Astronomy and astrobiology has come a long way in just the last few years.
There are all those recently confirmed exoplanets, this number is at 2000 right now and of course the discovery of what scientists call "Earth like planets".
For me, the biggest discovery in recent years is the fact that scientists now assume that every star (!) has a planet system. I was told that by an astronomer and was baffled since this was something I didn't know yet.
But ok, let us do a little fantasy game here.
Let's take "Kepler 452b", this recently discovered "Earth's older cousin" which is probably the most "Earth-like" planet we found to date.
Let's imagine that we built a space-ship and this space ship is on the way to Kepler 452b.(The fact that this planet is 1,400ly away we can conveniently ignore, let's assume we found some technology where this distance wouldn't matter).
So, let's speculate we are going to this "Earth's cousin" since we're not 100 sure about whether there is life there, and let's assume we need this mission to find out.
So, in your mind we're on this space ship and we traveled some time, and now it's getting close to approach. (You can see this mysterious Kepler452 from your window when you look out from the ship).
The planet comes in sight and its true, it's really "Earth's cousin", this becomes immediately clear since everyone can see land masses, water, even the shimmer of an atmosphere. It really looks like a second Earth and you can barely wait until the ship descents and the planet can be explored.
Now, in our minds, let's imagine how this second Earth might look. You see mountain ranges, oceans, clouds. You can see there is weather in the atmosphere, rain, storms etc. You see large landmasses and small islands.
My question is now, once you realize that this planet is Earth's cousin/twin, how high are the odds that you will NOT find any form of life?
How high are the odds that you have a planet which is in the right distance to a star with the right temperatures, which looks similar to Earth, which has water and an atmosphere and this planet does not have one single living cell or anything remotely organic on it?
Wouldn't the complete lack of life be much less likely than expecting the obvious, that upon landing on the planet you would also find, say plants and then of course whatever types of "animals"?
This mind-play is interesting since, IMHO, it's now on an entirely different background as, say, just 20-30 years ago where just the idea of an "Earth-like planet" was science fiction. But now this is scientific fact and puts things in a different perspective..aka...this idea of life on another planet should now be a lot less outlandish than back then.
But..let's continue this.
If we know realize that the odds for life on such a planet really should be quite high and we accept (mentally), say, that plants and mammals really might be living on such a planet, THEN we can also make the mental jump and make an entirely scientific and sane assumption that there could also be an entire civilization living on the planet. (The mental jump from assuming, say, some type of mammals jumping around on the planet and then also assuming a civilization on the planet is NOT far fetched, especially since we know that Kepler452b is 1.5B years older than Earth)
This is not some random "life on other planets?" thread because there sure exist many where people normally argue the pros and cons, abiogenesis, "the odds", evolution...and last but not least religion.
It is more like..the realization that "planets like Earth" *do* exist and that we have confirmation about this..and how this might affect our thinking and acceptance of life elsewhere.
If you ask me, if I were part of this mission to this planet and I would step out and it looks all awesome like a second Earth...but I find in experiments there is no single living organism/cell...I would be highly perplexed. For me, the logical consequence would be there must be life too.
So...the idea of approaching such a planet and then all-of-a-sudden facing, say, the "Kepler452b" equivalent of, say, cities, buildings and maybe even, let's fantasize, some Kepler452b-ish FastFood-chain outlet sitting near a road that you spot from your ship becomes indeed "more likely" just from the realization that planet's "like Earth" do exist. (The "timing problem" that if two civilizations would meet and that they need to meet "just at the right time", and not billions of years "out of sync" I also conveniently leave out here).
**
Edit, sorry to make this even longer.
I added a catchy subtitle with "Taco Bell on Kepler452b" so you see where I am going there (and for entertainment purposes).
Yes of course, there won't be a "Taco Bell" and there also won't be "Mexican" food.
But if we assume a high probability of life and therefore a likelihood for "civilization" as well, the question is whether such a civilization would also at some point have incorporated things such as a language, an economy, trade etc. And if we go there with this "mind game", then the idea of a fastfood outlet on Kepler452 is indeed not too far off.
Of course it wouldn't be "Taco Bell", let's say it's called "Burblefatz" or whatever. And right now, in one of the Burblefatz joints there might be sitting some Kepleranians and having the same debate about possible life on other planets while eating some Ujitos from the Amburian region together with a Frizzlebuzz drink. The question is..how far fetched is thinking like this?
