Where is everybody?
February 19, 2008
“BBC news is reporting that rocky planets, possibly with conditions suitable for life, may be more common than previously thought in our galaxy, a study has found. New evidence suggests more than half the Sun-like stars in the Milky Way could have similar planetary systems. There may also be hundreds of undiscovered worlds in outer parts of our Solar System, astronomers believe. Future studies of such worlds will radically alter our understanding of how planets are formed, they say.”
Well, that’s nice. Of course, even if it were true (which we do not know, mind), it’s not exactly the end of the inquiry, is it? I mean, just because a planet might be able to support life does not mean that life arose on that planet. And even if life did arise on that planet, that doesn’t necessarily mean that sentient or sapient life arose on that planet — finding extraterrestrial plants would be cool for a while, but at the end of the day alien cabbage will be every bit as boring as Earth cabbage.
And the fact of the matter is, from what we can observe, the galaxy is a very quiet place — at least in terms of our ability to detect indications, by way of radio signals, of other advanced civilizations in other regions of space. Maybe it’s just a matter of time — perhaps they haven’t been broadcasting long enough for the signals to reach us. Or maybe it’s not — maybe we are alone, at least as a sapient species.
Still, learning more about stellar evolution and planetary formation is always a source of interest and fascination for a guy like me, so all power to these researchers in their quest for knowledge.
