Star Tau Ceti

[majoraward]

The star Tau Ceti which is 12 light-years from Earth was made famous by the TV series StarTrek because of several of its fictious planets (then it was not possible to discern planets around other star systems like it is possible today, planets around other star systems was a pure fiction), the most famous of which was Tau Ceti Alpha V where Captain Kirk exiled Khan and his followers and 6 months later Tau Ceti VI exploded making Tau Ceti Alpha V change position and turn into a wasteland.

Here is the real deal discovered recently by astronomers. Tau Ceti is of course a real star and it does have at least 5 real planets, recently discovered. Planet Tau Ceti e and planet Tau Ceti f are both in the habitable zone of star Tau Ceti, this has been confirmed for real. It is possible that there is life there similar to ours, in other words it will have the same type of temperature possible (such as seas of water), in the right zone for its star as is Sol for Earth. It is also possible that someday if we can build ships fast enough, or find a way to warp space and time that we may be able to colonize those planets as Khan was colonizing Tau Ceti Alpha V or Tau Ceti f as it has become known for real.

So this is an example of the truth being stranger than fiction.

Now if I could just have Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy for a doctor!

[ViewsAskew]

Hubby has a goal of seeing all Star Trek episodes, from all series, and all movies. He's seen most of them, but recently started rewatching them, one by one, on Netflix or Amazon Prime. Each night at dinner we watch Deep Space Nine. I'd seen about 1/2 to 2/3 of it, but not all. I'd already seen all of Next Generation, so he's watching that by himself - one episode before bed each night .

Not sure I'd want Bones for my doctor....but all the gadgets would be great!

[majoraward]

Hubby has a goal of seeing all Star Trek episodes, from all series, and all movies. He's seen most of them, but recently started rewatching them, one by one, on Netflix or Amazon Prime. Each night at dinner we watch Deep Space Nine. I'd seen about 1/2 to 2/3 of it, but not all. I'd already seen all of Next Generation, so he's watching that by himself - one episode before bed each night .

Not sure I'd want Bones for my doctor....but all the gadgets would be great!

My wife and I did watch all 1245 episodes of Dark Shadows by getting them sent to us from Netflix a few years ago. Took us a year to get through them. Of course they have nothing to do with science lol - we also watched the 2 movies of Dark Shadows. It was because when we came home from high school as kids we would see Dark Shadows on because our mother's watched it and we found it interesting but never had time to watch them.

I lived all the Star Trek series, except one that I thought was rather boring and an offshoot - something about a space station? I read over a hundred Star Trek books that were written by many different Authors which actually were very good usually.

Bones, "Well majoraward what seems to be the problem?"...."Willis-Ekbom disease! Good god man, that was cured over 200 years ago, here take this pill and see nurse
chapel in the morning."...."Jim! I'm no ancient sleep doctor - trouble with sleep, that's just barbaric, When are we living? In the stone age?"

[ViewsAskew]

Too funny, he watched all of Dark Shadows earlier this year! I never saw it and am too young for it, I think. He liked watching it, but complained about the foley work and production quality all the time. Said he could see microphones in some of the scenes, lol.

I think the one Star Trek you didn't like is probably my favorite. It is on a space station. First season is slow, but by season 3 and 4, it's really good. Really good. Consider watching it sometime. Quality is crappy, but it's streaming if you have Netflix streaming, or it's "free" if you have Amazon Prime.

[majoraward]

Too funny, he watched all of Dark Shadows earlier this year! I never saw it and am too young for it, I think. He liked watching it, but complained about the foley work and production quality all the time. Said he could see microphones in some of the scenes, lol.

I think the one Star Trek you didn't like is probably my favorite. It is on a space station. First season is slow, but by season 3 and 4, it's really good. Really good. Consider watching it sometime. Quality is crappy, but it's streaming if you have Netflix streaming, or it's "free" if you have Amazon Prime.

So what is the name of the Star Trek show on the space station? I'm thinking it was something like Deep Space 9? I think it was too talkative for me, I needed more action, I liked Captain Kirk, shoot first, ask questions later type of guy. Picard talked a little too much for my liking also.

