Monday, September 12, 2011

Set a Course...Engage

What were you doing September 8, 1966?  If you were at least eight years old at the time, there's a decent chance you were watching the first episode of Star Trek.

It seems scarily coincidental that mere days after the 45th Anniversary of Star Trek's first showing I should find myself reading about HD 85512 b - a planet that has been categorized as a super-earth.

It seems HD 85512 b lies 36 light years away in the constellation Vela. -- I can hear that sentence slipping out of the mouth of either Captain Kirk or Captain Picard. The only words missing are set a course and engage.

When I read that astronomers consider HD 85512 b to be relatively close to our own Earth, I did some investigating. 

It would take a little over 76,000 earth years for a NASA space shuttle to travel 1 light year. Making HD 85512 b nearly 3 million earth years away.  Mr. Scott really needs to get those warp engines on line.

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