More than 50 new alien planets — including one so-called super-Earth that could potentially support life — have been discovered by an exoplanet-hunting telescope from the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
The newfound haul of alien planets includes 16 super-Earths, which are potentially rocky worlds that are more massive than our planet. One in particular – called HD 85512 b – has captured astronomers’ attention because it orbits at the edge of its star’s habitable zone, suggesting conditions could be ripe to support life.
Well that’s exciting. And hey, it’s only 35 light years away! That means if we ever figure out a way to travel at the speed of light, which we won’t, we can put a bunch of babies on a space ship and they can go check it out and report back when they’re old. Provided the space ship that travels at the speed of light also can sustain human life for 70 years, of course.
I was driving north on the Sprain Brook Parkway on Saturday, looking at the pavement and the mild automobile congestion and the roadkill and the trees looming over the highway, when I decided there must be other life somewhere in our universe.
How arrogant are we to ever think otherwise? There are about 400 billion other stars in our galaxy, and maybe 400 billion other galaxies with that many stars. One recent estimate suggests there are 300 sextillion stars in the universe. That’s 300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
And you want to tell me this here, that Ford Explorer speeding over the remains of what was probably a raccoon, is the best the universe can offer? I don’t buy it.
Tedquarters 