starship-design: Studying planets vs. stars

[kuo@bit.csc.lsu.edu (Isaac Kuo)]

One thing about studying other stars rather than studying planets in
other systems:

In our own Solar System, we have a wide variety of planets and
planetoids to study, but we only have the one Sol.  That gives
us may points of reference with which to extrapolate/interpolate
what other planets may be like, but only a single point of
reference with which to attempt to extrapolate what other stars
may be like.

>From a scientific point of view, studying planets in other stars
systems will be an interesting extension to existing scientific
study, but studying other stars will be the birth of a new branch
of study--and one which will greatly enrich our understanding of
our universe.

Alpha Centauri is particularly exciting to study because it is
so different from Sol.  A binary system is radically different
and offers two stars to study.  That will provide a wider gamut
of examples to interpolate from, compared to the single example
of Sol from which no interpolation is possible.
-- 
    _____     Isaac Kuo kuo@bit.csc.lsu.edu http://www.csc.lsu.edu/~kuo
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