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Re: New WWW link



> Zenon Wrote:
> >Add to LIT links the following one:
> >
> >  http://www.obspm.fr/departement/darc/planets/encycl.html
> >  Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia
> >
> >-- Zenon

I followed the link you gave Zenon, and found a more graphics intensive page.
http://www.empire.net/~whatmoug/Extrasolar/extrasolar_visions.html

It takes a while to load, but I think it's worth it.  it gives a better description
of the pervailing conditions on each planet.  Perhaps we could switch our target
to one of the Jupiter sized worlds orbiting in a water zone.  a high-speed flyby
mission could return a lot of information.  we'd know the Orbital inclination, so we 
could do a polar fly-over.

I wonder what such a probe would reveal about earth?  Assuming a .4 C fly-by and a
favorable position (ie earth is seen from a distance equal to 60 to 120 degrees of 
earth's orbit.) would a standard set of spectrographic instruments be able to detect
Oxygen or Carbon Dioxide?  Would a wide band radio reciever be able to detect our
television or satellite transmissions?  Would a good night-side photo show the 
rivers and seas of light that populate the north-american continet?

In other words, if some other world sent a probe here,what is the minimum sensitivity
required for it to return useful data? (ie. that the third rock from the sun is a 
life-bearing world)  Follow-up question, do we have the required technology?

-- 
Kevin "Tex" Houston 	http://umn.edu/~hous0042/index.html