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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Merkuri" data-source="post: 5276347" data-attributes="member: 41321">Regarding colonizing exoplanets, Voyager I was launched in the 70s, and it's just barely breached the edge of our solar system.  Our long-scale transportation technology hasn't improved much since then.  At least, we're still nowhere near other star systems.I think sci-fi shows like Star Trek have spoiled a lot of us into not realizing how huge our own solar system is.  Carl Sagan sums it up best in his comments about the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot" target="_blank">Pale Blue Dot</a> photo taken by Voyager I.  Voyager had turned its camera around and taken a picture of Earth from the edges of the solar system, and our planet was just a single pixel.  To quote Sagan:Before we go colonizing other planets, not only do we need to greatly advance our travel technology, but we need to find those other planets.  I believe someone earlier in the thread said that the nearest known exoplanet was orbiting Epsilon Eridani, but I'm pretty sure that this planet is a gas giant, not suited for humans to land on (never mind live on).  In fact, just about every exoplanet we've found so far is a gas giant.  I don't think we have the technology yet to detect tiny earth-like planets.So not only do we need to find a way to get to exoplanets, we need to find them first.  We're a very long way away from that unless there are a couple of major scientific breakthroughs in the next few years.</blockquote>

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