Comments on: What must E.T. think of us?

By: Spongebob Squarepants

Spongebob Squarepants — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 08:47:01 +0000

Like to watch Stargate Atlantis episodes and also Lost. I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.

By: Nick Johnson

Nick Johnson — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:41:57 +0000

What would Lrrr say? “I will DESTROY YOU!”, of course.

By: WeirdScienceBlog

WeirdScienceBlog — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:27:33 +0000

For British folk, I’ve come up with a UK version at http://blogs.sundaymercury.net/weirdscience/2009/07/et-watching-uk-tv.html

As I’m sure you’ll want to know who is watching Tiswas!

By: tracer

tracer — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:30:17 +0000

I would just like to note that, since Omicron Persei is a binary consisting of a B1 III and a B3 V orbiting each other EVERY FOUR-AND-A-HALF DAYS, the two are going to be WAY too close together for planets in either of their comfort zones to be orbiting either one of them individually.

However, a planet far enough away to be in the comfort zone of the pair taken collectively COULD be in a stable orbit. The B1 III is awfully luminous, after all.

By: Spectroscope

Spectroscope — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:18:13 +0000

@ 59 David Dechel : Aldebaran Vs Alderaan.

One is a real star, an orange giant in front of the hyades open star cluster.

The other is a fictional planet looking very similar to Earth that was home to Princess Leia and destroyed by Darth Vader’s Death Star in the original ‘Star Wars’ movie.

There is a difference!

BTW. Aldebarran (or its system) is probably not inhabited because :

a) having probably formed before the sun it may well be relatively metal poor & thus unlikely to host exoplanets.

b) If OTOH Aldebaran formed after the Sun then to have already evolved to orange gianthood it would have to have been much a more massive – and thus shorter lived star. Very likely too short-lived to have allowed enough time for intelligent life to evolve.

b) having swollen to become an orange giant, it will have rendered any hypothetical planet in its old main-sequence stage “habitable zone” way too hot and uninhabitable many millions of years ago. Indeed, this would have happened during Aldebaran’s sub-giant stellar phase when it first left the Hydrogen burning “dwarf star” main-sequence.

Yes I know you were joking – just thought I’d point that out…

Incidentally, the same logic applies to almost all the other giant stars out there – Arcturus, we know, is a very ancient star thus probably metal-poor & planetless, Capella started life as a binary of A or B-type stars each being twice as massive as the Sun or more. Betelegeuse and Antares at 15-20 solar masses are wa-ay too massive to be considered and so forth. Pollux, OTOH, at 1 and a half or so solar masses and with a known exoplanet in a circular Jupiter-like (590-day) orbit might be an exception to this rule …

By: David Dechel

David Dechel — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 05:52:14 +0000

I sure hope that the aliens are not on Aldebaran – but is they are, man are they in for a surprise when Star Wars comes along

By: shane

shane — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 01:23:07 +0000

@Grumpy
The Sopranos and Spongebob Squarepants are NOT bound for Procyon — because they were distributed via cable, not over the air
The Sopranos was on free-to-air non-cable network TV here in Oz so they’re bound for somewhere for sure. Not on any regular schedule though so the aliens may have to wait some time for the finale.