There are all those recently confirmed exoplanets, this number is at 2000 right now and of course the discovery of what scientists call "Earth like planets".
For me, the biggest discovery in recent years is the fact that scientists now assume that every star (!) has a planet system. I was told that by an astronomer and was baffled since this was something I didn't know yet.
But ok, let us do a little fantasy game here.
Let's take "Kepler 452b", this recently discovered "Earth's older cousin" which is probably the most "Earth-like" planet we found to date.
Let's imagine that we built a space-ship and this space ship is on the way to Kepler 452b.(The fact that this planet is 1,400ly away we can conveniently ignore, let's assume we found some technology where this distance wouldn't matter).
So, let's speculate we are going to this "Earth's cousin" since we're not 100 sure about whether there is life there, and let's assume we need this mission to find out.
So, in your mind we're on this space ship and we traveled some time, and now it's getting close to approach. (You can see this mysterious Kepler452 from your window when you look out from the ship).
The planet comes in sight and its true, it's really "Earth's cousin", this becomes immediately clear since everyone can see land masses, water, even the shimmer of an atmosphere. It really looks like a second Earth and you can barely wait until the ship descents and the planet can be explored.
Now, in our minds, let's imagine how this second Earth might look. You see mountain ranges, oceans, clouds. You can see there is weather in the atmosphere, rain, storms etc. You see large landmasses and small islands.
My question is now, once you realize that this planet is Earth's cousin/twin, how high are the odds that you will NOT find any form of life?
How high are the odds that you have a planet which is in the right distance to a star with the right temperatures, which looks similar to Earth, which has water and an atmosphere and this planet does not have one single living cell or anything remotely organic on it?
Wouldn't the complete lack of life be much less likely than expecting the obvious, that upon landing on the planet you would also find, say plants and then of course whatever types of "animals"?
This mind-play is interesting since, IMHO, it's now on an entirely different background as, say, just 20-30 years ago where just the idea of an "Earth-like planet" was science fiction. But now this is scientific fact and puts things in a different perspective..aka...this idea of life on another planet should now be a lot less outlandish than back then.
But..let's continue this.
If we know realize that the odds for life on such a planet really should be quite high and we accept (mentally), say, that plants and mammals really might be living on such a planet, THEN we can also make the mental jump and make an entirely scientific and sane assumption that there could also be an entire civilization living on the planet. (The mental jump from assuming, say, some type of mammals jumping around on the planet and then also assuming a civilization on the planet is NOT far fetched, especially since we know that Kepler452b is 1.5B years older than Earth)
This is not some random "life on other planets?" thread because there sure exist many where people normally argue the pros and cons, abiogenesis, "the odds", evolution...and last but not least religion.
It is more like..the realization that "planets like Earth" *do* exist and that we have confirmation about this..and how this might affect our thinking and acceptance of life elsewhere.
If you ask me, if I were part of this mission to this planet and I would step out and it looks all awesome like a second Earth...but I find in experiments there is no single living organism/cell...I would be highly perplexed. For me, the logical consequence would be there must be life too.
So...the idea of approaching such a planet and then all-of-a-sudden facing, say, the "Kepler452b" equivalent of, say, cities, buildings and maybe even, let's fantasize, some Kepler452b-ish FastFood-chain outlet sitting near a road that you spot from your ship becomes indeed "more likely" just from the realization that planet's "like Earth" do exist. (The "timing problem" that if two civilizations would meet and that they need to meet "just at the right time", and not billions of years "out of sync" I also conveniently leave out here).
**
Edit, sorry to make this even longer.
I added a catchy subtitle with "Taco Bell on Kepler452b" so you see where I am going there (and for entertainment purposes).
Yes of course, there won't be a "Taco Bell" and there also won't be "Mexican" food.
But if we assume a high probability of life and therefore a likelihood for "civilization" as well, the question is whether such a civilization would also at some point have incorporated things such as a language, an economy, trade etc. And if we go there with this "mind game", then the idea of a fastfood outlet on Kepler452 is indeed not too far off.
Of course it wouldn't be "Taco Bell", let's say it's called "Burblefatz" or whatever. And right now, in one of the Burblefatz joints there might be sitting some Kepleranians and having the same debate about possible life on other planets while eating some Ujitos from the Amburian region together with a Frizzlebuzz drink. The question is..how far fetched is thinking like this?
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