As I spoke to NASA’s chief scientist about a potentially habitable planet 120 light-years from our own, I found myself thinking about my father and his telescope.
The headline is flat wrong. It would be closer to the truth to say, "Astronomers May Have Found a Planet Hospitable to Life." But being hospitable (and even that is still far from clear) is a long way from actual evidence of life, of which there is none. There are many ways to define the "habitable zone," and the odds are high that this planet, while it may fit some definitions, fails others and will prove to be in the end uninhabitable by life as we know it.
I had a friend at college who, unfortunately, passed away a few years ago at a young age. Besides being very smart and witty, he was hard to forget because his name was Rob Klingon.
His father's college roommate was a guy named Gene Roddenberry.
Their mailbox in front of their house had to be replaced every month or two because as soon as they put up the box with, "The Klingons" on it, it was invariably stolen.
I'm glad to see the FP writing more about public science, space in particular. I care not only as a reader and a citizen that journalism maintains and grows an interest in big, fundamental questions, but as a space robotics engineer working on searches for signs of life myself. One thing I've slowly come to appreciate about the public's relationship to space science and technology is that, while the range of views on space and our efforts to explore and understand it can vary greatly, it's largely influenced, for good or ill, by the topics that public media chooses to cover and not to cover. Thanks, FP, for taking a step in the right direction. Now, I wonder if this will be the last time you cover space exploration for a long time, or if you'll keep exploring it further. In either case, I'll keep reading.
Finding life elsewhere in the universe would be exciting but also unlikely. It presumes that certain non-living elements bring forth life when mixed together in certain ways--something we haven't able to recreate in our laboratories on a planet that has life. I want my starship and my Vulcan first officer as much as anyone, but while I enjoy science fiction, I also realize many people use it as a religion-- a religion no less based in faith than the others.
It is, as you say, unclear if bringing the right molecules together under the appropriate conditions can generate life. The fact that we have, in less than 100 years of sporadic attempts, not succeeded in doing what it may have taken nature billions of years to achieve proves nothing beyond not having gotten the conditions right yet.
The fact that there is life on earth is irrelevant in the sense that you can’t use existing life to jumpstart this experiment and still have a valid experiment. On the other hand, obviously, if there were no life on earth there be no one around to do the experiment.
Maimonides said that there's no reason there can't be thousands of other civilizations in the universe, whereas the Lubatchiver Rebbe (who was trained in science at the Sorbonne) said no, there's only life here. So, at least among Jews, there is no uniformity of opinion on the existence of life elsewhere in the universe.
The Free Press is consistently like a large Christmas present for a 7 year old who, when prying open the box, discovers the gifts she has wished for all year.
My mother loved All Things Nature. As long as she was able, she viewed the nighttime sky. She was given a telescope, and one night when I went to her house, she had put a blanket on the trunk of her car and was laid up there star-gazing. She was an inveterate fisherwoman, and used her skills to be able to fish. A widow, a mother of many, a nurse, she and a like-minded friend would shove a small John boat in the trunk of the car, drive to the sand hills ponds of Washington County, Florida, and sshe would skull the boat in order to fish. She kept them all(the fish) and we had many a delicious dinner as a result.
What a serendipitous way to say hello after all these years. I’ve always felt anonymous on Substack, but I see old acquaintances now. I’ll try to be respectful, LOL. I hope you and your wife and family are well.
My father also built his own telescope in the 1930’s, including grinding the lens. And when I was young, he and I went for walks in a world that still had so many stars visible. He would point out many constellations and stars, and we would imagine that there was another father with his daughter on a faraway planet looking up and wondering about us. And he played piano, from Tschaikovsky to Lizst to Chopin to “These Foolish Things.” And his lifelong hobby was advanced mathematics, in spite of a successful career as a business leader. The beauty of the music and the mathematics and the wonders of the sky seemed such evidence of a power beyond our small world. I don’t think Peter and I are related, but we certainly had similarly loving fathers.
