Wow… what a week for
science, eh? In addition to the other dozens of exoplanets discovered “out
there”, seven new planets were discovered orbiting a relatively close star,
TRAPPIST-1, only forty light years away!
Even more remarkable
is the fact that three of the seven are located in what’s called the habitable
zone, that ring around any given star where water can exist in its liquid
form―liquid water is essential to the development of life―“as we know
it.”
These planets are
roughly the same size as Earth, possibly older than Earth, so…this begs the
question…is there life around TRAPPIST-1?
If so, is it just
primordial, single-celled creatures in a soup of life, or mere microbes?
How deep does your
imagination run?
Perhaps they are
closer in development to Neanderthal man?
Could they be as
advanced as we were in say, 1939, living in great cities, in command of
electricity, dominating their seas, and flying through their
atmosphere?
Or, just maybe, they
are more advanced than we. Perhaps they already know about us, their instruments
having detected our solar system a millennium ago. Who knows that they haven’t
been listening to our transmissions, even visiting us since eons past―and are
still?
Then why have they not
contacted us? Sent us a signal of some kind?
What if a massive
solar flare, or a collision with a comet, or―war, laid waste their once mighty
civilization, and all that is to be found on their world is the skeleton of a
once learned, cultured people, now lost for all time.
Were they advanced
enough to hedge against such an eventuality? Had they outposts on one of the
other worlds of TRAPPIST-1? Perhaps colonies far outside their own solar system?
The nearest habitable world to theirs lay a mere forty light years away.
Did they come here in
man’s distant past? Did they build the pyramids found around the world, were
they the builders of Machu Pichu, Teotihuacan, and Angkor Wat? Are we the last
vestige of their civilization?
Or maybe…they are on
their way here now? A vast armada moving at near-light speed toward a
technologically inferior species with the goal of conquest and
genocide?
It may be possible
that they launched an ark, a vessel containing the DNA of every life form on
their world? And should we discover it, would it be wise to open that Pandora’s
box?
Are the lines between
science, science-fiction, and fantasy beginning to blur? No less a mind than
Stephen Hawking warned mankind, “It is perfectly rational to assume intelligent
life exists elsewhere. If aliens visit us, I believe the outcome would be much
as when Columbus landed in the Americas.” Which, as we all know, didn't turn out
well for the Native Americans.
This is the dystopian
view.
Another view is that
the more advanced a civilization is the less violent, and the more curious.
Aliens might very well turn out to be an altruistic race, come to learn and to
share their knowledge.
If the decades-long
rash of UFO sightings is any indicator, then they are more like Captain Kirk
following his prime directive; observe, do not interfere. And like Captain Kirk,
doing a lousy job of it.
Seven new worlds. But
this is nothing compared to all we have thus far located in a patch of sky no
larger than a postage stamp held at arm’s length. Weekly, it seems, dozens of
planets from this “tiny” spot are added to the exoplanet database. At this
writing, there are 3,453 confirmed planets, and another 4,696 Kepler
candidates.
It is likely we will
know the answers to the questions posed above sooner than we might
suppose.
Watch the
skies.
And pick up Books I and II of The Unborn Galaxy -- while there's still time.
LOL - great hook... "...while there's still time". *grin*
ReplyDeleteThank you Kaye. I hope you've been hooked. :)
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