Interesting project

[M Holmes]

Patrick C. writes:

> Sitting here postulating, I've been thinking that the next HW or
> Pressurehed project should be based on the recent discovery of the first
> planetary solar system like ours `Upsilon Andromedae'

Is this really "Upsilon" rather than "Epsilon"?

> which has two as
> yet unnamed planets that could hold life.

They're gas giants aren't they? I guess we're not talking life as we
know it?

It's a gas, but it ain't space rock.

> Apparently NASA have decided to
> send their next `interferometry mission' (a project aimed at finding
> Earth-sized planets revolving around nearby suns) to this Andromedae.

So we'll get the results in a few thousand years? Maybe they're just
going to point some instruments in that direction?

It's good news that extrasolar planets are common.

One thing I did wonder is whether having two Jupiter sized planets in a
system would be good for rock type planets since there'd be considerably
more gravitational perturbations in such a system. I'm too lazy to do
the math though. We used to have professional astronomers on this list
(Hey McIntyre, you still out there?). Maybe they could comment.

> -Patrick C.

FoFP