Photograph by David A. Aguilar, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophics
It is only a matter of time before we discover life on another planet.
Given the Milky Way is made of billions of stars and the Milky Way is only one of the billions of galaxies in the universe, the odds of life on another planet is pretty believable. The question is though–how long will we need to find that planet. And whether our current technologies will be enough for the mission.
We are making strides though–NASA’s Kepler spacecraft that is on a planet-hunting mission has confirmed eight new worlds, including some with closest similarities to Earth so far. Astronomers at the American Astronomical Society‘s annual winter meeting reported that those eight new worlds are each less than 2.7 times the size of Earth.
Fergal Mullally of the SETI Institute and NASA’s Ames Research Center says, “These candidates represent the closest analogues to the Earth-sun system found to date, and this is what Kepler has been looking for. We are now closer than we have ever been to finding a twin for Earth around a star.”
News like this excites me much, because I dream of a future where the humans have found a home away from home. It is definitely a future full of possibilities.
Read more of the Kepler’s adventures at the National Geographic
S.G. Basu is an aspiring potentate of a galaxy or two. She plots and plans with wondrous machines, cybernetic robots, time travelers and telekinetic adventurers, some of whom escape into the pages of her books. Once upon a previous life on planet Earth, S.G. Basu trained to be an engineer, and her interest in science and her love of engineering shows up time and again in her books.
Leave a Reply