I would assume that the individual authors choose their own titles, but I know that’s not the case with a lot of edited publications - the title is certainly misleading (and should be changed, with notation), but I’m not sure who to blame.
In the search for extraterrestrial life, one of the best xkcd comics in my opinion (#638) - that communicates an important truth related to this topic - shows two ants facing each other while they have an 'ant conversation' on a tile floor.
The second ant says to the first:
"We've searched dozens of these floor tiles for several common types of pheromone trails. If there were intelligent life up there, we would have found it by now."
Below the comic is the caption:
'The world's first ant colony to achieve sentience calls off the search for us'
-------
As the old adage goes, "when you're a hammer, all problems to be solved look like nails."
Just as ants, from our frame of reference, have very limited sensory capabilities within their state of existence to identify life beyond their own plane or sphere (including more complex lifeforms that exist alongside them on this very planet), it's quite probable that our species also has very limited sensory capabilities to identify extraterrestrial life, especially if such life exists within a higher plane of existence.
I always appreciate scientists who maintain a sense of wonder - without a corresponding and unearned sense of hubristic authority - in their extraterrestrial search.
I love this! I have thought like this for the longest time, even using the ant analogy. I imagine we are like a tiny ant on a huge pillow and when we find a thread we feel it's a huge achievement but there's so much we can't see. There is a vastness that's beyond our capability to comprehend. Usually when I say this people stare at me like I have 2 heads, so it's been validating to read your comment.
Also interestingly addressed in the very old book: Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. I remember reading it in high school and being fascinated at the thought of unknown dimensions.
I always thought about it along the same lines. I compared the search for signs of extraterrestrial life to me setting up my ringtone as bird song - and then missing several calls because I thought I'm just hearing the birds outside. Maybe the signs are right in front of us, but we don't understand that they are signs.
The headline is flat wrong. It would be closer to the truth to say, "Astronomers May Have Found a Planet Hospitable to Life." But being hospitable (and even that is still far from clear) is a long way from actual evidence of life, of which there is none. There are many ways to define the "habitable zone," and the odds are high that this planet, while it may fit some definitions, fails others and will prove to be in the end uninhabitable by life as we know it.
A beautiful piece of writing.
I had a friend at college who, unfortunately, passed away a few years ago at a young age. Besides being very smart and witty, he was hard to forget because his name was Rob Klingon.
His father's college roommate was a guy named Gene Roddenberry.
Their mailbox in front of their house had to be replaced every month or two because as soon as they put up the box with, "The Klingons" on it, it was invariably stolen.
I'm glad to see the FP writing more about public science, space in particular. I care not only as a reader and a citizen that journalism maintains and grows an interest in big, fundamental questions, but as a space robotics engineer working on searches for signs of life myself. One thing I've slowly come to appreciate about the public's relationship to space science and technology is that, while the range of views on space and our efforts to explore and understand it can vary greatly, it's largely influenced, for good or ill, by the topics that public media chooses to cover and not to cover. Thanks, FP, for taking a step in the right direction. Now, I wonder if this will be the last time you cover space exploration for a long time, or if you'll keep exploring it further. In either case, I'll keep reading.
NASA trying so hard to remain relevant
Finding life elsewhere in the universe would be exciting but also unlikely. It presumes that certain non-living elements bring forth life when mixed together in certain ways--something we haven't able to recreate in our laboratories on a planet that has life. I want my starship and my Vulcan first officer as much as anyone, but while I enjoy science fiction, I also realize many people use it as a religion-- a religion no less based in faith than the others.
It is, as you say, unclear if bringing the right molecules together under the appropriate conditions can generate life. The fact that we have, in less than 100 years of sporadic attempts, not succeeded in doing what it may have taken nature billions of years to achieve proves nothing beyond not having gotten the conditions right yet.
The fact that there is life on earth is irrelevant in the sense that you can’t use existing life to jumpstart this experiment and still have a valid experiment. On the other hand, obviously, if there were no life on earth there be no one around to do the experiment.
Fascinating read.
