Scientists connected with NASA's Kepler space telescope have announced the discovery of a planet orbiting a Sun-like star that may resemble our own world. Its name is Kepler-22b.
No, it's not Earth's identical twin -- it's not a doppelganger of our planetary home. Kepler-22b is somewhat more than twice the diameter of Earth. But it orbits in the so-called "habitable zone" of its home star, where temperatures will be to biology's liking. Of the many candidate worlds uncovered by Kepler, this is the one with the best shot for having a thick atmosphere and a landscape lacquered by watery oceans.
Cutting to the chase, of all the many new planets found in the last 16 years, Kepler-22b may be the most likely to have inhabitants. And if it is, prepare to ratchet down your self-image.
Despite the non-stop presence of mostly mindless aliens on television and in the movies, real extraterrestrials remain elusive. We've yet to uncover convincing evidence of any biology on worlds beyond our own. That includes furrow-faced Klingons, but also less imposing, bacteria-style microbes. As of today, you -- and the flora and fauna that veneer the Earth -- are the only known life in the cosmos. You are incredibly exceptional.
But Kepler's relentless discoveries could ensure that your generation is the last one making that statement with a straight face.
Two decades ago, astronomers were uncertain whether solar systems -- small fraternities of planets and moons -- were common hangers-on to stars. But data from the first 18 months of Kepler telescope operations have turned up 2,200 candidate detections -- indications of possible planets. Not all of these candidates will prove to be real planets, but most will. That includes Kepler-22b.
Discovering thousands of planets sounds impressive. But it's only a prologue to a far larger story. Extrapolating the results from searches of the past 16 years, it's safe to say that the vast majority of stars are ringed by planets. Indeed, the best guess is that the tally of planets in our own galaxy is approximately a trillion.
Kepler results also suggest that most of these plentiful orbs are small -- not the bloated, Jupiter-like objects that were so often bagged by planet hunters in the past. Of the Kepler candidates reported so far, roughly 40 percent are worlds no more than twice the diameter of Earth. Because of the way in which the space-based telescope collects its evidence, that percentage will surely grow with time. Small, rocky planets -- the type most interesting to scientists looking for life -- rule the cosmic roost.
The fraction of these newly discovered worlds thought to be habitable is modest -- perhaps a few out of every hundred. The percentage of worlds that are similar to our own is smaller still. Nonetheless, it's already reasonable to imagine that Kepler-22b has a billion siblings in our galaxy: a billion other Earth-like worlds threading the vast tracts of the Milky Way.
Of course, location is not everything. A habitable planet -- even one that's similar to Earth -- is not necessarily inhabited, any more than a city filled with bars is necessarily fraught with fist fights. But the smart money would say that it is. Similarly, worlds where life could spring up are obviously abundant. So the contention that biology is also abundant is hardly rash.
In light of these results, it's difficult to imagine that Earthly life is the only life. That would be more than bragging; it would be tantamount to declaring our planet a miracle.
To settle these matters, scientists are keen to scrutinize Kepler-22b (and other habitable worlds) more carefully, looking for such telltale biological markers as atmospheric oxygen or methane. Unfortunately, the sorts of space-based telescopes that could uncover signs of metabolism elsewhere are biding their time in development labs, not in space.
But those who seek signs of intelligent life aren't waiting. A preliminary search for radio signals from Kepler-22b using the Allen Telescope Array in Northern California is already underway. So far, they've heard only silence. But it's early days: There are billions of radio channels still to be examined.
So here's how it is: As of now, we're still special. We can still claim to be the crown of creation and the only living entities in a boundless universe. But Kepler-22b is one more step down a road that may soon take us to a new place, and a new mind-set. If the continuing search for biology beyond Earth bears fruit, our descendants will be forever different: no longer extraordinarily special, but also not hauntingly alone.
Seth Shostak: They're Not Meat
Athena Andreadis, Ph.D.: Slouching To The Right Of The Drake Equation
Marshall Fine: Movie Review: Melancholia
Life reproduces, introducing variation. Many of those variations will be better equipped to fill a previously vacant niche in the environment. Eventually giving rise to entirely differentiated species, and species lines. This is basic Evolution Theory. It takes a long time, when occurring naturally, but what of directed, or even simply accelerated evolution?
We have in fact religious and other taboos concerning biological and/or technological modification of our bodies. But it isn't stopping us, and we now commonly envision scenarios where it might be necessary, or just plain desirable.
And if you could say, pass on your newly installed ability to see in the infra-red spectrum to your children, why then, they'd be more likely to get this or that job, because they have an unusual ability, or because it's now just standard, and you don't want a half-blind child that will be left behind the curve. Now run that thought forward 1000 years. 10,000 years. A million years.
We should all be prepared for the fact that our descendants, and any other species we may meet, may consist of dozens of species, with hundreds of sub-species, all claiming the same world of origin, if not the same homeworld.
Many might not even any longer know their origins or care about them, and would be wholly alien, or even unknown to each other, depending on events.
Much as natives, in the boon docks of Papua New Guinea, may be totally oblivious of what lies but a few hours sky ride away.
"You are incredibly exceptional"
in terms of naivety.
"Discovering thousands of planets sounds impressive."
But our existence is not dependant upon some form of intelligence there knowing of us. Any more than some other form of life would be dependant upon us knowing of them.
"So here's how it is"
If we have not already been found . Our current behaviour suggests that we will be long gone, before we are.
Oxygen in the atmosphere in its current proportions is a result of oxygen producing plant-life on this planet, but it has most certainly not been a pre-requirement for plant-life on this planet. The most we can conclude is that higher life forms, as we are currently aware of them, require free oxygen in the atmosphere.
What I am trying to say, I think, is that it is evolutionarily predictable that a life form with even rudimentary self-awareness would value itself. If it did not, it would not take actions to preserve itself, and thus, it would not be part of the gene pool
Wouldn't that be nice?
We are Stardust, but Caught in the Devil's Bargain.
Who sez dare'z no room fer Religion?"
There is some scientific evidence that brain patterns among most Asian peoples have developed slightly differently than Western peoples. Perhaps that explains why billions of them have not found the need to cling to religion in order to feel comfortable in the world.
The fact is, 95% of UFO sightings can be explained as ordinary phenomena or military aircraft, the remaining 5% cannot.¹ After more than 60 years of credible sightings of UFOs by military generals, pilots, astronauts, government officials,² and even U.S. Presidents, it's time to move past the giggle factor and call for a proper investigation—people from all countries can do so by signing this White House petition: http://wh.gov/jeK
¹Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) website [French equivalent of NASA], « Les OVNI et la défense : À quoi doit-on se préparer ? » [COMETA Report], http://goo.gl/ZwHUk , English translation: http://goo.gl/fbs59 (Part 1), http://goo.gl/ILZ0v (Part 2)
²Leslie Kean, "UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record" (2010), http://ufosontherecord.com , Documentary adaptation: http://goo.gl/oU1x8
With 7 billion inhabitants projected to reach 9 billion by 2050 we're hardly alone.
Truly, this "Christmas planet"--so designated by William Borucki of NASA Ames Research Center--is an appropriate name for Kepler-22b, a renewal of the potential hope, perhaps, that we are no longer alone and adrift, no longer just a "speck-on-a-speck" in a long forgotten corner of the vastness of space, but someone with a friend, however remote.
What about the Herschel Space Observatory? According to wiki, its primary areas of investigation include: chemical composition of atmospheres and surfaces of Solar System bodies, including planets, comets and moons; molecular chemistry across the universe.
Herschel Space Observatory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herschel_Space_Observatory