• Question: What are your theories about if there is another planet that we could live on if Earth ends?

    Asked by anon-266323 on 20 Oct 2020.
    • Photo: Stephen Clarke

      Stephen Clarke answered on 20 Oct 2020:

      I suspect that there are many, many planets out there that can (and do) sustain life forms, some lifeforms may even be as advanced as us or maybe even more advanced. I also suspect that, with so many planets out there, there will be planets that we could survive on. It would be remarkable if we could find a suitable planet though and even more difficult to actually safely transport us there.

    • Photo: James Smallcombe

      James Smallcombe answered on 20 Oct 2020:

      Its very likely there are other planets that could support human life in the universe. All the elements that make up the earth are common throughout the galaxy. So finding a planet with water and oxygen (and maybe even a molten iron core), the right distance away from a star to not be too cold or hot, should be easy enough. The real problem is ever getting there.

      Just the nearest star (Alpha Centauri) takes 4 years to reach at the speed of light, and our current fastest ever space craft are 0.0003 times slower than light. So it would take us over 3,000 years to get there.

      I hope one day we might have the technology to get out into the stars, or to make other planets/moons in our solar system liveable for humans. But right now we should probably focus on making sure the earth doesn’t end while we’re still using it.

    • Photo: Alex Ttofi

      Alex Ttofi answered on 22 Oct 2020:

      I agree with James’s answer below. Distances in space are vast and the time taken even for light to go from A to B is measured in years.
      The odd are that there are hospitable planets, the odds are that life exists outside earth. What form that takes and where in the evolutionary scale that occurs is very open to question. Life has evolved for the planet it lives on so may not be human but bacterial, plant etc + all issues on communication, cross contamination etc.
      Look how far we have come in 1000 years from horse back to reaching the moon, but in terms of earths billion year timeline it is nothing. So if life is out there it is likely to be much advanced to us or much behind.
      And trying to talk to it – at current levels it would take many lifetimes/years for a signal to get somewhere and the same for it to come back
      Still it would be nice to find some before we struggle with our own as James has said

      What do you think?

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