From: UFO UpDates - Toronto <post.nul>
Date: Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:13:45 -0500
Archived: Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:13:45 -0500
Subject: Is There Anybody Out There Kepler?




Source: BBC News - London, England, UK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7918497.stm

Thursday, 5 March 2009


What is the chance that alien life exists? NASA's latest mission
- the Kepler Space Telescope due to launch on Friday night to
survey the heavens for Earth-like planets - could take us a step
closer to an answer. Kathryn Westcott asks four experts whether
mankind prefers the idea of being alone and unique or whether we
long for cosmic cousins.


Is There Anybody Out There?

---

Robert J Sawyer is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction writer

Throughout the history of science, there have been a series of
developments from Copernicus (who displaced the Earth from the
centre of the Universe) to Darwin (who showed we weren't created
full-blown by the hand of God) that knocked out our status of
being special. The one claim to being special that we have been
able to hold on to is the belief that Earth is the only place in
the Universe where intelligent life exists.

For many people, there is a psychological need to be special,
and so Kepler - which I bet will succeed in its quest - will
take away from that. But for those of us who believe that Earth
is merely a typical example and that life-bearing planets are
common, Kepler's success will be a wonderful thing.

We already know that our galaxy is teeming with planets - that
was the first step in dethroning us from being the only abode of
intelligent life. Kepler takes us on the next step: determining
if many of those planets are Earth-like. After that, we need to
determine if such planets have life, and then if that life is
intelligent. Still there are only two possible answers to the
question of whether other Earth-like worlds exist - and
whichever answer we get will be astonishing.

If we were to find intelligent life on an Earth-like planet,
that civilisation would almost certainly be more advanced than
ours, given that our Universe is 11 billion years old; we are
absolute newborns on the cosmic state.

And, because we are so young, we are facing a huge crisis: our
civilisation is on the brink of disaster because of our immature
use of technology, both through climate change and through
weapons of mass destruction. Many people think we won't survive;
there's been a resurgence in the belief in Armageddon. To learn
that an extraterrestrial civilisation has survived its
technological adolescence would be an inspiring object lesson
for us, and would help put an end to all the nay-saying and
doom-mongering.

At the moment, people's focus is incredibly narrow - there is a
lot of navel-gazing. We are not thinking about the big
questions. If the Kepler mission is successful, our focus will
widen - and that's all to the good.

Robert J Sawyer is the author of Hominids, in which Neanderthals
have developed a radically different civilization on a parallel
Earth

---

Dr Michael Perryman is a senior adviser at the European Space
Agency

In the past 15 years, the area of exo-planet research has been
one of massive progress. Since 1995, more than 300 planets have
been discovered orbiting other stars relatively near to us in
space.

But when it comes to whether Earth-like systems are common or
not, we really are into the realms of pure speculation.

If Kepler finds Earth-like systems, the next question would be
whether this is the kind of environment in which one might start
looking for life. That next level of detail requires a few steps
in inference.

The conditions must be right for life to evolve. These planets
would have to be the right distance from their star to have
liquid water, and would have to have a similar temperature to
Earth. And, in terms of the host star itself, you need very
special conditions: it would need to be the right age, mass and
luminosity for life as it we know it to develop.

And if the planet is much lighter than the Earth, or much
heavier, then the conditions would not be right either.

In terms of what Kepler might find, the best knowledge at the
moment is that it might discover some 50-100 Earth-like planets,
but we simply don't know.

Astronomers would not be surprised if that many were found. It's
an exciting experiment, because it might find many more - or
perhaps many less! Whatever it finds, it's going to advance our
knowledge.

But is life as we know it common or unique? Earth's
circumstances are really far too special to be easily replicated
- there are so many coincidences, chances and conspiracies that
seem to be needed for life to take hold and thrive.

Perhaps primitive life forms could exist out there amongst the
almost infinity of worlds that probably exist, but as for
intelligent life I'm putting my money on the fact that in the
whole Universe, we are pretty much unique.

---

Brother Guy Consolmagno studies the nature and evolution of
small bodies in the solar system. He is curator of the Vatican
meteorite collection - one of the largest in the world - at the
Vatican Observatory

We Jesuits are actively involved in the search for Earth-like
planets.

The idea that there could be other intelligent creatures made by
God in a relationship with God is not contrary to traditional
Judeo-Christian thought.

The Bible has many references to, or descriptions of, non-human
intelligent beings; after all, that's what angels are.

Our cousins on other planets may even have their own salvation
story =96 including other examples of the incarnation of the
second person of the Trinity. We are open to whatever the
Universe has for us.

I am, however, sceptical that we will be able to have these
conversations with any life form that is discovered...
certainly, not in my lifetime!

The idea that there might not only be us is a wonderful one. It
does not question our uniqueness or contradict our belief in
God. For most people, if new forms of life were to be
discovered, it would not mean everything they believed was
wrong, it would only reinforce what they believed all along.

John Herschel, son of the discoverer of Uranus and a founder of
the Royal Astronomical Society, argued that it would have been a
waste of a Universe if God had only created one place where
there were people He loved. This is not an argument based on
logic, science or philosophy, but an aesthetic one.

The important thing is to keep in mind that the Universe is the
deliberate creation of a loving God. Catholics should not be
afraid to embrace such speculations, but we should always
remember that they are just speculations. We don't know. But
reflecting on these possibilities lets us appreciate in a deeper
way what God's redemption actually does mean for us.

My science tells me how God created the Universe and that he
loves that Universe.

We shouldn't be afraid of the truth.

I would be delighted if other Earths harbouring intelligent life
were discovered. For most people, however, it would be nothing
more than a nine-day wonder. I think that we've lived with the
idea so much, from speculations by scientists to creatures in
science fiction movies, that the human race is already well used
to the idea that we are not alone.

We need to look beyond ourselves =96 that's what religion does
when it's done right and what astronomy does when it's done
right.

---

Dr Steven J Dick is an astronomer and chief historian at NASA

The Kepler mission is definitely a landmark one, and finding an
Earth-sized planet will raise the debate about whether we are
alone or not.

We have known for a long time that we are not the centre of the
Universe, the question now is whether biologically we are
central. It's all we have left.

Even if intelligent life were discovered, we would remain unique
in terms of morphology and form.

The chances are another civilisation would be more advanced than
us because of the age of the Universe and the fact that our
species is comparatively young.

For the human mind, this is a natural question going back to
ancient Greeks. Because of popular culture, such as Star Trek, a
lot of people would be expecting intelligent life to exist, and
are already prepared.

The whole idea of life on another world would certainly raise a
lot of debate, particularly in terms of how unique our religion
and our philosophy is. This would be good, we have got into a
rut of looking at everything from a terrestrial point of view.

Is it scarier to learn that we are alone or not? Well, there are
those who would warn us to be careful but most people would be
open-minded.


[Thanks to Frank Fields for the lead]



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