aliens and astronomy

[STM]

It's a shame we can't just travel around through the warp like in Wh40k, would make life easier wouldn't it.

[Bullet Magnet]

Oh yes, I'd love to run the risk of never re-emerging for no apparent reason and being devoured forever by the Ruinous Powers, or maybe coming back out and mutating into a Chaos Spawn while in bed with a lover. Could be fun for the first five minutes, but then the appetite and mindlessness kicks in.

Then again, in this point of W40K history there are insufficient humans (and psykers) for the Chaos gods and demons to have even been conceived. Hell, the Eldar are still at the height of their power, and only just beginning to decline into abject and most horrific hedonism. The Webway is still whole and unsullied by Slaanesh.

[MA]

can't wait!

[Nate]

what is universal solvent? a one way trip with solar sails could still be used to send probes to the near by stars, and when you get to a near by star the solar wind would be changed and they could head back, although I here they plan to use lasers as a booster so coming back would take a lot longer, and the overall trip would be too long to actually send a person.

Universal solvent is a theoretical substance that can dissolve anything. The problem being that it would be impossible to make a bottle to store it in because it would just dissolve it.

A solar sail can only be a one way trip because even if you turn around and use another star as an energy source, you would never be able to approach our solar system again because you'd be pushed back by our sun. That's a moot point anyway, because a solar sail will only be able to pick up speed whilst it's fairly close to our sun - it wouldn't be practical for interstellar travel.

[Bullet Magnet]

It might work if it folded up the sail and travelled the remaining distance ballistically: the craft would not accelerate past the heliopause anyway, and the destination star's wind could not slow it down significantly (indeed, using the sail as a parachute at this stage would be prudent). Speed would be a problem, as usual, but I also wonder if the craft would reach the sun's escape velocity in this way.

[Strike Witch]

Wait, you're a warhammer nerd, BM?!

[MeechMunchie]

Only for the purposes of emasculating other nerds.

[Bullet Magnet]

I've painted five models, own two books, read one (but neither of those) and don't much like playing. Yet somehow I know all of the fluff.



I do play the first DoW.

[Scraby]

i played all dow games and dow 2 games,i really like that idea of warp travel

[STM]

I love Wh40k fluff but can't stand the miniature game.
Anywho when I meant warp travel I simply meant travelling outside of space and time so as to arrive with relative haste at your next location.

[MeechMunchie]

And how do we get outside of space exactly?

I've painted five models, own two books, read one (but neither of those) and don't much like playing. Yet somehow I know all of the fluff.

I'm like that. I know trivial plot details of books I've never even read.

[STM]

I don't know, I don't reckon its possible but something along those lines. Maybe a wormhole can escape Space?

[Wings of Fire]

I don't think you quite understand the concept of space.

[STM]

I just can't find the right words today.

Fuck will have to suffice

[MA]

i plan to tear a hole in space when i finally get my chainsaw-arm fitted. then we'll see who's wormhole escapes space. then we'll see.

[STM]

My wormhole's bigger than yours.

[Strike Witch]

I can't wait for humanity to discover stable wormholes. And then give them all names like "Glory Hole" or "Orion's Vagoo".

[Bullet Magnet]

Betelgeuse's name is descended from its Arabic name "abet al-Jauzā," which translates as "Orion's armpit".

[metroixer]

Typing from a wormhole as we speak.

It tickles

[LDG519]

according to something I read a wormhole large enough to fit a person through it can't exist because of universial feedback

I think they should jump to a alternate reality that has no solid matter, putting them into a much faster time frame due too a lack of gravity, then travel at close to light speed to were they want to go reletive to our reality than jump back

[Wings of Fire]

And I think I should be surrounded by nubile small breasted asian girls.

Not happening.

[Strike Witch]

Ah ah ah, mustn't touch

[Scraby]

this article i read on betelgeuse,they say it will explode and that its now a red giant,and they are questioning why is the star loosing so mutch fuel than normaly(mabe there are aliens using the star to power their spaceships )and that the supernova would come to earth some day

[Bullet Magnet]

The supernova would what now?

[Dixanadu]

Somehow, I doubt that very much.

Sol is about 40-50% through it's lifetime, and expected to be a red giant in a few billion years.

Mercury, Venus, Earth & Mars' fate is hopeless, I say.

[Scraby]

well supernova's shockwave might come to earth making big casualtees to people,and as if our sun would die some scientists think if the suns gravity starts failing mabe earth might survive by going into an outer orbit

[STM]

We need to China to group jump, knocking out of orbit at just the right time so that we always stay the right amount away from the Sun.

further.........furtherrrrrr.........fuhrerrrrrr........closer...closer....closer....closer.

[Bullet Magnet]

World Jump Day was a hoax (performance art), and wouldn't have worked anyway.

The only thing that could reach us from Betelgeuse is its radiation, in the form of starlight. No one would need to tell you about it, it would glow as bright as the full moon and be visible during the day. Shock waves exist in a medium, so cannot spread through a the vacuum of space, and the material of the nova itself slows down under its own gravity. Even if it didn't, it would take billions of years for any material to reach Earth, and by then it would be so dispersed that it would be indistinguishable from the background sprinkling of atoms that exists normally in the "vacuum" of space (a handful of atoms per square metre).

It's approximately 650 light-years away. Only supernovas closer than 50 light-years run the risk of irradiating terrestrial life on Earth, and there are no candidates.

Scraby's right about the possible wider orbit by the red giant phase. The sun will have lost about 30% of its mass as stellar wind and starlight, so will have less gravity, so the Earth may have entered a wider orbit. This still may not be enough, it'll probably orbit within the sun's own atmosphere, and the drag will slow the Earth down, causing it to spiral inward.

The interesting thing about red giants is their density. The sun itself will have grown from 1,361,000 kilometres in diameter to more than 300,000,000,000 kilometers in diameter, about 250 times. Yet it will consist of 0.7 solar masses.

Similarly, Betelgeuse is ~1180 times the size of the sun (as you saw in that delightful image earlier) yet only ~18–19 solar masses. That is on average significantly less dense than the uppermost atmosphere on Earth, and considering the size of its corona and atmosphere (which doesn't really have a defined terminator line) and the fact that it pulses in size and brightness regularly and asymmetrically means it is less of a spherical star and more of a hot cloud. Or a hot vacuum, effectively.



Oh, and in case you don't know which one Betegeuse is, it's this one:



It really is special to be able to look up at the night sky and be able to both locate and identify a particular star. "I know your name," you could say to yourself. "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!"

[Ridg3]

further.........furtherrrrrr.........fuhrerrrrrr........closer...closer....closer....closer.

Why would Hitler be in China? Jumping?

[Strike Witch]

Tau Ceti is a pretty cool star.