Science
Related: About this forumMore on the ancient worlds of Kapteyn's star
DUer n2doc has already posted about the discovery of an ancient star only 13 light years from Earth. The interesting facts about the star are, summarizing:
- Kapteyn's Star is an incredibly ancient red dwarf, at least 10 billion and maybe as much as 13.7 billion years old.
- From its motion, astronomers have deduced that it originally came from a dwarf galaxy which collided with the Milky Way billions of years ago.
- It's only 13 light years from our Solar System now, 11,000 years ago it would have been as close as 7 light years.
- It has two planets orbiting it (That is, we have detected two planets to date!).
- The inner planet, Kapteyn b is within the habitable zone of the star, it could have, or have had, liquid water on the surface.
Paul Gilster, has an article at the Centauri Dreams blog, with more information on Kapteyn's Star and its planets: Probing an Ancient Planetary System. Gilster's article has more information on the star and the discovery of its planetary system; but, the fun part of the article is excerpts from a news release from the University of London, which in turn includes excerpts from a short science fiction story: Sad Kapetyn. The story is an account of the report of an artificially intelligent probe investigating the Kapteyn's Star planets:
..............//snip
Wonders beyond comparison, but scoured into a kind of tomblike grey uniformity, after aeons of micrometeorite and cosmic-ray bombardment. Cities as mute as sphinxes.
And nowhere the slightest sign of life."
..............//snip
Something to think about, isn't it?"
I wonder what the science fiction writers on this board could make of Kapteyn's Star's ancient planets?
Tansy_Gold
(17,845 posts)I think I have posted in CTYankee's art threads before that I was forever impressed with Poul Anderson's short story "The Light" and that it left me with a kind of awe for the way art and science and speculation and imagination can all work together in amazing ways. And if I haven't posted there, well, I'm posting here.
Now, reading about Kapteyn and its ancient planets, I'm reminded of another science fiction story from my own far distant past, Arthur C. Clarke's 1956 Hugo winner, "The Star."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_(Clarke_short_story) (Linked article contains total spoiler)
Indeed, there is nothing new under our ancient skies, and yet we can marvel at it all.