'Alien Ring'

[Kol]

That why I always assumed the ship has been lying there for millions of years, which was that much more intriguing for me. The idea of some very ancient evil which was awaken by the crew of nostromo

As long as the environmental conditions remain the same, a mummified corpse can last thousands, if not millions of years...which would be exactly the case on an alien world which has a reducing atmosphere, low water vapor content, and no microorganisms.  Also, it was inside the ship, so it was protected from winds and sand that would ablate the corpse over time, as well as protected from UV radiation (from the planetoid/moon's) sun. 

Note:  the mummification process could happen in as short a time as a few months.  That would be the lower limit.  The upper limit could conceivably be in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years.  From a purely scientific standpoint, it gets a bit more problematic the longer the geological time.  Would the Jockey spacecraft remain essentially intact over millions of years of being exposed to high winds with potentially ablative grit?  Also, is the planetoid tectonically quiescent?  If not, and it is active, then that poses other problems the longer the time duration (e.g. volcanism, geologic uplift or rifting, etc.)

it's cool that you think with the alienconditions of this habitat! becaus it is a different planet, so it has it's major differences with earth. some of us forget about this; also look away. 

in aliens the derelict also took damage on it's "hammer", since the leaving of the nostromo crew.
maybe caused by a wind blow/tornado or earthquake, we don't know.

what we also don't know is the whole origin of the xenomorph. 

maybe it we're, hundred/thousands/millions (which i doubt) of years before the events of A L I E N, created and the space jockeys, which the prometheus crew is dealing with, could be a ship w/o xenomorph cargo. and it's creation is explained only indirectly. through the fact that we're also been created by them.

even if the xenomorphs we're created since a millennium i don't think that it will be shown like in a pet zoo.
i don't want to see it anyway, when we get a 2001-like feeling. what could brain up a story more, than the pretentious claim to tell the history of men & gods??

i don't mind to see a true origin story about the xenomorph, but we won't see it in prometheus.
in would better fit in an alien 5 movie rather than prometheus 2. 

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

my apologies, on a lot of cold medication. but scott did say that the sector involved will be the same.

The last thing I remember him saying about that was planet Zeta Reticuli that they were going back to. Now is that anything to do with the star system?

[zuzuki]

It's awful if they go back to the same planet just for the sake of it. The derelict that crashed there would have been on a journey from somewhere else. If the humans find info on earth about them,this space jockey civilization why not be info or directions for their home planet? In the trailer the planet on wich they land has a big giant road on wich they drive on. I hope it's the jockey home planet, or something similar, not lv-426

[Master]

It most probably is not Lv-426. It looks very different.

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

It most probably is not Lv-426. It looks very different.

Well, it might just be Ridley being abstract, perhaps "Planet Zeta Reticuli" is a reference to what everything alien in Alien represented

The jockey in Alien is fossilized in the chair.  There isn't enough time between Prometheus and Alien for this to happen.  I think that regardless of what we find out in Prometheus, the derelict on LV-426 is a ship from another time and will probably be continuing to collect dust as the events of Prometheus unfold somewhere else in the universe.

A small correction, if I may...
I've tried to explain this a few times before, but everyone keeps using the term "fossilized", which is wrong.  Yes, I understand that is what Dallas (or was it Kane) said when they saw the Space Jockey, but they were using improper terminology (they weren't scientists, after all... they were essentially merchant marines).  Fossilization is a sedimentary process, in which organic matter is replaced by minerals after being completely covered in sediment...and it takes millions of years.

The Space Jockey was not a "fossil", but rather it had been naturally "mummified" by being exposed to the atmosphere of LV-426, which presumedly is low in oxygen and water (vapor) and extreme cold.

^ People should pay more attention to this.

