"Sander Vesik" wrote in message
...
Uddo Graaf wrote:

"TKalbfus" wrote in message
...
I find it interesting that Sedna was discovered near its closest point
in
its
10,500 year orbit around the Sun. What are the chances of that
happening?
If
you only consider the planet Sedna, the chances of discovering it
while it
is
near is closest point to the Sun are very small. Sedna spends most of
its
time
further away, this leads to the question how many other "Sedna's" are
there?
What if we looked for a 10th planet 1000 years ago with the same
technology we
have today? Would we find another Sedna-like planet nearing its
closest
point
to the sun. Sedna will spend 150 closer to the Sun than from where we
discovered it. statistically this leaves room for about 60 planets in
10,000
year orbits around the sun. all those planets are potential colonies
for
future
colonists. The ones further away will be harder to find, but I'm sure
we
can
eventually discover them.

Colonies that far away from the Sun? Unlikely. Mankind can multiply like
rabbits and it would still take at least 300 years to fill up the inner
planets and moons. Sedna or its denizen's aren't likely candidates for
colonization and when they are, mankind will probably have developed FTL
(faster than light) propulsion and reach for planets beyond our solar
system.


Even with FTL, colonising Oort cloud may be easier than plants around
far-away stars. At 4c it still takes 9months for a one-way trip to
Alpha Cenaturi - and much longer for other stars. FTL - unless it
is high multiples of lightspeed - only makes interstellar travel and
colonisation slightly easier. You will pobably still need generation
ships - just the number of generations born on-ship will be lower.

Mostly colonization will be done by 'system hopping' and will therefore be
doable. Someone calculated once that if we started now, we could colonize
the entire Galaxy in 3000 years.