Yale Astronomer searching for planets around Alpha Centauri a/b

[Green1]

Old stuff... but some of you guys may not know all the links to cool stuff the way the Green and the Uncle have it.

As of April, Yale astronomer's mission to discover a planet around Rigel Kentaurus (Alpha Centauri) A+B is now funded by the Planetary Society crew. (Bill Nye et al.)

I uncovered a podcast interview with the astronomer, Debra Fischer I listened to months back.

http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/492.html

Good stuff I thought I should share. Say what you want to about Bill Nye. ie: He's crazy, a kidddie host, opposes some manned spaceflight initiatives,  etc. (lets not talk about our boy and the ladies... wiki it..) But the dude is Carl Sagan's friggin apprentice and an advocate and scientist in his own right.

[Buster's Uncle]

The dude is a charming science host/advocate/educator - and an adept comedian.  Ever see him back when he was on The Funny Pages?  He does a lot more good than harm.

I like Neil Degrassi-Junior-High Tyson better, but then I'm the audience for what he does on Nova, not the audience for the entry-level stuff Nye does.  I'm prepared to forgive Nye for favoring unmanned, just as with Sagan before him.  They do manned exploration alone more good than harm by popularizing space science.

[Green1]

I agree with you, I am a bit more with the more intermediate stuff. But, I have always found it shocks people that unlike Nye's old master Sagan, Bill is up in front of congress on a regular basis in thier face.

The "basic" stuff was just to build wealth. It pigeon holed him, though, to an extent. It made him a "character actor". But jeesh, it is like Jueng was to Frued. Yeah, Frued did THE papers. But, it was Jueng that hit the common man. Let's hope Nye's apprentice is not a Wilhiem Riech!!! LOL.

[Buster's Uncle]

Let's also hope that none of our guys are wrong as often as Freud was...

[Green1]

Let's also hope that none of our guys are wrong as often as Freud was...

Or Riech..... Riech was far worse than Frued. He even tried to sell items increasing "orgone" energy. He got mixed up in the craze at the time to sell vibrators to "cold" women during that era. Fortunately, his being kicked out of all legit psych circles led way to decent theories like the TA of the '60s forward. Maybe it was a bad analysis. Frued used too much occult knowledge and was influenced a bit much by the Golden Dawn and crew on top of a bit too much coke.

[Green1]

ewww.. Yeah, give it to Frued to at least get us in the somewhat right  direction. But, messing with Simone who happened to also sleep whith Niche has gotta be a mind blow.

[Buster's Uncle]

Freud was an intuitive pre-scientific pioneer whose theories are often workable in abnormal psychology, but who erred grossly in projecting the same sick garbage onto the rest of the human race, and in establishing psychoanalysis as a dogmatic near-cult.  It took forever for psychology to shake off his wrong-headed mistakes, but it must still be admited that he pretty much invented what has since become a legitimate science.

And he was one sick mother himself.

[Unorthodox]

I'm just marvelling how an astronomy thread turned into a psychology thread. 

I've often considered my little hobby to be little more than a series of experiments in Jungian psychology.  Combined with some of the emotional contagion theories, it's actually quite beneficial to my personal designs. 

[Buster's Uncle]

[shrugs] It's all connected, and we ain't topic nazis here.  Since there's no thread for shooting the breeze about psychology, just as well talk here as start that thread - unless someone wants to, in which case I'd consider moving some posts.  It's all good.

Uno, I'm interested, and if you want to elaborate on that...

[Green1]

meh. Some of the figures of science have pretty interesting psych profiles if you ask me. The comparison is valid. Plus it gets hard to talk sometimes about mind boggling things without some of that sneaking in.

Anyways, I hope she finds something. I think they have ruled out big gas giants like the one Pandora was orbiting around in Avatar since Alpha Centari A+B are around 11 AU which is around the distance from our sun to Uranus. VERY good possibility of earth like planets.

Proxima does not really count because it is a very small star. Not as laughable as Wolf 359 which is barely the size of Jupiter, but small nonetheless.

[Buster's Uncle]

...And if the thread-starter don't care about the drift, I sure don't...

