Otherways- Fiction Fanatics

The search for intelligent life in the universe isn't a new thing. Stand up comedians have been using it for years right alongside NASA scientists and science fiction authors. What is new is the sheer numbers of actual planets we've been able to locate using modern technology, especially the Kepler satellite. Yes, the theory that with trillions of stars in the universe, some percentage of those would have to have planets, and some percentage of those planets would be in the so-called habitable zone, has existed for a long time.

Now we have proof, and there are some pretty giddy scientists out there. Not that I blame them, finding anything new is amazing, finding an entire planet? Epic.

Using what they've found, the Australian National University in conjunction with the Niels Bohr Institute of Copenhagen has tried to put some actual numbers into that theory. At present, they're limiting themselves to the relatively small sample of the Milky Way galaxy, where there are only billions of stars to consider  that will have one to three planets in the habitable zone. Only. 

Of course, habitable zone is a very humanocentric view of things, but that's kind of the way we are. Planets in the habitable zone will have the potential for liquid water and, as the scientists say, life. Of course, it would be more apt to say "Life as we know it". Our history is full of places we swore life couldn't exist, but does, and even things we were sure couldn't be alive, yet are.

Life without oxygen was once believed impossible, but anaerobic bacteria, such as our good friend that produces botulism, thrive without oxygen, and die when exposed. Then we thought that the Arctic ice was too cold, only to find happy bacteria living there, too. Thermal vents in the sea, where no sunlight is ever seen and the temperature shifts from volcanic to ice maiden in just a few feet? Inhospitable, maybe. Home to bacteria, tube worms, cool crabs and others? Certainly. And don't get me started about prions.

The point is, what we really mean by habitable zone is not that life could exist, but that life like us could exist. 

Personally, I'm pretty excited about either proposition. As much as I would love to explore some rich new planet, hopefully complete with intelligent life,  I'd also like to meet life, even microscopic life, that bears no resemblance to our own. The universe is immense, the possibilities endless, and every new discovery pries our narrow minds open just a little bit more.

Cheers,

Michelle