Word: interstellar
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...effort to gather more knowledge about the hazards of manned space flights. One instrument will determine the flow and density of the charged particles (the solar wind) that are constantly streaming outward from the sun. Another will detect cosmic dust that might prove dangerous for future astronauts traveling through interstellar space...
Purcell's conclusion: talk of interstellar space travel is "nonsense" and "belongs back where it came from, on the cereal...
Finally, Purcell noted several radiation hazards. The space traveller would have to be protected by several yards of lead shielding against the lethal radiation produced by interstellar particles striking his ship at 99 per cent the speed of light. The earth would have to be shielded from the tremendous gamma ray exhaust of the matter-anti-matter engine...
...magazine Science, German Astronomer Sebastian von Hoerner demonstrates with intricate mathematical logic that planets suitable for life may be fairly common among the stars. On some of those planets, says Von Hoerner, there may well be creatures intelligent enough to transmit radio messages across the enormous distances of interstellar space. But for all this skill, he says, such highly developed civilizations will rarely be able to communicate with each other. Intelligent societies span but a brief segment of galactic history; they take billions of years to evolve, and their flowering might well last only a few thousand years. So their...
According to Von Hoerner's calculators, there are perhaps only ten civilized communities within 1,000 light-years of the earth. But Von Hoerner is convinced (hat if some highly cultured creatures are actually trying to communicate across interstellar space, earth's astronomers could, by concerted effort, detect and interpret the incoming messages...