From: Nick Balaskas <nikolaos.nul>
Date: Sun, 08 Mar 2009 19:16:30 -0400
Archived: Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:02:07 -0400
Subject: Re: 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

<snip>

>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.

<snip>

>---

>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.

<snip>

>---

>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.

<snip>

>---

>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.

<snip>


Hi Everyone,

I know of or have met these four "experts", as well as many
other so-called or self-proclaimed experts on extraterrestrial
life - a subject that science has, so far, done nothing to study
and knows very little about except for possibly UFOs and the
vast amounts of recorded knowledge obtained through direct
revelation from God or ETs over thousands of years of human
history which science considers as "myths" or "religious" views
and thus dismissed as non-applicable or untrue.

I found it very amusing that a month before Kepler even left the
launch pad on its important quest to search for the first Earth-
like planets in orbit around nearby stars, these experts were
already making and promoting the announcement that our galaxy
has billions of Earths (see URL below), all this before a single
Earth-like exoplanet has even been detected by anyone!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7891132.stm

One thing we can count on from the recent launch by Kepler, as
with any new experiment or the first search for something, there
will be surprises, unexpected discoveries and of course many
disappointments too. After all, every expert can not be right.

Having taken a graduate level course on Extrasolar Planets (as
they were first called) taught by a York U. space scientist who
also worked on the Kepler space mission at NASA's Ames Research
Center, California and thus no less an expert myself, I sent in
my name and comments which, along with those by many other space
and SETI enthusiasts and are now in space aboard Kepler. For
those that may be interested, I have included my comments below
(I am Kepler's participant number 2085).

"The discovery of an Earth-like planet orbiting within the
habitable zone of a nearby Sun-like star will be the needed
inspiration for mankind to strive for and achieve the next major
step in manned spaceflight - visiting another solar system in
our immediate neighbourhood of the Milky Way galaxy."

"If no life is found or suspected to have once existed on any of
these Earth-like planets, this discovery will confirm to all
that life on Earth is indeed special, precious and a unique
creation of God. Such a discovery would unite all peoples and
help bring about an end to tribal warfare and ethnic rivalries
by heralding a new era of love, cooperation and peace."

As for Eleanor White's question as to how Kepler can maintain
its fairly constant 950 mile separation from us as it trails the
Earth in its orbit around the Sun and does not ultimately fall
back to Earth by gravity, I think this can be easily understood
by example rather than having to resort to orbital mechanics.

The example is Cruithne (Asteroid 3753) which was discovered by
two York U. astronomers. Since Cruithne, sometimes called the
Earth's second natural satellite after the Moon, like Kepler is
in orbit around the Sun and not in orbit around the Earth but
they also have the same orbital period (exactly one year) and
average velocity in space as the Earth does, they then become
co-orbiting objects. If Kepler's average orbital velocity around
the Sun is just a tad faster than Earth's, it will indeed fall
back but if Kepler's velocity is a tad slower, then its 950 mile
separation from Earth will actually get bigger with time.

Since Cruithne was discovered, a few more such co-orbital
asteroids have been identified which are always in the Earth's
immediate neighbourhood. In the past I have proposed to use one
or more of these asteroids, which happened by chance(?) to have
just the right motion in space, as a manned space platform or
base - unless it is already occupied by ETs who beat us to it
and are using Earth's co-orbiting asteroids to keep tabs on us!


Nick Balaskas



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