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Multiple Asteroid Belts Found Orbiting Nearby Star
Kligat writes "Scientists have found two asteroid belts around the star Epsilon Eridani, the ninth closest star to our solar system. Epsilon Eridani also possesses an icy outer ring similar in composition to our Kuiper Belt, but with 100 times more material, and a Jovian mass planet near the edge of the innermost belt. Researchers believe that two other planets must orbit the 850 million year old star near the other two belts. Terrestrial planets are possible, but not yet indicated."
It's one possible location for Star Trek's planet Vulcan!
Looks like the builders of The Great Machine inside Epsilon 3 are just dumping their debris in orbit.
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. - Cmdr. Susan Ivanova
epsilon eridani only 850 million years old? there is no way a race as ancient and wise as the vulcan could have come from such a young star system
look, i am an avid supporter of scientific progress as much as the next slashdotter, but when these so-called astronomers report something that contradicts well-established star trek canon, i have to put my foot down and wonder at the agenda of these propagandizers
yours,
star trek fundamentalist
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
For those of you who dont want to RTFA but want some reference on why this is important, let me put a quote for you:
"Studying Epsilon Eridani is like having a time machine to look at our solar system when it was young,"
Do we have time to assemble a crack team of oil-rig roughnecks to land on them and nuke them? More importantly, does this mean another terrible Aerosmith song?!?
This one actually gives some information on how they detected the belts (short version: it's based on infrared emissions that could only come from rocky debris).
And here is the actual paper on arXiv, if you want the full technical details of their methods.
He's right, it'd have to be at least 851 million years old.
All kidding aside, it's very hard to try to figure out just how long it would take to come up with life (almost as we know it) under circumstances even marginally different than our own. That said, the Vulcan are very similar to us because humanoids originate from the same planet. For more on this, see TNG episode 6x20.
Research into ion engines is humming right along.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
From TFA:
Two rings of rocks, and one of ice.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Yes, it would be a good candidate for a probe, especially since we could learn more about the early solar system.
But as for setting up a colony, that seems doubtful. The star is only 850 million years old, it doesn't seem likely that any rocky planets in orbit would be stable enough yet to support life (it would be a lot easier to set up camp on a planet teaming with at least primitive life, assuming an ecosystem compatible with life from Earth). Not to mention the increased likelihood of cometary impacts on planets in the inner system (a younger star system wouldn't have cleared out all the debris from the initial formation yet).
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
I bet they can't even accurately predict what the odds are of successfully navigating through this asteroid belt.
Easy. Just stay out of plane.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
While talking about Sci-Fi, it might be worth noting that this system is the home of Babylon 5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsilon_III
Huh?
The place to put the colony is in the inner asteroid belt. Earthlike planets if any would be just a bonus. Based on what little we already know about the system, it's an obvious place to go.
Maybe just robots and nanites at first.
I wish I'd kept a copy of when I submitted this story earlier today, although the posted version is as good as mine.
see previous slashdot stories
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/18/1359214 Interstellar Ark
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/11/214248 Mission Could Seek Out Spock's Home Planet (re 40 eridani, not epsilon eridani)
In a hundred or so years when we have the technology to get there. Might even be the ideal place for a colony someday.
Look, I agree that it's a nice place to go visit, but if you looked into things, you would find that it is 10.5 Light Years Away from earth it would take close to an eternity to get there with current rocket technology and certainly what is being developed. And not to rain on the parade again, but before anyone goes touting ION ENGINES will get us there, no, they really won't. You see Ion Engines need large amounts of power to run. Really large amounts that are generally limited to the amount of juice that can be generated by huge solar panels. Short of putting a nuclear reactor on this ship to get us there, we simply won't have enough sunlight to make the engine run once is starts to fade away from the centerish part of our solar system.
In short, I would love to agree, but I really think that you would need to change the "hundred or so" part of your post to be "many hundreds or so".
That's assuming we can deal with the massive solar winds that are 30 times as powerful as the ones in our system. Did I forget that part?
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
I bet they can't even accurately predict what the odds are of successfully navigating through this asteroid belt.
Easy. Just stay out of plane.
Can't do that, chief, there's a star destroyer on my back.
I record my sleeptalking
A co-worker and I were discussing this story today. He had a very poor education growing up and I had to explain a great deal for him to really 'get' what's going on at Epsilon Eridani.
Can anyone recommend a good basic astronomy/cosmology book that I can give him to bring him somewhat up to speed? For reference, I had to explain that all the stars in the sky are just like our sun; that's his level of understanding. He's very smart and motivated to learn, but has very little background in science.
Thanks!
(It'd take me only 10 parsecs to figure it out. That's how good I am at).
It would take you around 300 000 000 000 000 kilometers to work out if you can get through something roughly 8 975 880 000 km wide?
You too can read about what a parsec and astronomical unit is in the privacy of your own home.
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
True, you probably won't be able to keep the engine going, but you certainly don't want to build up speed in the inner solar system. Odds are you want to slingshot around Venus (or maybe Sol), gain speed, and then slingshot again around Jupiter or Saturn, and THEN light the main engine. It's all about conservation of fuel and getting the biggest bang for the buck. It really doesn't matter if you're using nuclear pulse, ion or any other engine technology humanity might invent any time soon.
IMO, what's more interesting is dealing with the Oort cloud. It's about 50,000 AU out (1 AU = distance Earth to Sol), and that's quite a long way, given that Neptune is 30 AU. For a little perspective, Voyager 2's been moving at ~3.3 AU/year since 1977 and is 86 AU out. This star is 632,396 AU away.
Anyway, the Oort cloud may well be like the Alps were to Bronze Age man: impassible except in certain locations and conditions.
46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."
While it is low density, it's also full of smaller bodies which have questionable movement characteristics. Quite simply, we cannot be sure at this time if it will be an issue or not. Being in a ship going (say) .01c and getting bombarded by a dozen basketball sized objects per hour for days would be an issue!
46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."