early earth causing the to too fuse together , leaving a massive chunk that was formed into our moon we know today.

Early Solar System
After some 5-10 billion years of stars forming and dying, a cloud of star dust formed and began to collapse. This so-called "solar nebula" was the womb of our solar system. The cosmic dust contained all the elements from which the sun and the planets are made and probably was a mixture of the exhaust from many supernova explosions. Here are some more examples of star forming areas in the universe: baby stars .

The cloud of gas and dust collapsed to disk and then into the sun and the planets. The early solar system was a a terribly violent place, as revealed by the scarred surface of the moon. Although collisions in the solar system still occur (meteorites, for example), there were a lot more collisions in the early solar system. One such collision is thought to have created the moon as shown here:

topex.ucsd.edu...



Such a cool rendition and visual of this taking place.

24 Hours of Chaos: The Day The Moon Was Made

For 25 years, scientists have pondered a theory that the Moon was created when an object the size of Mars crashed into Earth less than 100 million years after the Sun was born, some 4.6 billion years ago. The general idea has been run through the paces and massaged into shape and is now the favored explanation.

This is a very good read;

www.space.com...

And as for the one's that would like to travel and settle there, I'd wait for a while, just to be safe from the "Bombardment" if it does happen.
Was a crucial circumstance for our planet!!

Originally posted by grimreaper797
Without funding, you have no ship, no resources, no nothing.

I'm not being pessimistic, just practical and realistic. Technology is not the only boundry that has us grounded on earth indefinately.

And you're really not necessarily wrong. Funding is a huge problem. But things change. The right technology or amazing discovery could make people want to invest in something. Imagine the surge of interest in space that would occur if SETI finally discovers a confirmed alien signal! Imagine what will happen if we end up with AIs near human intelligence (There have been some pretty good developments in the past year or so). It could very well happen, considering the current rate of technological development... so just imagine what could happen if that development rate increases!

Sure, maybe it won't happen, yeah, but it's no fun to just give up on it.

do you think swiss beats and hillary duff are attacking the worlds economy?

reply to post by Allred5923


The image you posted could also suggest how the tectonic plats of earth being formed. A far fetched idea, but it may have merit.

reply to post by GrayFox


Im pretty big into the AI thing, and I think we are a ways off from that kind of intelligence. IMO, we should focus on creating an AI smarter than Human beings to create the technology advancements for us. We should dedicate most our research toward that, its beneficial in the long run.

PLUS, you could sell this advanced AI for many commercial, military, etc. purposes, so you could get the necessary funding to do said research for this super AI. Technology would no longer have to be invented by humans. We would only have to physically implement the technology and research that results from this AI. It would solve a wide variety of problems exponentially faster than any group of humans could

I think this is the way to get the human species off earth, and exponentially ahead in technology. Of course, if we screw it up, the chances are high we would create our own demise. The kind of AI has unimaginable power, and if we were to mess it up in its implementation or use, it could be the end of us.

But on the bright side, it could also save humanity, and put it ahead technologically thousands of years in a matter of years, or even months.

The idea is that we build this AI, use it to create all sorts of things, one of which is, more intelligent AI. Once we can build smarter than humans AI, things which progress exponentially faster. It would happen more rapid than we could imagine, because all progress up to this point is made by human intelligence.

So, my point, aim to create smarter than human AI, get that AI to research many things, including smarter AI, and we will get REAL results. Things that WOULD get funding. It is applicable in practically EVERY market you can think of. Its possibilities are endless.

I would go about space travel by creating super AI. It would have the intelligence to figure out what we can or can't do, how long it would take, etc. etc. It would have the commercial applications to get funding. Most importantly, it would have the military application to get government backing.

Its just a matter of getting the people to go for it.

reply to post by Wisdom of one


Actually, I believe that the Tectonic plate movements were do to the cooling down and shrinkage of the advent of H2O entering the picture, but I do agree with you if you are saying it possibly created the first and original fault lines of Earth!!

Cool insight Wisdom.

I wish to post again, mostly to re-iterate but ALSO to compel people to scroll up and see a post from 'Just a Son'.

(and, to hopefully entice you to read MY posts...)

