I think right now the technology will only allow us to tell if a planet is rocky or a gas giant. And even then only if it is a relatively massive planet. The last time I read anything on the subject the smallest planet found was something like 3 times the size of the Earth.
IMO, the analogy with Columbus doesn't hold. 17th century technology allowed humans to travel anywhere on the Earth - albeit slow and wrought with hazard. If the analogy is that a neighboring star is like a new continent then we are more like cavemen discovering that a log can float. At the rate we're going it might be a thousand years before we can actually mount an expedition to another star. I think the primary reason we are so far from actually exploring other stars is mainly political rather than technological. But, I think you are right. It is a project worth attaching too. Now if we could just make the damn politicians see it that way... ;) On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 4:58 PM, archytas <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm not sure how accurate they can be in revealing planets enough like > ours to offer possibilities of a new promised land. They claim there > is one 20 light years away, or 300,000 years at current space travel > speeds. One can feel that this at least puts us somewhere near the > position of 'Columbus'. Our current 'tin-foil' technology won't do, > but at this kind of distance we are talking about something other than > worm-holes, 'relativity flight' or the kind of physics in which > distance is an illusion. > > For someone like me who can't take god-stories seriously and quite > likes the idea of a human future (or at least the idea of evolution > not just ending through catastrophe), there is an opportunity to > believe in something distant in time and a need for us to direct > ourselves towards it. A time, perhaps in which a form of conscious > life can live very differently from now, and a project worth attaching > to - perhaps a reason for spirituality. Comments on this or the > technology welcome.
