It's only a matter of time before "we get a dot that's blue and Earthlike," said astronomer Bruce Macintosh of the Lawrence Livermore National Lab. He led one of the two teams of photographers.
"It's only a matter of time before 'we get a dot that's blue and Earthlike,' said astronomer Bruce Macintosh..."
Uh, yeah, but how much time, and how will that be done? It's one thing to image triple or quintuple Jupiter-size, glowing gas orb giants in very close orbit to their native star, but yet another rather more difficult thing to image an earth-like planet that is not obscured by the distant star's own brightness. Any timeframe or tech know-how guesstimates out there?
"It's only a matter of time before 'we get a dot that's blue and Earthlike,' said astronomer Bruce Macintosh..."
ReplyDeleteUh, yeah, but how much time, and how will that be done? It's one thing to image triple or quintuple Jupiter-size, glowing gas orb giants in very close orbit to their native star, but yet another rather more difficult thing to image an earth-like planet that is not obscured by the distant star's own brightness. Any timeframe or tech know-how guesstimates out there?
Fomalhaut! That's where August Derleth's "Cthuga" fire elemental comes from! I just read that story the other day. Oh shit!
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