Archived Discussion Literature / TheHost

This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.

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Molly Walker: So is this actually worth reading? I saw it in the store and I'm sort of intrigued, but don't want a Twilight repeat...

Inkblot: It's not a great book, but it's vastly superior to Twilight.

"No way are any habitable, carbon-based-life-supporting planets within 50 years' travel of Earth without it [Faster Than Light], even if they are Generation Ships." Huh? We just don't know - there could be such planets less than ten light-years away. We're just now getting instruments good enough to detect planets as small as Earth...

• At 0.1c, Orion thermonuclear starships (which more or less use nuclear bombs to propel the theoretical craft) would require a flight time of at least 44 years to reach Proxima Centauri (Alpha Centauri which Promixa Centauri may be a part of is about the same distance on an astrological scale), the nearest star to the Sun, not counting time needed to reach that speed (about 36 days at constant acceleration of 1g or 9.8 m/s

). At 0.1c, an Orion starship would require 100 years to travel 10 light years (allowing access to 6 other stars within that time frame). Of course, things being what they are, while we can say that there are near by stars and star systems, we can't always say (though sometimes we can - lacking an atmosphere is probably going to make life difficult to develop) that they have planets and that such planets may contain some form of life - it's basically impossible to determine the probability with a sample size of just one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_stars Of course, if the question is Earth-like planets rather than simply 'life', that's another matter.

dysfunction: Gliese 581. 20 lightyears away, so slightly more than 20 years away at near-light speeds. There are a few other candidates within 100ly or so, and may well be many more as our detection techniques improve. It's entirely plausible that the 'souls' have a small network of habitable worlds within a diameter of 100-200 lightyears.