Read more

Astronomers believe it’s possible that advanced beings lived in or visited our solar system eons ago — and perhaps left behind certain ‘technosignatures.’

Galaxy Quest, the cult movie beloved by sci-fi fans for its gentle mocking of, well, sci-fi fans, is back on track as a rebooted TV series for Amazon, THR reports. The revival was originally revealed in 2015, but plans were put on hold after the death of original cast-member Alan Rickman, who was to reprise his role in the news series. It’s now on again, with writer/actor/comedian Paul Scheer (The Disaster Artist, Veep) set to write the script.

The original 1999 film was a mild success, grossing $90 million, but has since become a cult classic. Starring Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman and Tony Shalhoub, it follows the cast of a fictional Star Trek-like TV show called Galaxy Quest. After it’s canceled, they make their living via conventions, but are suddenly visited by actual aliens who believe the show is a documentary. The crew subsequently becomes mixed up in a serious galactic conflict and pulls together despite deep-seated resentments, with the help of devoted fans.

By Grabthar’s Hammer, I will write thee. https://t.co/LLuRumTW6u— Paul Scheer (@paulscheer) August 17, 2017

Credit: Ridddle

In our hunt for Earth-like planets and extraterrestrial life, we’ve found thousands of exoplanets orbiting stars other than our sun. The caveat is that most of these planets have been detected using indirect methods. Similar to how a person can’t look at anything too close to the sun, current telescopes can’t observe potential Earth-like planets because they are too close to the stars they orbit, which are about 10 billion times brighter than the planets that surround them.

A possible solution might be to create an artificial solar eclipse with two precisely positioned spacecraft, according to Simone D’Amico, assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford and director of the Space Rendezvous Laboratory. One craft – known as a starshade – would position itself like the moon in a solar eclipse, blocking out the light of a distant star, so a second spacecraft with a telescope could view the nearby exoplanets from within the shadow cast by the starshade.

“With indirect measurements, you can detect objects near a star and figure out their orbit period and distance from the star,” said D’Amico, whose lab is working on this eclipsing system. “This is all important information, but with direct observation you could characterize the chemical composition of the planet and potentially observe signs of biological activity – life.”