In search of E.T.
Every time a new Earth-size or remotely Earth-like exo-solar planet, meaning one outside our solar system, is found, it is encouraging news for believers in extra-terrestrial life as it increases the mathematical probability of life, intelligent or not, existing elsewhere. On Tuesday, scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics announced that they had found two such planets in a five-planet system thousands of light years from us.
Such announcements have been made in the recent past, especially of discoveries by the Kepler mission, Nasa’s planet-hunting spacecraft, but this is the first time, scientists say, that confirmation has been provided that the planets are Earth-sized though too hot to sustain life as we know it.
Humankind has always believed in the possibility of life in places other than Earth. From visionary authors like H.G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov who did not allow the arrogance of being the elite among the planet’s intelligent animal species to blind them to other-worldly possibilities to the general public, the thought captures the imagination like no other. Otherwise Orson Welles’ famous radio rendition in 1938 of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds would not have led to confusion among listeners who had missed the introduction and thought that little green men had really landed.
The Kepler planet-hunter is doing a stellar job; that it belongs to Nasa means someone in government takes it seriously enough to spend tax-payer dollars on the search for ET. Which brings us to the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence project. Seti at one time received US government funding but its arrays of radio telescopes today run mostly on private contributions. It needs more funding and, if the US government’s defence budget even allows Norad (North American Aerospace Defence Command) to host a website tracking Santa Claus’ sleigh over the Christmas period, it would be a good idea to divert some of those government dollars to Seti.
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