Paul Gilster
@gilster.bsky.social
270 followers 42 following 95 posts
Writer/editor Centauri Dreams
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Something no other propulsion system can do: Non-Keplerian orbits, essentially hovering over a target. Space weather mission concept illustrates the possibilities. Will we be smart enough to fund it? www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/10/09/s...
Solar Sails for Space Weather | Centauri Dreams
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Rogue planets move through interstellar space with no star to warm them. We've assumed they've been ejected from a parent star system, but now it appears some form in same way stars do. A fascinating example discussed in new paper. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/10/02/r...
Rogue Planets: A Stellar Infancy? | Centauri Dreams
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If the Wow! Signal was result of power beaming accidentally sweeping across our sky from another star system, why would it be so narrow in bandwidth? James Benford offers an explanation that shows how physics forces the issue. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/09/22/b...
Beaming and Bandwidth: A New Note on the Wow! Signal | Centauri Dreams
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A new look at old data from Ohio's Big Ear, where the famous Wow! signal was recorded. Plus thoughts on a recent work that analyses the factors that make a technological civilization possible. How likely is it that we are alone? www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/09/15/s...
SETI Odds and Ends | Centauri Dreams
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Life on Ceres? Almost certainly not now, but go back a few billion years ago and conditions in the asteroid's sub-surface ocean could have supported micro-organisms. New study makes us wonder about other outer system objects. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/09/03/a...
Ancient Life on Ceres? | Centauri Dreams
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Keith Cooper's new book Amazing Worlds looks at the interplay of science fiction and exoplanet research. It's a crisp, well-informed survey rich in SF both classic and new, mingling with latest exoplanet data. My review is available here. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/08/29/a...
Amazing Worlds: A Review | Centauri Dreams
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Deeply saddened to learn of the death of Italian physicist Claudio Maccone, a good friend and a leading figure in interstellar studies. I post some recollections about this fine man today on Centauri Dreams. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/08/22/c...
Claudio Maccone (1948-2025) | Centauri Dreams
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Further thoughts on generation ships, including an obvious one. Will we insist on carrying humans to other stars, or are we more likely to send intelligent machines? www.centauri-dreams.org/2016/03/25/t...
Thirteen to Centaurus | Centauri Dreams
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Project Hyperion generation ship design contest produced a solid result in 'Chrysalis,' a richly detailed study of how a ship like this could be constructed. Key problems: As always, propulsion, & especially closed loop life support. That last one is huge. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/08/12/c...
Chrysalis: Designing a Generation Ship | Centauri Dreams
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A Saturn mass gas giant may be orbiting Alpha Centauri A, based on solid JWST infrared results and exhaustive simulations of its orbit. It's still a candidate rather than a confirmed world, but follow-up work will tell us soon. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/08/08/a...
A Candidate Gas Giant at Alpha Centauri A | Centauri Dreams
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David Kipping's Torqued Accelerator using Radiation from the Sun) concept gets a touch up by Alex Tolley, who asks whether there are ways to extract even more performance from a rotating system capable of exiting the Solar System. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/08/05/a...
A Rotating Probe Launcher Alternative to TARS | Centauri Dreams
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Fresh thinking on the interstellar conundrum. David Kipping's TARS offers fast transit in-system and interstellar options as well. Key benefit is flexibility, capability of swarm missions, and very low cost. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/08/01/a...
A Space Catapult with Interstellar Potential | Centauri Dreams
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SETI at the extremes. I look at science fictional treatments of life in high-energy environments like neutron stars. The SETI community is now beginning to consider possible technosignatures from places we've always ignored. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/07/22/s...
SETI at the Extremes | Centauri Dreams
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A just released image from Gemini North shows interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, a cometary coma (gas & dust) still fairly compact but sure to grow larger as perihelion approaches in October. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/07/16/a...
A Better Look at 3I/ATLAS | Centauri Dreams
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Interstellar navigation will need to be autonomous as we go farther & farther from Earth. New Horizons just demonstrated use of parallax by taking images of Proxima Cen & Wolf 359, & determining position from the result. Longest baseline ever used. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/07/15/a...
A New Horizons First for Interstellar Navigation | Centauri Dreams
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3I/ATLAS is the third interstellar object we've identified. Almost surely a comet, it's moving toward perihelion in October, and is already active as its surface warms. We'll learn a great deal more about it as this process intensifies. Thoughts on ISO's: www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/07/10/3...
3I/ATLAS: Observing and Modeling an Interstellar Newcomer | Centauri Dreams
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Defining habitability is a must if we are to prioritize targets for next generation telescopes. A quantitative approach appears in a recent paper, though it doesn't necessarily cover all the bases. Alex Tolley takes a look at these ideas in today's post. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/07/07/n...
New Model to Prioritize the Search for Exoplanet Life | Centauri Dreams
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Using a direct fusion drive as being designed at Princeton for a Sedna orbiter. Interesting conceptual analysis & feasibility study, contrasting this option with a solar sail using desorption, blowing off embedded elements at perihelion. Hint: sail is faster. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/07/01/a...
A Sedna Orbiter via Nuclear Propulsion | Centauri Dreams
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Looking at a Saturn class world in formation around the star TWA 7. This is a JWST catch & not yet confirmed, but evidence is strongly supportive of a planet here, the smallest yet found via direct imaging. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/06/27/j...
JWST Catch: Directly Imaged Planet Candidate | Centauri Dreams
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John Coltrane's Sun Ship album inspires musings on interstellar flight as imagined by the ancients and now explored by aerospace engineers. Starflight inspires imaginative leaps even as current missions like the Parker probe push what we can do today. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/06/25/i...
Interstellar Flight: Perspectives and Patience | Centauri Dreams
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Propulsion via nuclear decay may be workable through new design from Jim Bickford, now entering Phase II at NASA NIAC. Delta-v up to 150 km/sec feasible in these calculations, in a maneuverable & very scalable design. Gravity lens possibilities. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/06/20/t...
TFINER: Ramping Up Propulsion via Nuclear Decay | Centauri Dreams
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Inflatable sails offer steep savings in mass & enable larger payloads. I look today at deep space concepts involving this technology, & new studies on using inflatable structures for exoplanet research via a starshade. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/06/11/i...
Inflatable Technologies for Deep Space | Centauri Dreams
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You wouldn't expect many gas giant planets around tiny red dwarf stars, & statistics bear this out. But the few that have been discovered are critical for understanding planet formation processes. A look at a new find in context of earlier work. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/06/06/o...
Odd Couple: Gas Giants and Red Dwarfs | Centauri Dreams
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Troubling discrepancy on speed of universe's expansion has pitted cosmic microwave background data against evidence from Type 1a supernovae. New work out of U. of Chicago uses JWST data to close the gap. Problem resolved? Maybe. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/06/03/e...
Expansion of the Universe: An End to the ‘Hubble Tension’? | Centauri Dreams
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How many civilizations may have existed in the galaxy millions (or billions) of years before our own? Temporal coincidence may be an issue for detecting megastructures like Dyson swarms. New paper shows how they degrade over time. www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/05/29/m...
Megastructures: Adrift in the Temporal Sea | Centauri Dreams
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