***Memo from the Office of Human Exploration and Operations***

***United Nations Aeronautics and Space Administration***

***Vienna International Centre, Wagramerstrasse 5, A-1220 Vienna, Austria*** 

Hello, my name is Doctor Rebecca Kimble, executive director of Human Exploration and Operations at UNASA. Thank you for taking part in the Planetary Coalition’s Recolonization Program to ensure the survival of our species.

Now, I’d like to take a little time to talk to you about your, and humanity’s, new home: the Theta Carinae cluster. The Theta Carinae cluster was discovered in 1751 by Abbé Nicolas Louis de La Caille, a French astronomer and Roman Catholic priest. It is also known as the Southern Pleiades, due to its resemblance to the normal Pleiades and its point of discovery in South Africa.

The Theta Carinae cluster takes its name from the constellation Carina where it can be found. Now, A star cluster is a grouping of stars that are gravitationally bound. There are two types of star clusters: globular clusters and open clusters. Globular clusters are very old and very dense, and can contain thousands of stars. Open clusters are much younger and usually contain less than a few hundred stars. Theta Carinae is an open cluster and is only about 50 million years old.

Theta Carinae is about 479 light-years from the Sol system. That means it takes light from our sun 479 years to reach it. Now, the colony ships can’t travel anywhere near that fast. Their top speed is only about 15% the speed of light. That may not seem fast, but it sure is. Light travels at 1 billion kmh. That’s 700 million mph. 15% of that is still 160 million kmh or 100 million mph. Wow!

By our estimates, it will take approximately 3000 years to reach Theta Carinae, but don’t worry, you’ll be in suspended animation or “cryosleep” for the entirety of the journey. It may be 2606 now, but you will wake up sometime in the 5600s.

So what’s in store for you when you get to Theta Carinae? Well, first off, the cluster has 66 stars in it. Using the Tyson Deep Space Telescope Array we have identified 24 of those stars with habitable worlds. How do we know? Well, using a method known as transit photometry we are able to detect the movement of a planet in front of a star because its brightness dims by a tiny amount. The ratio in brightness allows us to make calculations on the radius of the planet. This method only works well with planets that are relatively close to their parent star, which is perfect for finding terrestrial, or earth-like, planets. Additionally, the deep space telescope array allows us to verify the radius through triangulation. The orbital distance and period is then built up from the historical photometric data. If the exoplanet has an orbital radius and year that fall within the “Goldilocks” zone, or similar to that of Earth and Mars, then we identify it as a possible candidate for colonization.

Lastly, as an exoplanet transits in front of its home star, the light of that star passes through its atmosphere and can be picked up from the deep space array. We can then study the spectral shift of the light to determine the elemental makeup of the planet, its atmosphere, and surface temperature. We then look for tell-tale signs of habitability: nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide, methane, and ozone. In specific percentages this elemental makeup tells us that not only is an exoplanet’s atmosphere breathable, but also confirms the existence of respirating plant life and liquid surface water!

This process was repeated throughout the stars of the Theta Carinae cluster, and that’s how we identified the 24 stars that have earth-like planets orbiting them.

If you’re reading this, you’ll be boarding the PCS Dauntless, which is bound for the star HIP 52839, a main sequence star of similar mass and spectral luminosity as Sol. The Dauntless is heading to LV-34 and will be the first ship to reach its destination. You are Colony Alpha.

Good luck and godspeed.