Astronomers have recently located a planet which they believe may be able to support life. They claim that it's the correct distance from its sun for liquid water to exist. They're calling the planet a "Super-Earth" due to the fact that it has a mass of about 7x of our own planet. It's official name is HD 40307g. HD 40307g is estimated to be 42 light years from us, which is close enough that scientists predict near-future technology will be able to directly photograph it.
I personally think this kind of stuff is so much more fun to read about than Romney's victory website accidentally being launched, or that Iran fired at a US drone that entered their airspace.
What do you think about the possibility of alien life? Yes, no, maybe so? I personally think there's no way that in a universe as big as the one we live in, that we're the only ones out there. Call me crazy if you want!
7 comments:
Thanks for the reprieve from politics--I think we could all use the break after months of election and campaign analysis. It's exciting to think that there's a possibility of life out in space, and I hope that scientists will continue searching for it. It only seems reasonable that in such a huge universe, we wouldn't be the only living organisms.
Kind of puts politics into perspective, actually.
I agree with Shannon that it is nice to get away from the political jargon from the 2012 election now that it is over. The ads were overwhelming. However, I disagree that this is more interesting than the drone attack since it is more applicable to our lives than a random planet far off in space.
Anyway, I find it is interesting that scientists have finally found an Earth-like planet. I doubt that life on that planet is developed to the point of human-level intelligence a la War of the Worlds or The Tripods. I feel that it is premature to accept that life exists on that planet since we only know that it exists as of now. Personally, the best we can hope for right now is that some random specks of bacteria exist on that planet.
However, if there is life on that planet, we should avoid contact with them. When Columbus came to America, he brought diseases that wiped out the Native Americans and Europeans eventually took over the land. Stephen Hawking would agree with this sentiment. If intelligent aliens exist, I suspect they would have similar imperialist tendencies and try to take resources from our planet. Of course, this is assuming they can actually make it to our planet.
We are in no hurry to find other living organisms. There are unprecedented amounts of unknown species on this planet that we do not know about and we can still search for. Besides, our technology is not advancing at a fast enough rate that our generation can hope to explore that Super-Earth.
Besides, our military is totally prepared in the case of an invasion
In conclusion, this is an interesting find but I doubt this will have any worthwhile application to our lives here on Earth, unless aliens decide to declare war on us anytime soon. However, as John F. Kennedy said, "The US Airforce assures me that UFO's pose no threat to National Security."
Indeed, if this planet had intelligent life it would make an interesting talking point for 2016 foreign policy discussion. Maybe something as cataclysmic as a close encounter with the third kind would get partisans to work together in congress toward a common goal of saving humanity from impending doom!
If this planet indeed has all necessary elements to support life, then I see no reason to doubt that there is life on that planet. I personally believe its naive to assume that our Earth is the only capable planet that has actually cultured life forms. In addition, just because scientist know the necessary components for life on our planet, there could be life forms out there that need completely different things in order to survive. Lastly, I must agree with Wyatt. Once we photograph this planet and if we discover life, we definitely should look into discussing this in foreign affairs.
I have to agree with the common consensus that if there is another planet that has the ability to support life, then there is no reason why it wouldn't. If an alien species was discovered, the method in which not just the US, but the entire world, handled the situation would be interesting to watch. Though, like Matt's comparison of the situation to that of Columbus and the New World, we should figure out what we would be getting ourselves into before trying to have any sort of contact with the extraterrestrials. This would open up a whole new branch of politics. However, until the life is confirmed, we can only speculate what else is out there in the universe.
I think it is impossible that Earth would be the only place that could harbor life. There are just too many other places with the opportunity to harbor life.
While it may be a good idea to avoid actual contact I don't think communication should be avoided. I think there would be so much new science to learn from other forms of life. I would be fascinating to see the differences in how they evolved and the society they have created. The life on that planet could be far behind or ahead of us in terms of evolution so being able to compare would be so beneficial to our scientific knowledge.
Discussions regarding life outside of Earth never cease to give me the chills, predominantly because they remind me of the vast, unknown universe of which we comprise a minuscule part. Despite being seemingly unrelated, this subject does tie into politics. Extraterrestrial life would certainly carry foreign policy into a whole new spectrum, as others have mentioned. Though perhaps we would be warned of impending attacks a few light years before they would happen.
Post a Comment