Yes, Dark Shadows lol half the fun was talking about the crappy microphones popping up and actors making mistakes, forgetting lines, crashes off stage. They shot it live and I guess at the time only filmed it because it had to be shown like after the news or something that aired like a half hour later, but there was no time to make changes. They did not intend to keep the film either. Several were only available because some rich dudes back then had an expensive form of a video recorder similar to VHS tape and recorded them at home and kept them for some strange reason lol.

[rthom]

Yes it is deep space nine. an good one on the bones link.

[majoraward]

Yes it is deep space nine. an good one on the bones link.

Thanks twice I'm heading for bed and keeping fingers crossed.

[ViewsAskew]

Yup, Randy has it - it's Deep Space Nine. Really, there is PLENTY of action after that first year or two. The acting the first year is a bit lame, too. The cast gels and they all get much better over time. By the middle of season 3, you're absolutely in it. It has a great enemy - the Dominion - and the Klingons get involved and start a war with Cardassians - Worf ends up coming to DS9 to work.

Great stuff!

[majoraward]

Yup, Randy has it - it's Deep Space Nine. Really, there is PLENTY of action after that first year or two. The acting the first year is a bit lame, too. The cast gels and they all get much better over time. By the middle of season 3, you're absolutely in it. It has a great enemy - the Dominion - and the Klingons get involved and start a war with Cardassians - Worf ends up coming to DS9 to work.

Great stuff!

I will have to try season 3, I wonder if it is Amazon Prime, I will have to check.

Edit:
Amazon Prime on our TV has seasons 1 through 7 of Deep Space 9!

[rthom]

[ViewsAskew]

The quality of those is not so hot, but they are *free*. It's not bad to watch on a laptop or PC screen - not so good on the high def TV, though.

We normally watch a movie on Friday or Saturday night and during the week watch one episode of something. For a couple months, we've been watching DS9. Tonight, I told hubby I wanted DS9 instead of a movie because season 4 is so good. If I could, I'd watch 2-3 episodes a night!

[majoraward]

The quality of those is not so hot, but they are *free*. It's not bad to watch on a laptop or PC screen - not so good on the high def TV, though.

We normally watch a movie on Friday or Saturday night and during the week watch one episode of something. For a couple months, we've been watching DS9. Tonight, I told hubby I wanted DS9 instead of a movie because season 4 is so good. If I could, I'd watch 2-3 episodes a night!

Just figure that we watched all 1,245 episoides of Dark Shadows in 1 year. Calculates out to about 3-1/2 episodes a day lol.
I'll have to see if the wife will like DS9 though, if she does maybe we will do some marathons. I wonder if anyone has ever watched an entire season of DS9 on Christmas Day

[majoraward]

It is also possible that someday if we can build ships fast enough...that we may be able to colonize those planets as Khan was colonizing Tau Ceti Alpha V or Tau Ceti f as it has become known for real.

This is the real reason I created this thread but no one seemed blown away by it like I was - Tau Ceti Alpha V (Tau Ceti f) actually exists and may be habitable for humans and it is practically next door.

Conversely this may also mean, although I admit the chances are near nil, that there is intelligent life there that may have known about Earth for eons. The idea of UFO's being intelligent life from other star systems becomes more plausible. It is a trip of roughly 80 trillion miles and would take us generations to get there with our fastest current technology, but what if our New Year instead of being 2013 was going to be 20013? Even if our technology had not changed, and of course it would, we would have easily had the time for generational ships to travel there by now.

[badnights]

haha I notice that discovery of those planets gets you going but what about the other ones that were discovered earlier? Also in habitable zones etc. you're pumped because it's trekky, no? Still cool, but they're ALL cool. Altho I suppose if there's life, our descendants might contact Tau Ceti life before any of the others.

From http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/ ... -tau-ceti/
"But the larger astronomy community is not completely convinced these planets exist. “The analysis is really pushing the envelope in what you can dig out of the data,” said astronomer Greg Laughlin of the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was not involved with the work. Noting that the researchers were careful not to over-interpret their data, Laughlin added that it would probably take at least a few more years of observation to confirm the five-planet system and a much longer time to even begin searching for life on them.

But if the planets were found to be real, it would be a great opportunity, Laughlin said. Our own solar system has no planets with masses between that of Earth and Neptune and none inside the 88-day orbit of Mercury. A nearby system with both these properties would offer an excellent opportunity to study the differences between our solar system and that of many other stellar systems in the universe."