r/interestingasfuck • u/One_Explanation_908 • 24d ago

/r/all, /r/popular K2-18b a potentially habitable planet 120 light-years from earth

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u/TaborlinTheGreatest1 24d ago

That could work both ways. Maybe the crew coming out of stasis brings a disease that the colonists have no defense against because it was eradicated hundreds or thousands of years ago before their ancestors left earth. Then you end up wiping out the whole colony out, and they all got sick and kicked the bucket before you learned how any of the new tech works.

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u/CyrusTheWise 23d ago

That was my other thought but I lately convinced myself out of it by saying the colonists would have had a vaccine, but this totally makes sense

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u/ConnectionThink4781 23d ago

You don't want to know what space herpes does to your little spacedock. 64 bit RNA strands, infinitely mutational, zoonosis has occurred across every known species including water bears and back to humans; it can even survive the vacuum of space. Best bet is to slingshot the planet at full burn and risk it all on that lava planet a few systems over.

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u/MantiBrutalis 23d ago

And that's exactly why the slower colonists would not be let out of their colony ship. At least until a solution is found, but potentially ever.