Cosmic Water Cannon

[J-Sun]

I can't think of much to say about this, but just thought it was way cool and maybe others would like it if they hadn't already seen it:

Herschel Telescope Spots a Star Spewing Powerful Water Jets into Interstellar Space

 

[Metryq]

Fountain of Youth — that is, of a young star. When our first starships get out there, they'll discover it's really an artificial construct built by an alien race. A fueling station, of course.

 

[Starbeast]

A long time ago, on a star far far away, a great spurting took place.

Interesting J-Sun.

 

[J Riff]

Water bullets eighty times faster than a normal round. Fantastic, and only 750 light years away!

 

[Metryq]

Water bullets eighty times faster than a normal round.

Forgive me for being pedantic, and I know the author of the article misused the term, but a "round" is the entire package: bullet, casing, charge, and cap. What comes out of the muzzle is only the bullet.

(Similarly, a clip is not a magazine. Hollywood loves that one.)

 

[Nik]

Sounds like the proto-star is boiling all the water / hydroxyl ions from the ice in the inner-system's accretion disk, like a zillion comet tails...

Presumably, methane etc has already gone ??

Now, does it all disperse into interstellar medium, fetch up in a neighbour's pre-stellar cloud, or re-condense out near the 'ice line'...

 

[Metryq]

Well, I guess this completely deflates the "science" behind the premise of the TV movie "V". (Right, as though stealing Earth's water was the only bit of silliness in that story.)

 

[skeptical]

Absolutely.
When it comes to interstellar travel, the only thing that could possibly be worth trading would be information. Sending even one gram from one star system to another would cost more than diamonds.

So has Earth anything to offer an interstellar civilisation? Certainly not technology. The only information I could think that might possibly be worth trading would be the genomes of our more interesting life forms.

 

[Metryq]

So has Earth anything to offer an interstellar civilisation?

Facebook would jump at the chance to sell all your personal information to the ETs. Then your mailbox would explode from all the spam: phishing scams from deposed Rigelian princes, Viagra ads from Gemini, titillating offers from the Seven Sisters...