We've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Exoplanet building its own moons

theregister.com

64 points·pseudolus··12 comments

Full text is here,

https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/e... [.pdf]

(The version the article linked is paywalled)

I had no idea that such good photos of exoplanets are available. I remember a few years ago just being blurry blobs. It's amazing to me that we can see the star and the planetary disk.

It makes you wonder what kind of clarity the images of the James Web telescope will provide when it eventually gets launched - presumably by the time we will have starships that can just go there in person.

All kidding aside though, it does seem like it actually will get launched soon for real. We definitely live in exciting times for astronomy as well as potential space colonisation.

The first images JWST takes will have human colonists waving back.

Trippy short story idea

The MGT would give a much better image.

https://www.gmto.org/

Do you know how much better?

"I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those... moments will be lost... in time... like... tears... in rain. Time... to die."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdUq2opPY-Q&t=48s

Two points for the Bladerunner allusion.

I remember a scientific book that said: "we will never know if exoplanets exist because they are simply too far away to see them". So be careful what you write.

Lex Fridman has had a few astronomers on his podcast recently that go over planet and moon formation. If you find this stuff interesting definitely check those episodes out.

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