New Planet Discovery and Humanity’s Future in Space

Scientists have discovered a new planet!

Yes, that headline is not entirely new. It is even becoming sadly commonplace, to the point that most people, in browsing their Sunday New York Times article on the matter, may briefly glance at the headline bemusedly before flipping the page to see the latest sports news or what their stocks were doing.

What is new, however, is that the discovering scientists say this planet is Earth-like.

What is an Earth-like planet?

What do they mean ‘Earth-like’? Well, up to now, most of the planets that have been discovered outside our solar system have been large, gaseous planets, more like Jupiter than Earth. This planet, however, is smaller, just a little bigger than Earth. It appears to be rocky, rather than gaseous. Finally, the planet seems to have moderate temperatures, more in line with those of Earth. So far, this planet has the best chance of containing liquid water of any extrasolar planet yet discovered. And has the best chance of supporting life.

There is no evidence at all to suggest that life exists on that planet, simply that the planet has the most friendly environment to life that scientists have yet discovered.

When can we go there?

All this is right around the corner, cosmically speaking. Scientists discovered the planet, which they have romantically named Gliese 581 c, in the constelation Libra, orbiting a nearby star, one of our closest neighbors and only a scant 20 lightyears or so away.

What does this mean for us now? Well, we can’t exactly go there. It would take over two decades to get there traveling at light speed, which at this point we have exactly zero capability to do. In miles, it is approximately 117 … what’s after trillion? Oh, yes, quadrillion … 117 quadrillion miles away. So, a quick google check of the math says that speeding in your car at 80 miles per hour (radar detector on and watching for speed traps along the way) it would take approximately 167,654,157 years to get there — not counting for bathroom breaks.

But we now know that there are not only other planets outside our solar system, but other Earth-like planets. There are other places in the universe that could conceivably support life, or even support us. Obviously it’s a long road away, but we may be able to someday see the day that humanity lives on more than one planet, even more than one solar system.

No it won’t happen tomorrow, maybe not even in your lifetime. We still need to find a superfast way to travel great distances across space. But scientists are working on it, and maybe someday humans will touch the stars as well as the moon.

This article is over, you can flip to the sports page, now.

Please, share and Enjoy: