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Post by Jeff Gerke on Jan 21, 2008 17:16:56 GMT -5
I read this article ( www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22768418/) and wondered what would happen if our own sun began forming new planets. Indeed, what if it started forming a planet from the debris in the asteroid belt or from a cloud of matter intersecting with our end of the galaxy? Granted, it would probably take billions of years to form a new planet, but what if that were accelerated somehow, resulting in a new Earth-like planet right in our neighborhood in the near future? I don't know what you'd do with that. Maybe colonists would want to go populate it like Pilgrims seeking religious freedom. Maybe the thing's new orbit would begin to destroy Earth, forcing us to evacuate and either colonize the new planet or Mars or figure out how to live in space indefinitely. What do you guys think? Any spark of a story here? Jeff P.S. If you think so, you're welcome to take it an run with it! |
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Post by strangewind on Jan 21, 2008 17:34:52 GMT -5
Or...what if the planet wasn't inhabited (or even inhabitable) and we started sending utility-grade robots to explore and mine the surface.
What if those droning "dumb" robotic tools and vehicles uncovered a strange mineral that gave them a "sensation" akin to pleasure?
Suddenly, we have a planet in our systemic neighborhood, hostile to human life, occupied by machines that suddenly have something to lose...
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Post by Jeff Gerke on Jan 22, 2008 8:29:40 GMT -5
Awesome.
I love it. One person brings in the germ of an idea and someone else figures out what to do with it.
In a non-spiritual sense it's like the biblical principle in which one person plants, another waters, and someone else harvests.
But here we're all "reaping" the benefit: good times and cool story ideas.
Jeff
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Post by strangewind on Jan 29, 2008 16:49:09 GMT -5
Here's a biblical name for it:
Miner Profits
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Post by Jeff Gerke on Jan 30, 2008 8:40:49 GMT -5
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Post by strangewind on Jan 30, 2008 12:35:13 GMT -5
 Aw, and I was about to send that joke to Reader's Digest and everything. I take it that my odds on taking home the $35 prize might be sort of low, huh?
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Post by myrthman on Feb 2, 2008 20:45:34 GMT -5
I read just yesterday about an as yet unexplained structure found on the surface of Mercury. I read about it in USA Today. They had pictures and everything. Kinda looks like the shape in a windshield after someone's head has unfortunately hit it. They call it "The Spider." Could be some potential story ideas there, especially before NASA determines what really happened.
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Post by Teskas on Feb 2, 2008 20:51:46 GMT -5
"I saw a new heaven and a new earth....."
Suppose this is the way it is going to happen. The new earth starts forming before onlookers--astrogeologists maybe--only they don't know what they're looking at.
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Post by myrthman on Feb 2, 2008 20:53:09 GMT -5
I had that very thought as I was reading the article just now. Boggles the mind, huh?
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Post by torainfor on Mar 13, 2008 15:04:33 GMT -5
What if it's already here? Say, Venus is actually habitable. The atmosphere is an illusion (telepathic? technological?) created by the inhabitants who settled there shortly before the last apocalyptic war on Earth that destroyed everything (except a couple of pyramids?) and threw the few radiation-altered survivors back into the stone age? What were humans like before the weapons zapped our DNA? How did they develop, being different physically as well as having started out somewhat more advanced than we are now?
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Post by Divides the Waters on Mar 13, 2008 23:05:42 GMT -5
The idea of a technologically-created veil is intriguing. "Veils of Venus" has an interesting ring.
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Post by Spokane Flyboy on Mar 14, 2008 1:50:37 GMT -5
I've had a similar thought, but an Earth-like planet in another system with a form of Christianity, though not directly parallel to ours since they had a different history and terrain, but the doctrines being parallel.
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Post by scintor on Mar 20, 2008 22:44:56 GMT -5
Of course the other take on this is using asteroids and comets to modify the orbit, mass and composition of existing planets to make them habitable ... terraforming. A quite workable idea if we can ever get into space where we have the leverage to try it.
Scincerely,
Scintor@aol.com
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Post by Jeff Gerke on Mar 21, 2008 8:40:49 GMT -5
Scintor, I love the actual scientific knowledge you bring to our discussions. You make our crazy ideas sound halfway feasible!
Jeff
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Post by Divides the Waters on Mar 21, 2008 10:42:36 GMT -5
Better watch it, though ... he'll also let you know when your scientific knowledge is lacking! lol  |
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Aw, and I was about to send that joke to Reader's Digest and everything.
