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Message
re: A thought exercise regarding the upcoming Pluto flyby
Posted on 7/6/15 at 12:09 pm to weagle99
Posted on 7/6/15 at 12:09 pm to weagle99
quote:The government would never let anyone know about it.
probe snaps pictires showing artifacts of a civilization, an existing civilization, or some other evidence of life
0
Posted on 7/6/15 at 12:10 pm to weagle99
quote:
As a hypothetical, imagine that the probe snaps pictires showing artifacts of a civilization, an existing civilization, or some other evidence of life.
Pluto is among the last places in the Solar System you'd find life. It's almost 5B miles from the Sun and has an average temperature below -350F.
This post was edited on 7/6/15 at 12:16 pm
Posted on 7/6/15 at 12:11 pm to Navytiger74
quote:
Pluto is probably among the last places on Earth you'd find life.
You're probably right
Posted on 7/6/15 at 12:15 pm to GeauxxxTigers23
quote:
You're probably right
Edited.This post was edited on 7/6/15 at 12:16 pm
Posted on 7/6/15 at 12:16 pm to Navytiger74
quote:
Pluto is probably among the last places on Earth you'd find life
Pluto > Chalmette
As far as places on earth go.
Posted on 7/6/15 at 12:20 pm to Navytiger74
quote:
Pluto is among the last places in the Solar System you'd find life. It's almost 5B miles from the Sun and has an average temperature below -350F.
But but but what if it used to be closer to the sun and has been slowly moving farther and farther away over the last few billion years?
Why can't people just enjoy the fact that we're taking pictures of a rock that is billions of miles away? Why do we have to attach aliens or something else to it?
Posted on 7/6/15 at 12:23 pm to StringedInstruments
Actually some scientists think Pluto was formed around another star and that (like many celestial objects) ultimately escaped its gravity and wandered through interstellar space until it was "captured" by the gravity of the sun.
Posted on 7/6/15 at 12:33 pm to Slippy
quote:
Actually some scientists think Pluto was formed around another star and that (like many celestial objects) ultimately escaped its gravity and wandered through interstellar space until it was "captured" by the gravity of the sun.
People in certain fields (astronomy, for instance) are in the enviable position of being able to just say shite without any need to prove it or any fear of someone coming along and disproving it. Pluto is really just a large Kuiper Belt object/downgraded mini-planet. Nothing especially exotic about it.
Posted on 7/6/15 at 1:05 pm to Navytiger74
Can't you engage in the hypothetical without trying to convince everyone that you are the smartest person in the thread?
Imagine any far flung location that takes years to return to if that helps. Picture Cassini seeing something on a moon just before it plunges into Saturn for instance. shite.
Imagine any far flung location that takes years to return to if that helps. Picture Cassini seeing something on a moon just before it plunges into Saturn for instance. shite.
This post was edited on 7/6/15 at 1:10 pm
Posted on 7/6/15 at 1:07 pm to StringedInstruments
quote:
Why can't people just enjoy the fact that we're taking pictures of a rock that is billions of miles away? Why do we have to attach aliens or something else to it?
I am incredibly excited for the flyby and don't expect any evidence of alien life.
Posted on 7/6/15 at 1:10 pm to weagle99
quote:
imagine that the probe snaps pictires showing artifacts of a civilization, an existing civilization, or some other evidence of life.
nope = unpossible.
Posted on 7/6/15 at 1:10 pm to weagle99
quote:
Can't you engage in the hypothetical without trying to convince everyone that you are the smartest person in the thread?
I can't imagine the hypothetical. And I read some astronomy books as a kid, had a telescope, and took one 200 level course in college. Not claiming to be the smartest anything.
Throttle back. It's only Monday.
Posted on 7/6/15 at 1:13 pm to Navytiger74
quote:
People in certain fields (astronomy, for instance) are in the enviable position of being able to just say shite without any need to prove it or any fear of someone coming along and disproving it. Pluto is really just a large Kuiper Belt object/downgraded mini-planet. Nothing especially exotic about it.
If there's one object in the solar system that can be pretty much ignored in the 'does life exist' question it is Pluto - maybe Mercury would be close.
Posted on 7/6/15 at 1:32 pm to weagle99
quote:
How would humanity deal with that partial information during the intervening years?
It would depend on what they found. An existing civilization of intelligent beings on Pluto would produce a very different reaction than mere evidence of a past one now extinct. In the latter case, I think it would have an effect similar to what we'll likely see if SETI ever discovers intelligent life in a faraway star system. It would be really cool, people would talk about it, philosophers and scientists would marvel at the implications, and in a few months or years it would be no big deal. Even if we knew another civilization existed, if they were far removed from us either in time or space, we could never meaningfully interact with them, so their practical impact on our existence would be minimal. Their existence would simply be something else added to list of things we know about in the cosmos, like black holes and quasars and such. As for religious beliefs being affected, I doubt it would make much difference. The Catholic church has already stated that nothing in Catholic doctrine precludes the existence of extra-terrestrial beings, and even the religions that do insist now that it's impossible would find it easy to reverse positions, as most major religions already have many times in the past on any number of issues.
An existing civilization within our own solar system, though, would be a whole different matter. They would easily be close enough for us to interact with them, so both our civilizations could impact each other. How advanced they were would determine how much and what kind of effect they might have on us.
Of course all of this requires suspension of disbelief that our two intelligent civilizations could be this close together without our ever having encountered each other before.
Posted on 7/6/15 at 3:29 pm to ChineseBandit58
quote:
If there's one object in the solar system that can be pretty much ignored in the 'does life exist' question it is Pluto - maybe Mercury would be close.
Venus is actually hotter on the surface than Mercury. The gas giants are also in the "no chance" category.
The weird thing about mercury is that it ranges from about 275 below to 840 above zero. So couldn't you theoretically find a spot right on the edge of light and dark where you wouldn't burn or freeze? Though, I guess you could have a situation where the part of you in the sun would burn and the lower part would freeze.
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