Posted on 03/03/2002 6:26:34 PM PST by RightWhale
Aldebaran is close to the Sun's path, the Sun passing to the north of it about June 1, the star also regularly covered, or occulted, by the Moon. This class K star, of first magnitude and 13th brightest in the sky, is a low- level irregular variable star that fluctuates erratically and to the eye unnoticeably by about two-tenths of a magnitude. Aldebaran's surface temperature of just under 4000 degrees Kelvin (compared to the Sun's 5800 degree temperature) gives it a distinct orangy color.
It is a giant star, a star in an advanced state of evolution in which the interior hydrogen fuel has run out, the star now running on the fusion of helium into carbon. Some 350 times more luminous than the Sun, it has expanded to a radius about 40 times solar, making it big enough to enable astronomers to measure its small angular diameter of only 0.021 seconds of arc (the apparent size of a US nickel seen at a distance of 50 kilometers). T
his large star is an extremely slow rotator, taking almost two years to make a full spin. If placed at the position of the Sun, Aldebaran would extend halfway to the planet Mercury and would appear 20 degrees across in our sky, making life on Earth quite impossible. Yet Aldebaran may have its own "solar system." Recent, though still-unconfirmed, observations show that the star may be slightly shifting back and forth in response to a small body with a mass at least 11 times that of Jupiter and a two-year orbital period. We do not yet know if the body -- if it exists at all -- is a massive planet or a low-mass "brown dwarf," a failed star that is too small to run supporting thermonuclear reactions in its core.
Thanks! Nice read. :) Actually. I think stars without planets will be the exception instead of the rule.
Well they are both electromagnetic waves. In free space they all travel at the same speed. In the Earth's atmosphere radio waves ["standard refraction = 1.000313"] travel about 99.969% the free space speed of light, light (589 nm at STP = 1.00029) 99.971%, so light is slightly "faster" than radio waves at the surface of the earth. Refraction causes bending of light (and radio waves) near the surface of the earth, so it is significant.
This I don't believe. You would be amazed at what can be gleaned about our technology from how finely crafted that vehicle really is.
LOL !!!
On the order of 1000 years. It won't be a starship going to colonize another star, but a ship going to establish a deepspace base still relatively near the sun for either scientific or resource extraction purposes or both.
In November 1969, the Surveyor 3 spacecraft's microorganisms were recovered from inside its camera that was brought back to Earth under sterile conditions by the Apollo 12 crew. The 50-100 organisms survived launch, space vacuum, 3 years of radiation exposure, deep-freeze at an average temperature of only 20 degrees above absolute zero, and no nutrient, water or energy source ... Samples of the microorganism were sent to the US Communicable Disease Center at Atlanta, Georgia, which confirmed it as Streptococcus mitis. a common harmless bacteria from the nose, mouth and throat in humans.
Oh, come on!
Everybody knows radio signals travel instantaneously, and NASA is just pretending they travel at the speed of light so they can censor the data coming back from the spacecraft, for fear the public would find out the Truth about the Face on Mars and the Zit on Uranus. It's a conspiracy! Waaaaaaaa!
</ lunatic Luddite mode >
But although the galaxies seem to be fleeing our neighborhood, understandably, the stars in our galaxy are going nowhere.
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