so what if we actually do overcome the challenge of interstellar space travel, where would we go? would go to our nearest galaxy Andromeda, or set out for new solar systems. It seems like a second earth may not be so far off, there is talk of other water/dirt planets on the outer reaches of our solar system. they are roughly the same size as our earth and are near the Oort cloud. the problem is that they are frozen, so i guess all we need to is defrost one... yet another challenge. but what about other planetary systems, isn't there anywhere else in the universe that is as favorable as earth? one potential find was Gliese 581 about 120 trillion miles away. the star there is a lot smaller (artistic view of gilese 581)
and dimmer then ours but it could possibly be habitable according to NASA astrobiology expert Chris McKay. Its temperature and contents are similar to that of earth, but no life is expected to be on it. But still, this planet has the possibility to be habitable, its situation is still no where near as favorable as earth. from my research, no planet like Earth has ever been discovered, making me feel a bit smaller in this universe.
3 comments:
Instead of leaving the solar system to find Earth-like planets, a more feasable idea would be to Terraform some of the planets in our current Solar system. That is, using future technology to make the planet hospitable. This same process would make many more extra-solar planets eligible for human life. If you're interested, the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson is an excellent set of books about the gradual terraformation of Mars.
Personally, I think we are fine where we are for now and that there isn't a need to move to another earth-like planet. But this is a very interesting find since there are almost no recorded finds of other eath-liike planets. For me, I would look forward to interstellar travel for more aesthetic reasons. For example, wouldn't it be amazing to have photographs of a red giant close up? Space is quite vast and is full of spectacles that will leave us in awe.
I would be more keen on studying our own galaxy before moving on to other ones and into open universe. If interstellar travel was indeed possible I believe the first thing we should do is to make friends with any neighboring solar system that has intellegent life.
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