When I was in grade school, in the 1950s, in New York City, I remember quite clearly being taught, in no uncertain terms, that there was nothing special about the earth, the sun, or the solar system. We were just one typical system out of millions, and definitely not the center of the universe.
That is still true. But then again . . .
The Kepler satellite (launched by NASA in 2009) was designed to search for “exoplanets”—planets around stars other than our own sun—and to astronomers’ surprise, thousands of these planets have now been found and studied (an amazing amount of information can be gleaned from starlight!). While all are interesting, none of them resemble Earth in any key parameter.
If you’re a fan of How the Universe Works on The Science Channel, then you know that for a long time, and bit by bit, it is becoming clearer that our solar system and in particular the planet Earth, are indeed very special. No solar system and no other “earthlike planet” come even close to our unique combination of characteristics. Earth has a molten iron core whose rotation creates a magnetic field that protects the entire planet from cosmic radiation and keeps our atmosphere from drifting out to space; our large moon stabilizes our rotation; the moon also gives us tides and seasons, which are essential for the development of life; our distance from the sun permits water to exist in three states—and on and on. Every one of these is very unusual. Almost no exoplanet has any of them.
I mention this to call your attention to an article in the current Scientific American,dated September 2018, in which writer John Gribbin (author of Alone in the Universe) lays out in great detail, very clearly, and without any scientific jargon, how the Earth is unique and why it is unlikely that there is any other technological civilization like ours anywhere else in the Milky Way Galaxy.
If we are alone in the galaxy, and inhabit a startlingly unusual planet, then what does that say about our moral responsibilities to each other, as the sole intelligence in a galaxy that contains more than 100 billion stars—and as the caretakers of a uniquely wonderful home?
I agree. It seems as if every time they discover an earthlike planet, they find another reason why we won't find life there, and correspondingly, another unique characteristic of earth that makes life possible. For a while, there was hope that planets in the "goldilocks zone" of red dwarf stars might have life. And red dwarves last longer than stars like ours. However, a planet in that position will become tidally locked, one side always facing the star. Plus red dwarves put out awful solar flares that would scour the planet of atmosphere and life. The chemical composition of a solar system can be off, like not enough phosphorus. What do we make of this? Good news: we're unique. Bad news: its rather lonely.
ReplyDeleteHow many space movies have we seen in which intrepid explorers/survivors from earth put themselves in cryo-sleep in pods aboard a spaceship which is silently traveling at warp speed through endless light years? And finally reach their destination, a remarkably earthlike planet which will become their new home. If we didn't know it was a fantasy before, now we do. There isn't any plan B for humankind's survival if we wreck plan A.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I have always felt that efforts by scientists to attempt communication with other sentient being which might be out there was ill advised (if there actually were any to intercept our signals). There isn't a good track record for groups of people getting discovered by more powerful, more technologically advanced civilizations and having things work out well for them. Just ask the Native Americans.
I have seen a cartoon lately in which aliens message us: "Dear earth people, please stop sending us naked pictures of yourselves and directions to your home. It's creepy!"
Katherine, that's basically Chinese scifi writer Cixin Liu's premise. The aliens send back a message:
DeleteWe're coming.
See you in 400 years.
When we arrive, we'll exterminate you.
Personally, I'm not too worried. Projecting power over the Atlantic was doable. But over vast interstellar distances and with the diffuculty of even near lightspeed travel, projecting power is difficult. I am thinking of reading Liu's book though.
Stanley, never underestimate the power of Chinese hoaxes. Look at what one of them is about to do to South Carolina.
DeleteHaha, Tom. 1 billion Chinese turning on their electric fans at the same time.
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ReplyDeleteBut seriously: "If we are alone in the galaxy, and inhabit a startlingly unusual planet, then what does that say about our moral responsibilities to each other..."
ReplyDeleteI FEEL that. But given those billions and billions and billions... I worry that during some future millennium they'll think about us thinking that the way we think of ancient tribes seeing a smoking volcano and blaming it on an angry god. The way to avoid being laughed at in some future millennium is, I am afraid, to protect this planet on the basis of our moral responsibility to each other regardless of whether anyone lives elsewhere.
I don't think our obligation to our planet or each other changes, even if it turns out there is human-like life everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI recommend Ken Kalfus's speculative novel, Equilateral, for those interested in the intense human curiosity about and fear of the possibility that we are not alone.
Though alien life in the vicinity of our galaxy is looking less probable, I think that if we want to get an idea of what that life is like by looking at octopi and cuttlefish. Their nervous systems developed totally separately from our own, developing from rock bottom. Their physical form could not be more different. But mentally, we see fear, concern for young, anger, curiosity, aspects strangely similar to our own and the other vertebrates. My bet is that, if it's out there, the inner life of aliens will be surprisingly similar to our own.
ReplyDeleteThis is all pretty interesting. To a point Stanley made: I guess, if/when we find sentient beings elsewhere, it won't be like those Star Wars tavern scenes where the aliens have exotic faces but all have two arms, two legs, opposable thumbs, walk upright and are dressed in outer-space-y outfits.
ReplyDeleteFor God to create a creation of this vastness ... just for us? It all seems a little ... inefficient. I guess the logical conclusion is that it's not just for us, it's for him. He's the artist, and these hundreds of billions of stars and galaxies and so on are what he has painted and scraped on his canvas. We're a single little brushstroke on that canvas. If that's the right way to think about it, then our moral responsibility for the care of our own little terrestial rock is out of reverence for him as much as obligations to one another. For us to continue on our current path would be the equivalent of splashing a few drops of paint remover on the Mona Lisa - maybe not fatal to the overall work, but still a grievous marring of what previously was more perfect.
To follow exoplanet research and the search for other life, this is NASA's website.
ReplyDeletehttps://exoplanets.nasa.gov
Gribbin’s article in Scientific American is quite detailed about a lot of issues and I made no effort to summarize it. But in regard to possible civilizations in other systems: He argues that for various technical reasons, we would be among the first lifeforms to evolve with the intelligence to develop a technological civilization.
ReplyDeleteAmong Gribbin’s reasons are that we could not exist without the heavy metals that are created in supernovas but supernovas create them in small quantities. It is only now, at this stage of the universe (after 13.8 billion years), that there are enough heavy metals to begin to play a role in evolution. In other words, we may well be the first beings to achieve intelligence and technology.
That points to another special thing about Earth. In most planets, the heavy metals will sink to the core, which means that they are unavailable for technological innovation. Because Earth has plate tectonics, we have a mechanism to bring iron, copper, silicon, etc. to the surface where we can mine them, refine them, and use them to build our houses, machines, and infrastructure.
Sadly we have to accept that it is unlikely that we have any alien comrades, friendly or not, to exchange phone numbers with.
Well, somebody has to be first. It could just as likely be us. Question is,can we keep this reflective consciousness thing going or will we snuff ourselves out?
DeleteAnd here's an interesting tidbit for the X-Files crowd to think about.
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