Joined: 06 Dec 2004
Posts: 910
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<b>Anybody home out there?</b>
OUR neighbors out there dusted off old-fashioned digital technology, unused for centuries, and sent the message. "We understand that death is still a problem in your world. Try this." Scientists did, and death took a holiday from planet Earth.
Scenarios about contact with advanced extra-terrestrial civilizations sound far-fetched. However, they are the real promise behind discoveries like Tuesday's reported detection of the most Earth-like planet ever found in outer space.
Astronomers already had detected about 150 other planets orbiting stars outside our solar system. However, this one seems different. Other extra-solar planets are much larger than Earth and consist of gases.
The new planet may be first in a new class that astronomers term "rocky, terrestrial planets." It is smaller, and has a solid surface. The unnamed planet orbits Gliese 876, a sun-like star in the constellation Aquarius, about 15 light-years from Earth. That's a hike, since a light-year is almost 6 trillion miles.
Astronomers were a little too enthusiastic, to be sure, when they termed it "Earth's cousin." Don't expect any azure-blue seas, green forests, or snow-capped mountains. With surface temperatures an oven-hot 400-700 degrees Fahrenheit, life is unlikely. Some bacteria on Earth do thrive at extreme temperatures, however, so who knows?
You've got to have a cosmic-sized ego to think Earth is the only planet with advanced forms of life. After all, our star - the sun - is only one of 100 billion in the Milky Way galaxy. There may be 100 billion galaxies in the universe. By one estimate, that means 10 million billion planets.
Countless stars may have planets with life, and some civilizations must be thousands of years more advanced than us. There are other possibilities. All civilizations may be doomed from the start, advancing only to the point of discovering nuclear weapons or genetic engineering. Then, inevitably, they may self-destruct.
Somewhere, orbiting stars like Gliese 876, there may be advanced civilizations that long ago solved Earth's most difficult medical, scientific, and technological problems. Contact with them might be precious, bringing knowledge that couldn't be bought with $100 billion billion in research funding.
That possibility, remote though it seems, is a powerful argument for investing research money in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) and extra-solar planets. (<b>Source: toledoblade.com</b>) |
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