Epsilon Eridani....this is 'Star Trek' lore (I know, because I know a lot about the 'franchise' known as "Star Trek")

In the 1970's as fans of the TV series 'Star Trek' grew increasingly upset about the cancellation of the show in 1969, many fans 'backfilled' what they had seen on TV during the three seasons on air, in order to find solace.

Hence, the 'fandom' grew....in fact, it was already a factor in 1968, when word spread that NBC was going to cancel the Series...a letter-writing campaign was mounted - organized, I'm told, by a woman named Bjo Trimble - with help of others, of course....anyway, NBC renewed, but alas, the Third Season was dismal, for various reasons, least of which was the shut-out of Gene Roddenberry....but that's water under the bridge.

The idea that Epsilon Eridani, so close to us, might harbor the Home-World of the Vulcans, well that came from fandom....after the Show's cancellation.

Back to reality, setting aside fiction and TV entertainment, for the moment....

The feasibility, or 'possiblity', if you will, of a Star System that resembles our own is not only likely, it seems inevitable, given the vastness of our Galaxy.

While I'd encourage, and daresay wish to meet intelligent beings so 'close' to us....I fear that 'fantasy' and reality might be at odds, here. SIMPLY because, there is a time factor involved....and I do NOT mean the 10.5 LY, I mean the thousands of years involved in developing a civilization, and science as well....and the possibility of various Planetary events, such as Plate Tectonics or Orbital Impacts that may delay a species' development...

What this implies is: When WE are at a technological peak, we may encounter others who aren't. AND, it's a bad idea to give tech to those who aren't ready for it (the 'Star Trek' Prime Directive)

It's a two-edged sword, of course...can cut both ways......

reply to post by Allred5923


Yeah I agree with that. I would be interested to know where a crater for such an impact lies. I have heard the Gulf of Mexico maybe the remnants of such an impact. But the earths crust will have changed so many times in the period between then and now, it’s hard to tell.

Originally posted by weedwhacker

Back to reality, setting aside fiction and TV entertainment, for the moment....

The feasibility, or 'possiblity', if you will, of a Star System that resembles our own is not only likely, it seems inevitable, given the vastness of our Galaxy.

I do agree with this entierly, I would like to see Galaxy changed to Universe. Of course we can only see a tiny glimpse of what we persieve to be the universe, but with it being really really big and all, we are by far not the only live solar system out there. by living solar system, i mean one with life in it somehwere.

[edit on 28/10/2008 by Wisdom of one]

reply to post by Wisdom of one


Since it was basically at the beginning of the Earths existence as an impacted planet, there leaves little doubt to think there was any evidence left behind by way of "Detectable" at this stage of the events happening.
Found another good read though, I know there is a computer recreation of how this had all come about , and the computer program rendition actually allowed it to create it's own scenario with extremely exacting effects as to the way we see our satellite today.

Canup and her colleagues did some new calculations and determined that the collision was much bigger than previously thought. The scientists say they found that the collision was so big that some of Earth's surface vaporized.

www.cnn.com...

I have to get off the puter right now, but if I get back here tomorrow and see you haven't found the computer simulation, I will dig for it tomorrow.
I have seen it and it is quite amazing and very accurate for the existence of the moon.

reply to post by grimreaper797


Now I can definitely agree with that! Except the part where you say it's a long ways off. You could be right about it though, but I hope not. I'm hoping we have such AI sooner rather than later.

reply to post by GrayFox


Given its current priority, it is. We need somebody who understands it potential AND has the charisma to charm the people into believing that potential.

I remember reading once before material about alien space travel. Under hypnosis, a human abducted to a space craft said when talking to one of the blues that nearby star travel is only 3-4 or so "earth days" away. This literally blows away the 100 - 1000 year trip to less than a few weeks. There was some Pleiades's to Earth travel that only too a reasonable.

10.5 light years with the right craft....

Warp 1 = 10 years
Warp 2 = 5 years
Warp 3 = 2.5 years
Warp 4 = 1.25 years
Warp 5 = 0.75 years
Warp 6 = .35 years
Warp 7 = .125 years
Warp 8 = .08 years

Of course Einstein would need to be totally wrong and all of physics that we know about would need to rewritten to make this true.