Earth

[Paxil]

Skywalker wrote:

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You're right, it's a Doctor Moon. The RTF just have to activate it, and it will fix the irradiated and uninhabitable Earth.

Could you have possibly missed the reference given your name?

[Skywalker]

Paxil wrote:

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Could you have possibly missed the reference given your name?

Oh, I got the reference, I just decided to reference something else instead.

[bigdaddy]

Oh brother, this is turning into something like LOST forums, just a mess of crazy ass ideas.

There is no moon because the shot didn't show the moon!
There is no moon on the planet because it is a wasteland, or maybe there is just a new moon!

And The Golden Gate Bridge? Really? Can we think before hand? The land was flat! There is no flat land near the Golden Gate Bridge.

[Leroy]

There was no moon in that shot because it's a space station!

[TheArsenal]

I can't say if it is Earth or not, it looks like this is purposely left to be an open question at this point. I will say I think it would be more interesting if it turned out to be Earth, rather than just having the fleet pack up their bags and return to the road looking for the "Real Earth".

[D Man]

Whatever happened to Kara's mystical ability to feel the way to Earth? We endured her screaming "WE'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY" for multiple episodes, then once she found the comet and the baseship she wasn't "nuts" anymore, and was back to being a normal CAG. I was expecting some sort of reaction from her upon arrival at Earth beyond her facial expression as the tracking shot passed her down on the planet, but I guess that's yet another little puzzle for 2009.

[QCzar]

From what I understand of the physics of decay, the devastation on this "Earth" must have been a relatively recent event. After a certain period of time, even the most robust of man made alloys will deteriorate, almost to the point of not being recognizably man-made, if not maintained. In Chernobyl, for instance, we're talking only a few decades and many of the structures left there are already starting to crumble and be reclaimed by nature.

Now, we don't know the nature of the calamity that befell this city, but there are clear signs of corrosion and corrosive elements (water, high wind, moist soil, etc.). It can be assumed we aren't dealing with super-resilient, exotic materials (as they are decaying). And finally, since there is plant life on some of the ruins, this is yet more evidence of a recent event, as given even tentative conditions, after many centuries or millenia, plant organisms would be covering that entire area.

Yet another factor that indicates chronology of this disaster is the obvious presence of radiation in the soil. Even in places directly affected by nuclear radiation that currently exist on Earth today (such as in Japan, Chernobyl and various nuclear test sites), after a few decades these places do not generate significant readings on a Geiger Counter.

Thus, the only way the incident which lead to this city's destruction could not be a recent one is if A) RDM and crew just ignore the science or B) the structures were built with highly exotic, slow-decaying materials resistant to corrosion.

A reasonable estimation could still yield a broad time period, but nothing in the range of thousands or tens of thousands of years. No way. Earth would almost certainly resemble more closely Kobol by that stage. A better estimate would be in the 100-500 years range. Given that it is war damage (this can be disputed) and the atmosphere (around the city) seems to have been affected, one could push that number down to less than 100, but more than 15.

[hxclespaulplayer]

Does my avatar count as a spoiler?

[Luke Lightsaber]

BSG kinda turned into 300.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Luke Lightsaber wrote:

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BSG kinda turned into 300.

Insert joke about the prequel series CapriCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA here.

[Snaploud]

QCzar wrote:

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From what I understand of the physics of decay, the devastation on this "Earth" must have been a relatively recent event.

We don't know what alloy was used in those buildings.

[Luke Lightsaber]

THIS IS CAPRICAA! COLONIALS PREPARE FOR GLORY!!!!

[Gatekeeper]

The half-life of some radioactive isotopes is measured not in decades or even centuries, but upwards of tens of thousands of years.

Yet, I'm not sure if the destruction fits the latter timeframe because, as another poster wrote, there wouldn't be that much evidence of human civilization left by then. Our footprint simply isn't that durable. Yet the Colonials are setting foot on radioactive land without protection ... so whatever happened must be somewhat recent (as indicative by the ruins still being present), but not so much that it's unsafe to set foot on the war-devastated land.

Hmm. Perhaps the city itself wasn't hit by nuclear weapons? Perhaps it simply was caught in the radioactive drift from a more distant nuclear strike, and the people were forced to abandon it (but not before some conventional warfare took place).

Gatekeeper

[Mr Awe]

Starship Polaris wrote:

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I think they may remain cagey about showing us a recognizable globe - not because this is a "red herring planet" and they haven't found really found "Earth" yet, but to maintain some ambiguity about whether what they call "Earth" actually is our Earth.

I think they just didn't want to ruin the surprise that Earth was a destroyed Earth by giving it way through orbital shots. They wanted to keep it a secret until they landed and reveal it that way.

Mr Awe

[RoJoHen]

Gatekeeper wrote:

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The half-life of some radioactive isotopes is measured not in decades or even centuries, but upwards of tens of thousands of years.

Yet, I'm not sure if the destruction fits the latter timeframe because, as another poster wrote, there wouldn't be that much evidence of human civilization left by then. Our footprint simply isn't that durable. Yet the Colonials are setting foot on radioactive land without protection ... so whatever happened must be somewhat recent (as indicative by the ruins still being present), but not so much that it's unsafe to set foot on the war-devastated land.

Hmm. Perhaps the city itself wasn't hit by nuclear weapons? Perhaps it simply was caught in the radioactive drift from a more distant nuclear strike, and the people were forced to abandon it (but not before some conventional warfare took place).

Gatekeeper

If Caprica City is any indication from Season 1, I don't think the Colonials worry too much about radiation.