I stopped reading when you explained about mirrors.i dint want to be reminded of my physics lessons! But in all honesty, great thread!
I don't understand why people want to find other planets and life forms. We can barely handle the problems we have on earth :lol:
Cause you know, it'd be much cooler possibly accidentally finding a really advanced race and then become enslaved by them...
Narwhal is expressing the Stephen Hawking view of finding, or rather, being found by other intelligent life. It could be a very bad thing. If you consider the evolution of life on earth to be the rule and not the exception than we would be wise to keep our heads down. We fought wars with religion as the smoke screen. Has that changed in modern nations? Nope. Now we do it in the name of democracy and freedom. Neil DeGrass Tyson said it best. "We do terrible things...to each other. Why should we expect aliens to treat us better than we treat ourselves?"
Interesting and ironically relevant to what is being taught at the school I sub for. However on the prospect of finding planets, that is currently and even with this new telescope going to be achieved by tracking trials across the surface of stars ( the light from the sun being blocked out by an object in orbit ) in a set and predictable orbit by a given mass. The size of the mass determines the prospects of whether there is a planet present. As It was once said. If there is no life out there. It's a pretty bigs waste of space.
My theory is: If the universe is truly infinite, then life is infinite. But is Einstein was right with his theory of expansion, then we better explore every inch of what exists before we all boil to death.
My source is actually a YouTube video of the development team. I can't link it to you, but you can just search Giant Magellan Telescope on YouTube.
New advances in ground based telescopes which use lasers to gauge atmospheric conditions and compensate for air distortion are making it possible to get even greater resolution from ground based telescopes. If those advances ultimately make it so that air distortion and light pollution become negligible effects on direct observational telescopes, than the obvious advantages of building a large telescope on earth rather than having to launch it into space will ensure tremendous leaps in our understanding of the universe. Its an exciting time to be alive. How long until life is confirmed on an extra-solar planet? I give it 10 years -- but I freely admit that is simply a wild guess. How long until advanced biological life? How long until intelligent life? How long until communication with an extra-solar species? Hurry up and develop warp drives already, I want to visit those places! Cheers, Kage.
The best scientific advancement last year, was an Underwear Patch, that makes your farts smell like mint. Just sayin.
Galaxies are created and dead in matter of seconds now to find life on another planet needs more then this telescope !! We aren't even near to discover life it may take like 200 more years or more then that to accomplish that. We don't even know what our own planet earth is made up and what beneath our own ocean lies so we are more advanced but it's just taking pictures and by the way there are trillions of galaxies out there so find life in those trillions of galaxies !!! As God says first know yourself then God then others. We don't even know about our own body !! It will take more then 2000 years to find life on any other planet I think . And about kaw imagine how fast one can strip a target if we have the power of that telescope