Stellar Water Fountain

ktulu1115 writes "Space.com writes: An aging star that spits water into space could provide astronomers the clues they need to explain the formation of planetary nebulae, the cloudy remnants of a star's death."

Comments

Re:more taxpayer money down the toilet

[djohnsto]

Aside from not (to my knowledge) being a publicly funded project (at least by the U.S.), I don't agree with the point you're trying to make.

In the grand scheme of things, how much do "space fountains" really matter?

...

I don't want to have to explain to my grandkids that the reason I'm dying of brain disease in the year 2075 is because we were too busy looking for space waterslides to find a cure.

While it may be more important to you to find a way to live longer instead of researching the nature of the universe, I really doubt it would benefit humanity as much. Given current population density growth, it would be much better for everyone if the average life expectancy started going down, not up. The way things are going, it won't be long until there are more people too senile to go to the bathroom by themselves than there will be active, useful members of society. They only reason they won't be allowed to die is because thier kids can't stand the thought of them not being around for the grandkids to see on Christmas. Call me a cruel heartless bastard, but I think scientific research into the mysteries of the universe is monumentally more important to humanity than the difference between our grandparents living to be 70 or our grandparents living to be 100.