richardt@orstcs.UUCP (richardt) (07/10/85)
Not too long ago, Someone mentioned that Hydrogen and Oxygen were two of the most common elements in the universe. Therefore, why invade a defenseless Earth to get (possibly polluted) water? They forgot one major fact: Most of that hydrogen is tied up in stars. Now I don't know about you, but I'm not going to go and skim a star for hydrogen any time soon. Especially Rigel! Somebody else mentioned that the Visitors came in conventional spaceships with conventional drives. I hate to disillusion you, but early in the first or second mini-series, it was established that the Visitors ships were all gravitic drive. That alone provides a very effective way to lift water out of a gravity well... or to lift anything at all for that matter. orstcs!richardt "If I'm human, what are *YOU*?"
franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams) (07/16/85)
In article <7800024@orstcs.UUCP> richardt@orstcs.UUCP (richardt) writes: >Not too long ago, Someone mentioned that Hydrogen and Oxygen were >two of the most common elements in the universe. Therefore, why >invade a defenseless Earth to get (possibly polluted) water? They >forgot one major fact: Most of that hydrogen is tied up in stars. >Now I don't know about you, but I'm not going to go and skim a star >for hydrogen any time soon. Especially Rigel! Maybe most of the hydrogen is tied up in stars (this isn't quite clear, since we don't know exactly how much non-stellar material is floating around in the universe. But we do know certain minimums.) But if you leave out the stars entirely, and count only non-stellar matter, hydrogen is still the most common material in the universe -- probably a larger fraction than what is in the stars. (Stars convert hydrogen to other things.) Why then, you ask, is hydrogen so (relatively) rare as it is on Earth? The reason is that the sun, early in its existence, blew it all (mostly) away into space. Thus small worlds near stars are hydrogen-depleted. The only other things in the universe (as far as we know) which are hydrogen- depleted are large, old stars or the remnants of same (white dwarfs, neutron stars, etc.) In particular, all the giant planets in our system (one of which, Jupiter, contains a majority of the non-stellar mass in the system) are all mostly hydrogen, and their satellites are not short of hydrogen.
demillo@uwmacc.UUCP (Rob DeMillo) (07/19/85)
> > Not too long ago, Someone mentioned that Hydrogen and Oxygen were > two of the most common elements in the universe. Therefore, why > invade a defenseless Earth to get (possibly polluted) water? They > forgot one major fact: Most of that hydrogen is tied up in stars. > Now I don't know about you, but I'm not going to go and skim a star > for hydrogen any time soon. Especially Rigel! > Sorry. I forgot the name of this poster...at any rate: Something like 98% of the matter in the Universe is hydrogen. There are hydrogen nebulae, hydrogen atmospheres, and just plain ol' free hydrogen floating around with nothing to do. You really don't have to go near Rigel. (Why Rigel, anyway? It's a pretty boring star....) Incidently, in the past ten years, there has been several findings of actual H20 nebulae...no one would have to go to a planet to bother anyone... ...so you see, water (or its components) are everywhere...so V is still silly... -- --- Rob DeMillo Madison Academic Computer Center ...seismo!uwvax!uwmacc!demillo / =|-- = \ = [][][] "...I don't know what this thing does, but it's pointing in your direction."