Tag Archives: Planets

The Future Is Not So Far Away!

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Have you heard about the 60’s tv show called Star Trek? Well, the starship featured in the show named the USS Enterprise may not be so futuristic now! Scientists and engineers have plans for production of a similar spacecraft in twenty years. You might think, how is our government going to get all that money? Well just a slight tweak in taxes, we can get the money we need for this project very quickly.  We could have one of these spacecraft hurdling through space in no time!

Today, for man to travel to planets in our galaxy is not even really possible. But when we get these spacecraft up and running we could reach Mars in 90 days. With today’s technology we would reach mars in 214 days, which is a big difference and advancement in world history.

Almost all of the specifications are planned out. The ship would be built in space, there would be a rotating gravity wheel inside the saucer ( as shown in picture ) and it would look almost identical to the fictional USS enterprise! It would have 1 nuclear reactor to propel the ship and it is said to have 3 more to make the electricity needed to power it. The spacecraft will function as a spaceship, space station and a spaceport. It will be able to drop off rovers, satellites and other machines to observe a planet or go a different direction in space. There would also be space for people to check out space for the first and most likely only time (there will  be no guarantee that the price will be cheap). Also, one of the coolest most futuristic parts of the spacecraft is its laser it can use for cutting through ice or rock on a planet.

~Noah Perlroth

Beware Aliens…We’re Coming.

We can all probably admit that we as humans don’t take very good care of our planet.  It’s quite depressing actually, how wasteful we are.  I mean, yeah it’s enjoyable once in a while to purchase a bunch of junk that we don’t really need.  We all would agree that cars, computers, phones, iPods, etc.. make our life better for sure, but they also guzzle tons of energy that is destroying our planet. Not to mention how lazy we’ve gotten with putting trash in actual trash cans and recycling bins.  Having said that, I believe we do try to reverse, if not at least try to stop this process with recycling being easier than ever.  Organizations dedicated their time to physically cleaning up this Earth, solar powered items are available, and there is new smarter technology to conserve as much energy as possible.  But has anyone ever thought that maybe we’re too late? That the damage is done?  Earth will eventually perish and where are those future generations supposed to go to?

Fortunately, scientists have discovered a new planet that seems to be the most Earth-like yet!  It’s got an incredibly snazzy new name- HD85512b.  Gotta love those scientists’ creativity.  Research shows that it’s about 36 light years away and 3.6 times the mass of Earth.  It was spotted when a star’s light twinkled slightly, suggesting the gravitational pull of a nearby planet.  However, the best news for us is that it is the perfect distance from its parent star (its sun) to have liquid water exist on its surface.  More good news suggests that since it is less than 10 times the size of Earth’s mass, it is likely to have an atmosphere similar to it.  This planet also has a circular orbit, meaning that it will have a stable climate like Earth’s.  Now, I don’t know about you, but I think that sounds super promising and I’m really excited for more research to be done.  However, there was an identical discovery like this in 2010 that implies that the planet found then was simply a data glitch, and indeed ceased to ever exist.  Hopefully, our technology has improved in the last year because if this really turns out to be an error, the human race is kind of screwed if we don’t clean up our act.  After all, where are the 2012 survivors going to go? Just kidding…but still.  Can’t wait until some new data arrives! Keep you posted!

~Esha Bhandari

Could there be a LOT of other Earths?

     Just a few days ago on September 12th, 16 new super earths were discovered. These are earths that are a little heavier than our earth, and can possibly support life. There is specifically  one, that is in a great location, a perfect distance away from a star. Could this be a new home for the human race? Or will there be someone/something already inhabiting this environment?

    The E.S.O. (European Southern Observatory) discovered 50 new exoplanets including the 16 super earths. They did this using HARPS telescope. To me it looks like ESO’s pulling ahead of NASA. Uh-oh. Anyway, they are focusing in on one planet in particular called HD 85512 b, (why they didn’t just give it a name like Hector or Felix or something, is beyond me), is estimated to be 3.6 times more massive than earth and 35 light-years away, which sounds like a lot. I can’t even imagine what it would look like!! The only problem is that they have to do more investigating on if it has liquid water on the surface.  And if it does?

Imagine saying, Awww you’re moving? Where are you moving to? And the response you would get is:  I am moving to planet HD85512 b! I’ll send you postcards through a rocket!

     That would be crazy! But then again the earth would be a lot less crowded and it may solve our problems of running out of natural gasses and other natural resources. I think what might happen though is we are eventually going to get there, and there will be another species on the planet already. The theory may be crazy but it’s definitely not impossible. When you think about how there are planets just like ours out there, it gets less and less unbelievable to think there may be other species like us in space.

     So, what do you think? Will we ever get to planet HD 85512 b? I think so. If you had a choice would you go check it out? I would, it would be so cool to see! And do you think we will be the only ones there? I don’t. What is your opinion?

~Emily Inzero