Living in our new POST-Copernicus world

Copernicus's "Revolution" was not unlike Stalin's in impact

peter ward's RARE EARTH

We are frequently told we live in a Copernicus World, contrasting it with the pre-Copernicus world, when humans still thought the Universe revolved around the Earth.

Pause a moment, for a snicker of scorn at our poor dumb ancestors.

"Enough about Carbon worries" say Aussie papers in co-ordinated move," lets talk about deep SPACEY dreams instead"

Dreams indeed !

What better way to divert the minds of Aussie readers from deep thinking about the best way to reduce fatal excess carbon in our skies (carbon trading versus regulation versus revenue- neutral taxation for example) than some deep spacey dreaming.

Atta boy ! In times of deep trouble, don't worry, be happy : dream
deep spacey dreams.

Forget your bathing suit, come on in : the Acid has never been better.

HELIOS II off on 60 trillion year trip to send a message to Intelligent Life at edge of Universe

     Helios II is the fastest man-made object ever. If it survives, it will act as a sign of other intelligent life in the Universe for some possible Intelligent Life form living at the currently known edge of the Universe ,14 billion light years away.
   But fast as Helios II is, it is only about one four thousandth the speed of light, so it would take at least 60 trillion years to reach that civilization at the bleeding edge of the currently visible universe.

SETI travel is the American BARBAROSSA : very long, very cold, very short of food

     "Packing for Mars" (and points east) ?
     Been there, done that - got the t-shirt.
     It says :  "I barely survived OPERATION BARBAROSSA ,winter of 1941-1942".
     Most didn't: survive (or get the t-shirt).
     Cock-eyed optimists and utopian libertarians, the Nazis cheerfully set off on a summer trip to visit the Urals, thinking it would be exactly like all those the articles in the German popular science magazines.

SKYGODS discover 'intelligent life' : now what and so what.....

     The fastest human-made (physical object) ever is Helios Two which travels at about .02% the speed of light. It takes 5000 years to travel the distance that man-made light signals would travel in one year.
   The next nearest star (with any sort of planets) would take Helios Two 40,000 years to travel to and back.
    But the first star with a planet very very very close to Earth in features (and thus supporting intelligent life) could easily be 100 light years away - taking Helios Two a million years to travel to and back to visit our closest relatives.