Indeed, intelligent life elsewhere in the universe might lessen some of the solipsism that seems to befall religiousy types.
Maimonides said that there's no reason there can't be thousands of other civilizations in the universe, whereas the Lubatchiver Rebbe (who was trained in science at the Sorbonne) said no, there's only life here. So, at least among Jews, there is no uniformity of opinion on the existence of life elsewhere in the universe.
This is lovely!
The Free Press is consistently like a large Christmas present for a 7 year old who, when prying open the box, discovers the gifts she has wished for all year.
My mother loved All Things Nature. As long as she was able, she viewed the nighttime sky. She was given a telescope, and one night when I went to her house, she had put a blanket on the trunk of her car and was laid up there star-gazing. She was an inveterate fisherwoman, and used her skills to be able to fish. A widow, a mother of many, a nurse, she and a like-minded friend would shove a small John boat in the trunk of the car, drive to the sand hills ponds of Washington County, Florida, and sshe would skull the boat in order to fish. She kept them all(the fish) and we had many a delicious dinner as a result.
Hey, Sara! I’ve been to those sand hills many times; have a home in Chipley.
What a serendipitous way to say hello after all these years. I’ve always felt anonymous on Substack, but I see old acquaintances now. I’ll try to be respectful, LOL. I hope you and your wife and family are well.
Fantastic! What a time to be alive! The things we will come to see and to know
My father also built his own telescope in the 1930’s, including grinding the lens. And when I was young, he and I went for walks in a world that still had so many stars visible. He would point out many constellations and stars, and we would imagine that there was another father with his daughter on a faraway planet looking up and wondering about us. And he played piano, from Tschaikovsky to Lizst to Chopin to “These Foolish Things.” And his lifelong hobby was advanced mathematics, in spite of a successful career as a business leader. The beauty of the music and the mathematics and the wonders of the sky seemed such evidence of a power beyond our small world. I don’t think Peter and I are related, but we certainly had similarly loving fathers.
Did I miss all the data that suggests there might be life on that planet? So it’s the right distance from the star? So?
I would assume that the individual authors choose their own titles, but I know that’s not the case with a lot of edited publications - the title is certainly misleading (and should be changed, with notation), but I’m not sure who to blame.
“Whether there is intelligent life is the big question…”.
It certainly is. I ask myself that question almost everyday.
I enjoyed the article.
In the search for extraterrestrial life, one of the best xkcd comics in my opinion (#638) - that communicates an important truth related to this topic - shows two ants facing each other while they have an 'ant conversation' on a tile floor.
The second ant says to the first:
"We've searched dozens of these floor tiles for several common types of pheromone trails. If there were intelligent life up there, we would have found it by now."
Below the comic is the caption:
'The world's first ant colony to achieve sentience calls off the search for us'
-------
As the old adage goes, "when you're a hammer, all problems to be solved look like nails."
Just as ants, from our frame of reference, have very limited sensory capabilities within their state of existence to identify life beyond their own plane or sphere (including more complex lifeforms that exist alongside them on this very planet), it's quite probable that our species also has very limited sensory capabilities to identify extraterrestrial life, especially if such life exists within a higher plane of existence.
I always appreciate scientists who maintain a sense of wonder - without a corresponding and unearned sense of hubristic authority - in their extraterrestrial search.
I love this! I have thought like this for the longest time, even using the ant analogy. I imagine we are like a tiny ant on a huge pillow and when we find a thread we feel it's a huge achievement but there's so much we can't see. There is a vastness that's beyond our capability to comprehend. Usually when I say this people stare at me like I have 2 heads, so it's been validating to read your comment.
Also interestingly addressed in the very old book: Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. I remember reading it in high school and being fascinated at the thought of unknown dimensions.
I always thought about it along the same lines. I compared the search for signs of extraterrestrial life to me setting up my ringtone as bird song - and then missing several calls because I thought I'm just hearing the birds outside. Maybe the signs are right in front of us, but we don't understand that they are signs.
This is lovely.