I like the knowledge coming in, but I’d prefer to search as close to home as possible first. For crying out loud, there are planets orbiting our nearest neighbor, Alpha Centauri.
“After detecting the first exoplanets in the 1990s it has become clear that planets around other stars are the rule rather than the exception and there are likely hundreds of billions of exoplanets in the Milky Way alone. The search for these planets is now a large field of astronomy.”
TESS telescope was launch April 18th. I believe for what is suppose to be two year mission planet hunting. It may be too small to actually see the chemical makeup of planets but who knows.
It’s great fill in for James Webb Space Telescope…which was suppose to be launch soon but you know how that goes.
As for Alpha Centauri I believe they only found 1 planet, which would be a hostel place to live even if it’s in goldilock zone. Alpha Centauri is binary star…so my guess that would make the planet extreme violent place to live. 
It’s actually a trinary star system, but it’s not the only one of its kind with planets that have a stable orbit. If more sight were put on it, I’m confident more planets would be found.
Also of note, it’s entirely possible that our Oort Cloud intersects with Alpha Centauri’s, which could provide a lot of extremely useful data on rogue objects.
Hey buddy! Good to see you again.
Not as good as it is to see you again, old friend! Hope all is well.
Other than the old familiar Forum closing and this new cold, Facebook-like forum replacing it, I’m doing well, thanks. I’m not enamored with this so-called improvement.
But, seriously, I’m very glad to see you here. I hope some of the other dead soldiers from the other forum come back from the grave. We could affectionately call this place “zombie land.”
It doesn’t really matter. The closest star is just as physically inaccessible to us as a distant stars.
Indeed. I recently read a really good novel about such a situation called The Three-Body Problem. Fascinating stuff.
I haven’t read it but I cannot imagine any life, at least advance life form because of violent nature of gravitational pull of binary system. The larger suns would be pulling any planets in their system in multiple direction.
Now that’s not saying life form couldn’t exist, but extinction rate would be extremely high which wouldn’t allow advance life to form to gain a foothold.
When I’m saying advance life I’m talking about mammals…hell even fish might not survive in such environment.
I hope this make sense to you.
And sorry for first deletion, I can’t edit my posts.
I’ve always found this to be an intellectually stimulating thought experiment pondering alien life.
I agree - does seem impossible that life could exist in a binary star system. Yet life exists all sorts of places here we thought were impossible until they were discovered.
Then it makes you wonder about a completely different form of life existing (eg not carbon based) if that would be possible.
It may be a thing where 500 years from now people look back on us as idiots for believing life couldn’t exist in some of these places.
Regardless neat article.
One of best purchases I made was a legitimate amateur telescope. Looking at the moon through that thing in my front yard the first night I took it out was a top 20 experience of my life. Simply awe inspiring.
I have 12 inch SCT scope, you need a lens that cuts down on the light when looking at the moon, It’s just too bright. On really clear night when I’m high up in Cascades and Jupiter is in opposition I can actually see colors of Europa, shadows on Ganymede.
Now you have to be patient for the air to become real still, but for that brief moment it opens up for you.
BTW…every thousand ft you go up is like 7 percent less atmosphere distortion.
as for life on other planets, I believe in living breathing universe theory. The question remains is their intelligent life out there…and if so in this moment in time.
Other advance life could have came on gone but at this precise moment we wouldn’t know about it. All we can hear is echos of any advance life that have long since faded. And by the time they hears our so will we. Unless we can get off of this rock.
Yeah, that makes sense. The “three-body problem” involves three suns, and in such a system their pattern is unpredictable. So the planet in the story goes through ice ages, tropical ages, ages when the sun never sets or rises, etc., and life must adapt to long stretches of years in which the planet is basically uninhabitable.
Yeah, I saw you and PH being crotchety old holdouts in the other forum, but here you are now. lol
I’m giving it a try, but I don’t like it. I doubt if I will spend near the time here as I have in the “real” Hannity Forum.
I’ll bet you’ll get used to it in no time, but I know what you mean. I’m not long for politics (or much) these days myself.
Nice on the telescope!! Ours is just a 4” reflecting telescope by Orion. But it’s still pretty great - I’ve easily seen all 4 Galilean moons, etc. I’d love a 10”+ scope.
And I’m probably aligned with your theory as well. With the sheer size of space I find it almost impossible there isn’t other life. But as you say, it’s all echos in time due to the sheer size of the universe.
It depends on your viewing preference. Planetary or deep space.
SCT scope gives you options for both but not best for intended purpose.
A good refractor is mush better then light bucket for looking at our planets but not so much as large Dobsonian deep sky visual objects.
Keep in mind a good SCT is the best scope for astrophotography…but investment will break the bank with lens and camera.
That and lots of patience, coffee and snacks.
I’m just a hobbyist that doesn’t use it enough as is. Hoping when my son is a bit older he’ll be into it and we can do it together.
I’ll save pics for Hubble. I just enjoy seeing things with my own eye in space. Just too much fun!