Maybe the blurred use of "fossilise" is because the term is a synonym of "ossify"

[Deuterium]

Maybe the blurred use of "fossilise" is because the term is a synonym of "ossify"

Ossification is the development or formation of new bone tissue (scientifically and medically speaking) and is a biological process.  It is nothing like the non-biotic fossilization process that occurs in nature.  Merriam Webster's Dictionary lists them as synonyms...but I think that is because the term (ossify) has become misapplied in common, vernacular speech.

[ChrisPachi]

The last thing I remember him saying about that was planet Zeta Reticuli that they were going back to. Now is that anything to do with the star system?

Zeta II Reticuli is not a planet but a binary star system. Essentially it's like our solar system, but instead of one sun there are two suns chasing each other around. 

-Chris

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

The last thing I remember him saying about that was planet Zeta Reticuli that they were going back to. Now is that anything to do with the star system?

Zeta II Reticuli is not a planet but a binary star system. Essentially it's like our solar system, but instead of one sun there are two suns chasing each other around. 

-Chris

You might want to inform Ridley Scott then.

Maybe the blurred use of "fossilise" is because the term is a synonym of "ossify"

Merriam Webster's Dictionary lists them as synonyms...but I think that is because the term (ossify) has become misapplied in common, vernacular speech.

so they become interlinked as synonyms in a Rogets Thesaurus under the word Hardening

[Ucdavisnum1]

It most probably is not Lv-426. It looks very different.

What if the space jockey vehicle crashed and caused a nuclear winter on the planet.  That would explain why lv-426 looked the way it did in "Alien"  remember space jockey individuals are terraformers, or so we are led to believe.  they could have also caused the violent conditions on lv-426.  All I am saying is this.  The trailer clearly shows the human spacecraft landing on a moon orbiting a larger planetoid object.  lv-426 is a moon in the zeta Reticuli system.  Scott said we are returning to that system.  I still say that the "planet" they land on is lv-426, and the derelict spacecraft is the same one that in in alien.

[Xenomorphine]

What if the space jockey vehicle crashed and caused a nuclear winter on the planet.

Even on a planetoid, the sheer energy needed to cause a global version of that is... Quite formidable. Enough to make sure the ship, itself, would be vaporised.

[SM]

The last thing I remember him saying about that was planet Zeta Reticuli that they were going back to. Now is that anything to do with the star system?

Zeta II Reticuli is not a planet but a binary star system. Essentially it's like our solar system, but instead of one sun there are two suns chasing each other around. 

-Chris

Kind of.  Obviously it's not like Tatooine.  The distance from Z1 to Z2 is 3750 AU.  As a comparison Pluto is 40 AU from the Sun.

[ChrisPachi]

Kind of. Obviously it's not like Tatooine. The distance from Z1 to Z2 is 3750 AU.  As a comparison Pluto is 40 AU from the Sun.

It was a pretty loose analogy for sure. The point was that there is no planet called Zeta Reticuli - Lambert uses it as a reference point in space and refers to it correctly as Zeta II Reticuli. If the derelict was found in a region of space close to this system, then it's a good place story-wise to have the SJ home world. As you pointed out, it's a massive system.

-Chris

We seem to have some loose slashes in the OP title. Someone get a PHP hack in here!

[Lord Freezer]

The aesthetic differences are due to design choices? I personally do not think are two different ships...

[wmmvrrvrrmm]

The aesthetic differences are due to design choices? I personally do not think are two different ships...

Absolutely don't know yet if it is due to design choices but that might be a possibility but for fans who might have been sitting on their thoughts about the first Alien movie, it might be a bit of a leap to see such a difference and expect it all to be exactly the same vessel, but others might have different views on that

I don't know how many of these things the space jockeys are supposed to have and if they have more than one how different from one another they would be expected to be.

[Kol]

http://i42.tinypic.com/zxttsx.jpg

The aesthetic differences are due to design choices? I personally do not think are two different ships...

if we declare the ship as a living being, than that would explain the altering process.
but i doubt that's the same ship. but i think, they're more alive then they use to look