Of course we hope she finds something - knowlege is good for it's own sake, and actual observations of actual extra-solar planets bring us that much closer to interstellar travel happening - in more than one way.

[sisko]

 i "hate" to bring this on you, but the Europeans are announcing it today: http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=2407.0

[Green1]

Oh my... speak of the devil. It is fixing to be on. The teams just started this stuff. there is going to be MOAR. The US led team predicted 1 plaet would be discovered by someon in a year. 2 to 3 more in 5. Guess what? It has not even been a year yet and our fellow geeks in Europe beat us to it due to better telescope time and AC only viewable in the southern hemisphere.

[Buster's Uncle]

Alpha Centauri Planet Truly Alien to Many Earthlings
By Tia Ghose, LiveScience Contributor | LiveScience.com – 5 hrs ago.. .

 
SAN FRANCISCO — Scientists announced the existence of an Earth-size planet orbiting a star in neighboring Alpha Centauri, but back on the home planet, only half the people polled informally had heard of the star system. Still, most support the idea of sending a mission to explore the new discovery.
 
The scorched, rocky planet has about Earth's mass, but circles the sun Alpha Centauri B at a distance of just 3.6 million miles  (6 million kilometers), making it likely that its surface is covered in molten lava. The alien planet’s existence suggests that others might lurk farther out from the star, just far enough for liquid water — and possibly life — to exist. 
 
Though the constellation is our next-door neighbor, many San Franciscans had never heard of it.
 
"I have no idea what it is," said Paul Thomas, a cook waiting for a bus here.
 
While more than half of the 13 people polled said that Alpha Centauri was a star system, only one knew it was about 4 light-years away from Earth.
 
None knew it would take about 40,000 years to get there on a spacecraft like NASA's Voyager 1, though guesses ranged from two days to 150,000 years. [Gallery: Nearby Alien Planet Alpha Centauri Bb]
 
"I would have known when I went to space camp when I was 9," said bartender Anya Aplin.
 
Despite the ignorance of our interstellar neighbors, most said they would definitely support sending a mission to study the new planet.
 
"Not everything starts out having a practical purpose, but along the way you discover things that turn out to be practical," said entrepreneur Jeff Lin. "The Apollo missions, they yielded things that were super-useful for human beings even though in the race to the moon, we didn't harvest moon rocks."
 
But first, scientists should get the costs down, determine whether the planet has an atmosphere, and develop artificial gravity to prevent the health problems of anti-gravity, people said.
 
Mary Beth Stone, a nonprofit worker, said an interstellar mission couldn't be justified unless Earthlings were in better shape.
 
"I think we should put some of the money that might be spent on that on taking care of the hungry and the homeless first," Stone said.
 
Others took a more expansive view of what should be considered before a trip.
 
"It depends on what the motivation is," said Paulette, an ordained Tibetan monk. "If it made all sentient beings happy, then we should go."
 
Though he just learned of the existence of Alpha Centauri’s and its alien planet, college student Pedro Navarro said he would still go if the travel time could be improved.
 
Many said safety concerns would need to be worked out first.
 
"I wouldn't want to be the first person — I would want to make sure the return trip was pretty much guaranteed," said Ian Matthew, a financial analyst.
 
But comfort was key for software engineer Miriam Goldberg. "It depends on the amenities on the ship," she said.
 
Straw Poll Results
 
1) Do you know what Alpha Centauri is?
• Yes: 7 people
• No: 6
 
2) The planet is four light-years away, how long do you think it would take to get there?
 • No idea: 7
• Two days: 1
• Decades: 1
• Several Years: 1
• 100 Years: 1
• 400 Years: 1
• 150,000 Years: 1
 
3) If we found a faster way to get there, should we go check it out?
 • Yes: 8
• It Depends: 4
• No: 1
 
4) Would you want to go?
 • Yes: 4
• It Depends: 3
• No: 6

###



Morons.  I've got morons on my team.

[Green1]

The straw poll just highlights what we already know. Joe Sixpack and Sarah Soccermom do not read as much tech/ science outside of what high school requires to pass as we do unless it is Facebook or a new cell phone.