back to article Boffins publish SciFi story to announce exoplanet find

Boffins from the Queen Mary University of London have chosen an unusual way to announce a new exoplanet find, commissioning a short story describing the recently-revealed worlds. There's a paper about the find too, and a promise of more to come in a future issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The …

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  1. Gordon 10
    Thumb Up

    Nice touch. Well done boffins and Reynolds

    1. SDoradus

      Why did they bother? It's been done before with reference to Kapteyn's star originating in the Omega Centauri satellite galaxy nucleus, specifically the central intermediate mass black hole. The novel was "Singularity", published two years ago by a fairly prolific author (William Keith).

      1. Gordon 10
        WTF?

        If you are referring to Star Carrier 3 singularity - apart from the vague connection with Kapteyn I'm not sure what your point is.

        Reynolds is high end Hard-ish Sci-Fi.

        Keith/Douglas - seems more Journeyman Mil-sci fi from a quick google.

        ie totally different sub-genres.

        Would you complain about every book that mentions alpha centuari?

  2. 0laf
    Thumb Up

    Clever

    Reynolds is a boffin himself or ex-boffin. Nice little tie up between science and science fiction.

    1. Frumious Bandersnatch

      Re: Clever

      Reynolds is a boffin himself or ex-boffin

      Indeed he is, and I've read some of his books.

      I don't care much for the quality of proof-reading, though. For example:

      * unmeasurably old -> immeasurably old

      * eeking out its nuclear lifetime -> eking out ...

      * Cities as mute as sphinxes -> sphinges (ok, I'm being picky)

      Man, the quality of AIs they send into space these days ...

  3. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    OK, the key thing now

    Is to avoid getting dragged into any puzzle-solving and silly Q&A sessions with anything we may find when we finally get there....

  4. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Pint

    I wonder

    if they will be raising a glass at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute here in Groningen.

    I sure will (as if I need such an excuse)

  5. Bob Wheeler
    Happy

    A Nice touch

    I thought the story added a nice light bit of humour, particularly the end.

    "Just a word, to let me know that you still care".

  6. Paul Hovnanian Silver badge
    Windows

    Oldest

    “the oldest potentially habitable planet known to date”

    So what we are looking at is a bunch of grouchy old codger aliens yelling at us to get off their lawn.

  7. Neoc

    He said "Kapteyn!"

    I said "What?"

  8. GreenJimll

    Like ISEE 3 before it

    That space probe in the story is probably out of luck. Nobody will talk to it because NASA will have junked the "obsolete " hardware required to transmit a message decades before.

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