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what a boring solar system
Topic Started: Jul 6 2010, 09:48 PM (923 Views)
TheBioBassist
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Parasky
Jul 8 2010, 06:22 PM
Compared to what we know about other star systems, ours is boring. Our biggest gas giant is smaller than any other we have detected to date, and just about every terrestrial planet we seem to find dwarfs Earth. About our only real attribute is life, but since we don't know for sure that those 400 some exoplanets we've found are lifeless, we can't really say that it makes us unique.

Maybe that's why we've found no other life, or no other life has found us; our system just looks too boring. Smaller than average planets, weak yellow star; about the only things of value I can think of are Earth, the asteroid belt, and the Oort cloud (the latter could be harvested without our knowledge though). Aside from about a century of radio broadcasts and half a century of television broadcasts, we humans have also done nothing notable. Sure we've gone to the moon, but how much of an achievement is simply going to your planet's natural satellite? That's like calling a walk around the block a marathon. Maybe when we start visiting other planets on a frequent basis (as in every decade or every few years) and showing more global interest in space exploration our system will seem more interesting; to both us and any aliens that might have overlooked us or been uninterested.
Although our current method of finding extraterrestrial planets involves noticing stars wobble due to an orbiting planet and this usually only works for large bodies orbiting close to their star. As such our planets may not be so "boring" we are simply just noticing all the extraordinary ones out there. Also our sun is predicted to be twice as bright as the average star as there are so many red dwarfs in our galaxy so that is something remarkable.
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "eureka" ( I found it) but "that's funny......""
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Ànraich
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Brightness doesn't mean it has more energy than other stars though, which is what a space-faring species would probably be interested in. I have a theory that the reason we haven't contacted any space-faring civilizations is that because the energy requirements for them is so high that they are constantly harvesting energy and seeking out new sources. Essentially they're so busy trying to fulfill their civilizations power requirements that there just isn't any time for exploration or diplomacy.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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Holben
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But if others are going to be interested, they can't do a blind spec and just say aliens with many gnashing teeth, bug eyes and tentacles. Someone will have to teach them...
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

"It is the old wound my king. It has never healed."
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Pando
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Parasky
Jul 8 2010, 06:22 PM
Compared to what we know about other star systems, ours is boring. Our biggest gas giant is smaller than any other we have detected to date, and just about every terrestrial planet we seem to find dwarfs Earth. About our only real attribute is life, but since we don't know for sure that those 400 some exoplanets we've found are lifeless, we can't really say that it makes us unique.

Maybe that's why we've found no other life, or no other life has found us; our system just looks too boring. Smaller than average planets, weak yellow star; about the only things of value I can think of are Earth, the asteroid belt, and the Oort cloud (the latter could be harvested without our knowledge though). Aside from about a century of radio broadcasts and half a century of television broadcasts, we humans have also done nothing notable. Sure we've gone to the moon, but how much of an achievement is simply going to your planet's natural satellite? That's like calling a walk around the block a marathon. Maybe when we start visiting other planets on a frequent basis (as in every decade or every few years) and showing more global interest in space exploration our system will seem more interesting; to both us and any aliens that might have overlooked us or been uninterested.
But I bet that aliens don't come from giant planets. I'd say the star systems that attract aliens are giant stars (for energy) or small, habitable planets like ours. Since we have a relatively giant star (only 4% of all stars are a G) and several possible places for life, our star system is actually really interesting, if you don't follow The Rule of Cool.
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T.Neo
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Our system is hardly boring. Sure other systems have planets in between the mass of Earth and Neptune, or hot Jupiters, or highly eccentric planets. But to anyone coming from those systems, ours would be the totally weird one. Imagine how novel the idea of life on a terrestrial planet would be to an organism from a moon of Mu Arae b?

And we have plenty of interesting planets, mind you. Mars, Venus and Earth are an interesting study of the evolution of hydrospheres on terrestrial planets, Earth is the only planet known to harbour life, and Titan is an example of a cryogenic air-moon. Now, we haven't explored other systems in the detail we have our own, but it doesn't mean ours isn't interesting.

And don't get me started on names. The objects in our sysem are the only ones that have names. Exoplanets just get alphabetic designations (starting with b, for some reason) based on the name of their parent star (which is often their numeric designation in some star catalogue).

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Smaller than average planets, weak yellow star


We don't know that we have "smaller than average planets". It's just that our current planet detection methods have a bad sampling bias toward more massive objects. We can't even detect Earth mass or lower planets yet; there's a good chance that a lot of stars have small planets.

And Sol is not "weak". It's quite bright yet longlived enough for complex life to evolve and flourish; G class stars make up only 7.6% of stars in the galaxy. A lot of sophonts might consider Sol to be a large, uncommon, shortlived star.

And Sol also has quite a high metallicity, too.

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the latter could be harvested without our knowledge though


Uh, no. If there was any appreciable activity in the Oort cloud, it's quite possible we would have discovered it by now.

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Sure we've gone to the moon, but how much of an achievement is simply going to your planet's natural satellite


Quite a big one, considering we did it only around 10 years after our first manned spaceflight. Sure, a pyramid may not be imperssive today, but it is very impressive when you consider the era it was built in.

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Essentially they're so busy trying to fulfill their civilizations power requirements that there just isn't any time for exploration or diplomacy.


What the hell has such insane power requirements then? If they're harvesting the energy of entire stars there shouldn't be a reason for them not to expend perhaps a few terawatts of energy coming to Earth...
Edited by T.Neo, Jul 14 2010, 03:13 PM.
A hard mathematical figure provides a sort of enlightenment to one's understanding of an idea that is never matched by mere guesswork.
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Ànraich
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T.Neo
Jul 14 2010, 03:13 PM
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Essentially they're so busy trying to fulfill their civilizations power requirements that there just isn't any time for exploration or diplomacy.


What the hell has such insane power requirements then? If they're harvesting the energy of entire stars there shouldn't be a reason for them not to expend perhaps a few terawatts of energy coming to Earth...
I don't know, I just know that the amount of energy the developed nations of the world use increases at an exponential rate. I figure that eventually the demand for energy will be equal with the amount a civilization can generate at any given time. Therefore it become necessary to constantly seek out new sources of energy and fuel to prevent a catastrophic collapse of your civilization. Or perhaps they've foolishly made themselves immortal and now have a population that grows exponentially but never decreases in size. Maybe they need power for their own scientific projects, on scales we can scarcely imagine. I don't know, it was just an idea.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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