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Distant Planet Imaging Project Gets More Funding

It doesn't come easy writes "NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts has chosen a proposal by the University of Colorado (UC) at Boulder to image distant planets around other stars for a second round of funding. Known as the New Worlds Observer, the UC project is for an orbiting, soccer-field sized "starshade" shaped like a daisy that would funnel light from distant planets between its petals to a second spacecraft trailing 50,000 miles behind. If the concept proves feasible, it could 'identify planetary features like oceans, continents, polar caps and cloud banks, and even detect biomarkers like methane, water, oxygen and ozone [...]'"

28 of 264 comments (clear)

  1. I just hope... by dptalia · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...we can see them building the invasion fleet in time.

    --
    Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration, which is why engineers sometimes smell really bad.
    1. Re:I just hope... by Surt · · Score: 3, Funny

      Unfortunately, you'll only be able to see them when they ignite their light speed drives. Those suckers are bright!

      --
      "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
    2. Re:I just hope... by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: 2, Funny

      Even worse, if the invasion fleet really has light speed drives, we will first detect them when they arrive in orbit around Earth, before the light from their light speed drives reaches us. We're doomed. Or we can surrender and hope their culture has laws against mistreatment of pets. Woof.

      --
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    3. Re:I just hope... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Allow me to be the first to say, "I for one welcome our new faster-than-light overlords".

  2. Sounds cool... by jamesgamble · · Score: 2, Funny

    But did they really have to shape it like a giant flower?

    1. Re:Sounds cool... by moogleii · · Score: 2, Funny

      Would a giant phallus be better?

  3. Hey... by bc90021 · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...I can see my house from here! ;-)

    1. Re:Hey... by Tackhead · · Score: 2, Funny
      > ...I can see my house from here! ;-)

      ...proving (much like the General and Special Theories of Disaster Area Tax Returns) that the whole fabric of the space-time continuum is not merely curved, but is in fact totally bent.

  4. They could have chosen a better Acronym by ZP-Blight · · Score: 2, Funny

    NWO? Really?

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    1. Re:They could have chosen a better Acronym by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I guess they thought anyone that would be offended by the acronym would already be at least suspicious of their motives because they are a government-funded project. In other words, it wasn't worth it to care.

    2. Re:They could have chosen a better Acronym by Locke2005 · · Score: 2, Funny

      They wanted to call it TWA (Telescope With Attitude), but unfortunately that acronym was already taken.

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  5. No Google Reference - Can't Be True by ScentCone · · Score: 3, Funny

    Clearly we are unable to function without Their Googly Appendages, so I don't know how NASA is going to pull this off. Although a soccer-field-sized Space Daisy observatory does sound like something eBay would acquire, and that might get Google interested in a competing Cricket-Pitch Space Tulip.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  6. And in other news by Daysaway · · Score: 5, Funny

    Google plans to unveil their new software aptly named 'Google Solar System', which sews the surface maps of the planets together for an interactive flythrough.

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    Colonel Cranium this is Rectal Reconnaissance, we are on a collision course sir, Abort Abort!
  7. But wait, there's more! by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 4, Funny

    > it could 'identify planetary features like oceans,
    > continents, polar caps and cloud banks, and even
    > detect biomarkers like methane

    The bad part will come with version 3.0, launched in the later part of this century, when we zoom on on their alien babes on beaches, and see if they have silly laws regulating nudity, too. Or churches.

    Quite frankly, I'd be way more scared if they had churches than if they did not.

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    1. Re:But wait, there's more! by maynard · · Score: 2, Funny

      Do you even want to see this thing in a bikini?!?!? Best the aliens be covered, if you ask me...

    2. Re:But wait, there's more! by ZachPruckowski · · Score: 2, Funny

      I can see it now. The guy scientists gathering around the screen, then suddenly "Eeww, Gross! What's that?" "I don't know. Is it normal?" "Sadly, I wouldn't know"

  8. Phew. by mctk · · Score: 3, Funny
    Soccer field sized cameras, tiny robots for planetary surface investigation, an infrared observatory on the moon, giant, laser-trapped mirrors in space...

    Having recently watched Independence Day, I can say that I'm relieved that NASA is finally getting around to that RFDEW (Really F#*king Distant Early Warnings) system I've been proposing for years.

    --
    Paul Grosfield - the quicker picker upper.
  9. Re:How will the religious establishment react? by nine-times · · Score: 4, Funny
    Just posted on FARK today: Vatican astronomer ponders baptism of extra-terrestrials

    That's right. You show me some ET's, and I'll show you some Christians that want to baptize them.

  10. Re:Yup... by SysSupport · · Score: 4, Funny
    Here ya go

    *

    _

  11. So the images would go into... by awol · · Score: 3, Funny

    Google "Not" Earth then.... Or maybe GoogleGalaxy.

    --
    "The first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole is stop digging."
  12. Re:How will the religious establishment react? by Digital+Pizza · · Score: 3, Funny
    Eventually, we can look forward to:
    • Human missionaries attempting to convert aliens to Christianity.
    • Alien missionaries attempting to convert humans to their religion.
    What fun; hope nobody starts a war over it.
    --
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  13. Re:CU not UC by CyricZ · · Score: 1, Funny

    The word is "pedantic", not "pendantic".

    --
    Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
  14. Imagine the possibilities! by Locke2005 · · Score: 2, Funny

    With technology like this, we could even determine if the inhabitants of distant planets are so mindbogglingly primitive that they're still driving SUVs!

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  15. Great.... by zimus · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... an orbiting, soccer-field sized "starshade" shaped like a daisy ...

    Let's just clue the entire galaxy in to the fact that so many hippies live here.

    --
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  16. Re:center of the universe? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I think it's in either I or II Opinions. I'm not sure which.

  17. Re:biomarkers by Robotdog · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's just swamp gas reflected off of Venus.

  18. It's really a weapon by sytos · · Score: 3, Funny

    What they don't tell you is that it can focus sunlight into a tiny dot. Ah, the smell of burning aliens!

  19. Re:CU not UC by kurzweilfreak · · Score: 2, Funny

    What is also funny is that a giant telescope is being made by CU. *rimshot*

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    kurzweil_freak

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