Posted: 6/17/2012 Updated: 1/9/2019, 7/2/2016, 7/24/2015, 4/12/2015, 4/9/2015, 2/28/2015, 10/17/2014
Update of 1/9/2019
Just read this article about latest research on so called Fast Radio Bursts that were first discovered in 2007: Bevy of mysterious fast radio bursts spotted by Canadian telescope Bounty includes second known example of a repeating burst. If a wild speculation is allowed for a very brief moment, are these perhaps signals from aliens? Let’s stay tuned to what scientists may discover in the future.
Here are two older articles, I had not included so far:
Seven Earth-sized planets around a tiny star (2/22/2017)
Something went wrong, so I had to republish this almost lost blog post!
Update Of 7/2/2016
To cite:
“NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, currently orbiting Saturn, has made intriguing observations of icy jets spewing from a suspected underground liquid ocean … Enceladus has over 90 geysers that spew plumes of salty water vapor, organic compounds and ice particles from the underground ocean into the air. ”
Update 7/24/2015
This week we received news like this Earth's Closest Cousin Discovered Among New Pile of Planets Called Kepler 452b, the world is a bit bigger than Earth and could have a surface suitable for water and life. We read here: “Called Kepler 452b, the planet orbits a 6 billion-year-old sunlike star about 1,400 light-years away. Kepler 452b is about 60 percent larger than Earth, and perhaps five times as massive. With a year lasting 385 days, it sits in the region around its star where temperatures are just right for maintaining liquid water on a world’s surface. … A new haul of 500 planet candidates announced Thursday brings Kepler’s total catalog of possible planets to 4,696. Twelve of those are smaller than two Earth-widths, and nine orbit stars that are similar in size and temperature to the sun. More than 1,000 Kepler planets have been confirmed—and that’s just in one tiny piece of sky.”
Update 4/12/15
Update (3)
I quote from the above article: “This discovery, made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), reveals that the protoplanetary disk surrounding the million-year-old star MWC 480 is brimming with methyl cyanide (CH3CN), a complex carbon-based molecule. Both this molecule and its simpler cousin hydrogen cyanide (HCN) were found in the cold outer reaches of the star's newly formed disk, in a region that astronomers believe is analogous to our own Kuiper Belt - the realm of icy planetesimals and comets beyond Neptune.” (emphasis added)
Update (2)
Just read the abstract of “Untangling dips and pulses in starlight” (Unfortunately, you have to sign in to read even the abstract. What a stupidity!)
So I quote here freely from the above abstract:
“The menagerie of known exoplanets continues to grow with Kepler data. The NASA spacecraft has monitored stars for brightness dips due to planetary transits, enabling Campante et al. to find five rocky planets orbiting the K star Kepler-444—all between Mercury and Venus in size. Kepler's precise photometry also allowed the team to measure the star's asteroseismic pulsations. A comparison of those values with stellar evolution models revealed an age of 11.2 ± 1.0 billion years, or 80% as old as the universe itself. A planetary system this old (over twice the age of Earth) demonstrates the wide time frame in which Earth-sized planets have existed and helps astronomers discern the earliest times of planet formation.”
An Update
Recently, I came across this article in the Neue Zuericher Zeitung titled “Potenzial von Exoplaneten untersucht” (German language) published on 9/19/2013.
This article focuses on so called habitable zones and its lifetime. Habitable zones are defined as the distance from the star that allows for human like life or where water is liquid. I am afraid this is an artificially narrow focus, because life on other planets may be quite different from our own. To assume that life on other planets in the universe is similar to our own is heroic.
Encouraging Recent Developments
Exoplanet stands for extrasolar planet. Almost 800 of them have been identified by now (June 2012). In our Milky Way Galaxy alone, there are an estimated 160 billion exoplanets. The first confirmed detection of several terrestrial-mass planets occurred in 1992. Given these mind boggling numbers, how unique is planet earth?
May I Speculate About Extraterrestrial Life
I usually do not speculate, but I will make an exception here. Extra terrestrial life was something very remote to me to think about, but the confirmed discovery of exoplanets changes my cognition.
Some kind of extraterrestrial life will likely be discovered in space, it is only a matter of time. Probably, these forms of life are maybe quite different from life on earth.
Most likely there is even intelligent life out there. If so, how will we be able to communicate with these beings? I bet we will find a way. Perhaps, they are already trying to communicate with us, but we are yet too primitive to understand. How advanced are they? Are they peaceful? What do they know about us? Have they already visited us?
Extraterrestrial Life And Faith
Do these intelligent beings believe in something like religion or do they have some kind of faith? If yes, do they believe in something like god? If yes, what are the similarities or differences? Would Christians accept these beings as children of god or being made in the image of god? Was Jesus the only son of god? Will religious differences rather divide or unite us?
In the meantime (10/17/2014), astronomer David Weintraub has written a book about this subject titled “Religions and Extraterrestrial Life: How Will We Deal with It?” (See a review here). According to the review, the astronomer argues among other things that Asian religions like Buddhism can easier accommodate the existence of extraterrestrial life and that e.g. Judaism is kind of neutral.
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