Distant Planet Imaging Project Gets More Funding 264
It doesn't come easy writes "NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts has chosen a proposal by the University of Colorado (UC) at Boulder to image distant planets around other stars for a second round of funding. Known as the New Worlds Observer, the UC project is for an orbiting, soccer-field sized "starshade" shaped like a daisy that would funnel light from distant planets between its petals to a second spacecraft trailing 50,000 miles behind. If the concept proves feasible, it could 'identify planetary features like oceans, continents, polar caps and cloud banks, and even detect biomarkers like methane, water, oxygen and ozone [...]'"
I just hope... (Score:5, Funny)
Sounds cool... (Score:2, Funny)
Hey... (Score:3, Funny)
They could have chosen a better Acronym (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Hey... (Score:3, Funny)
No Google Reference - Can't Be True (Score:4, Funny)
And in other news (Score:5, Funny)
But wait, there's more! (Score:4, Funny)
> continents, polar caps and cloud banks, and even
> detect biomarkers like methane
The bad part will come with version 3.0, launched in the later part of this century, when we zoom on on their alien babes on beaches, and see if they have silly laws regulating nudity, too. Or churches.
Quite frankly, I'd be way more scared if they had churches than if they did not.
Re:I just hope... (Score:4, Funny)
Phew. (Score:3, Funny)
Having recently watched Independence Day, I can say that I'm relieved that NASA is finally getting around to that RFDEW (Really F#*king Distant Early Warnings) system I've been proposing for years.
Re:I just hope... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:How will the religious establishment react? (Score:5, Funny)
That's right. You show me some ET's, and I'll show you some Christians that want to baptize them.
Re:Yup... (Score:4, Funny)
*
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Re:They could have chosen a better Acronym (Score:1, Funny)
Re:But wait, there's more! (Score:2, Funny)
So the images would go into... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:How will the religious establishment react? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:CU not UC (Score:2, Funny)
Re:But wait, there's more! (Score:3, Funny)
Imagine the possibilities! (Score:3, Funny)
Great.... (Score:2, Funny)
Let's just clue the entire galaxy in to the fact that so many hippies live here.
Re:Sounds cool... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:They could have chosen a better Acronym (Score:3, Funny)
Re:center of the universe? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:biomarkers (Score:2, Funny)
It's really a weapon (Score:3, Funny)
Re:CU not UC (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I just hope... (Score:1, Funny)