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NASA Creates an Alien's Eye View of Solar System

Posted by timothy on from the buncha-showoffs dept.

Flash Modin writes "Using the Discover supercomputer — which is capable of 67 trillion calculations per second — astronomers at NASA Goddard have created a series of images of what our solar system would look like to an alien astronomer at various points in time. Their simulations track the interactions of 75,000 dust grains in the Kuiper Belt, and show that while the planets would be too dim to detect directly, aliens could deduce the presence of Neptune from its effects on the icy region. Strikingly, the images resemble one taken by Hubble of the star Fomalhaut. NASA has put out a cute video to go with the announcement as well."

6 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Good example by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Of why we need to win the supercomputer race! Crucial applications like this...

  2. And the point is...? by haydensdaddy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Seriously, I would be interested in seeing the taxpayer cost of this little photoshop session. And they wonder why they're being regarded as irrelevant and having their funding cut...

    1. Re:And the point is...? by hcdejong · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Right; what good could astronomy possibly do? We don't need to know about outer space! [/sarcasm]

      This 'little Photoshop session' helps astronomers better understand what they observe. It's part of the process that started with Copernicus.

    2. Re:And the point is...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You surly jest.

      NASA has such a small portion of the funds it's outsourcing stuff. Projects like this are stepping stones to larger ones. Also this is time used on a machine they already own.

      Their funding is being cut and they're being seen as irrelevant because no one has the balls to take risk anymore. Politicians are too worried about reelection to have Astronaut XXX's name smeared on their name.

    3. Re:And the point is...? by Jarik+C-Bol · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The Citizens of the United States Spend more on Cell Phones each year than the total budget for NASA. Its no wonder we've not been anywhere cool.

      --
      I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
  3. Re:Aliens Eyes by Baron_Yam · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The point isn't how an alien's eyes might work, but what frequencies are useful for examining a star system.

    Humans don't see infrared to any useful degree, nor x-ray, nor radio, and yet we image the heavens in each for different reasons.

    While we couldn't guess that an alien might see the same colours on a false-colour representation of our solar system... we can reasonably say they would be looking at some kind of representation of an infrared image of us because that's the best way to get information about us.