Sunday, April 29, 2007
PLANET C
So, we have found a planet 20.5 light years away from Earth that is within the “Goldilocks” belt of its parent sun, a region that is not too hot or too cold, it’s just right, to potentially support or sustain life as we know it. The planet orbits a red dwarf star named Gliese 581 and is formally known as Gliese 581 c, though astronomers have just been calling it Planet C.
First things first… how can we get there? Traveling at the speed of light or approximately 670616629.384 miles per hour, it will take us twenty and a half years en route, though Einstein proposed that anything having mass was incapable of traveling that fast… back to the drawing board. Even at a speed close to that of light, we’ve got some time on our hands. Checkers anyone? How about some sort of cosmic slingshot? There’s a saying that “laws are made to be broken”. Perhaps, like many discoveries, the mysteries of bending time and space will be un-locked while someone is trying to figure out something else totally unrelated. For now we'll assume that the getting there part isn't a big deal.
So, what would it be like? Temperatures are estimated to be in the range of 32 to 104 F and theoretically the planet has water. It sounds good so far. Planet C takes about two weeks to orbit the red dwarf and it may not be spinning on its axis. Well, one week of daytime and one week of night! Just think, your long day at work will be rewarded by a week of sleeping… again, doesn’t sound too shabby. I don’t suppose many Earth employers now would buy an “I was so tired and overworked that I had to sleep like I was on Planet C”, excuse. Oh well. Here’s another thought, celebrating your birthday might become passé, at one every fourteen days they would be coming quick. You might run out of gift ideas, and after awhile they would probably make a law against singing “Happy Birthday”. There’s a law that might not be broken, at least on Planet C. What is your age on Planet C? To find out, multiply your present age by 26 and there you go. I’d be over 1000!
Swiss scientist Michel Mayor, who heads up the European team that announced the discovery of Planet C, believes that top researchers are less than two decades away from being able to detect real signs of life in the solar system of Gliese 581. Perhaps, somewhere in time and space, someone else has figured out how to sling shot through the cosmos and is now finishing up a last game of checkers!
First things first… how can we get there? Traveling at the speed of light or approximately 670616629.384 miles per hour, it will take us twenty and a half years en route, though Einstein proposed that anything having mass was incapable of traveling that fast… back to the drawing board. Even at a speed close to that of light, we’ve got some time on our hands. Checkers anyone? How about some sort of cosmic slingshot? There’s a saying that “laws are made to be broken”. Perhaps, like many discoveries, the mysteries of bending time and space will be un-locked while someone is trying to figure out something else totally unrelated. For now we'll assume that the getting there part isn't a big deal.
So, what would it be like? Temperatures are estimated to be in the range of 32 to 104 F and theoretically the planet has water. It sounds good so far. Planet C takes about two weeks to orbit the red dwarf and it may not be spinning on its axis. Well, one week of daytime and one week of night! Just think, your long day at work will be rewarded by a week of sleeping… again, doesn’t sound too shabby. I don’t suppose many Earth employers now would buy an “I was so tired and overworked that I had to sleep like I was on Planet C”, excuse. Oh well. Here’s another thought, celebrating your birthday might become passé, at one every fourteen days they would be coming quick. You might run out of gift ideas, and after awhile they would probably make a law against singing “Happy Birthday”. There’s a law that might not be broken, at least on Planet C. What is your age on Planet C? To find out, multiply your present age by 26 and there you go. I’d be over 1000!
Swiss scientist Michel Mayor, who heads up the European team that announced the discovery of Planet C, believes that top researchers are less than two decades away from being able to detect real signs of life in the solar system of Gliese 581. Perhaps, somewhere in time and space, someone else has figured out how to sling shot through the cosmos and is now finishing up a last game of checkers!
Posted by Ted Zarras at 4:59 PM
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