Astronomy Continues to Provide Ideas for SF

It's quite apparent that with the launch of a whole series of space telescopes, like Hubble, that astronomy has entered a new golden age. With these telescopes, we're able to see things never seen before: large exo-planets in orbit around nearby stars, black holes dominating the center of galaxies, and even light modifications in background radiation that hint of mysterious structures that may have existed before the Big Bang.

These discoveries provide grist for the SF writer's mill. Take, for example, the discovery of a new class of planets: large, icy, Super-Earths some ten times the size of our terrestrial planet. These planets, apparently plentiful, orbit many stars in distant orbits, well away from what we consider the zone of life--a zone where the star's heat warms ice into water.

We have discovered, however, that in some places, the tidal forces of nearby planets, and perhaps even the gravity of the planet itself is capable of heating ice and turning it into liquid oceans that may well hold life. Thus these large, plentiful, icy Super-Earths may be stages for a whole range of life adapted to quite different environments than our own. Imagine marine life; imagine heavy planet marine life developing intelligence and working with technology. What civilizations would be created by these creatures? What form of interaction would they desire, if any, with us? See http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0812/17life/ "Looking for extraterrestrial life in all the right places."

As I said, grist for the SF writer's mill.

Another such example is the discovery of something that may be a pre-existing structure from a universe that existed before the Big Bang, or perhaps a structure from the Multiverse (if such a place exists). What settings would such structures create?

Such discoveries seem to multiply with each astronomical satellite launched into orbit. This golden age of astronomy may well lead to a golden age of science fiction as well. That's my hope, and I hope to tap into some of these amazing ideas.