Finding habitable planets is an aspiration of many circles of astronomers and astrophysicists, and it is often written off as low priority—but humanity should care about finding a habitable planet.
Humans are slowly destroying the Earth: by polluting water, cutting down rainforests, and releasing harmful gases into the atmosphere, we are shortening the time that we can stay on Earth. Finding a habitable planet and developing technology to reach it and shuttle people there could make the difference in the survival of humanity as a species.
While entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk try to find ways to colonize Mars, there are exoplanets such as the 700-light-years-away WASP 39B have elements that can support life, such as methane and liquid water. Technology does not yet exist to reach such exoplanets, but there are closer planets that can fill the same role. There are three factors essential to sustaining life: liquid water, an energy source, and enough nutrients to sustain a population.
Habitable planets provide an insurance policy for when humanity will inevitably exhaust the Earth’s resources, and therefore it is better to start researching new exoplanets now and finding ways to live on them with the least impact on Earth’s environment and biodiversity.
Humans are slowly destroying the Earth: by polluting water, cutting down rainforests, and releasing harmful gases into the atmosphere, we are shortening the time that we can stay on Earth. Finding a habitable planet and developing technology to reach it and shuttle people there could make the difference in the survival of humanity as a species.
While entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk try to find ways to colonize Mars, there are exoplanets such as the 700-light-years-away WASP 39B have elements that can support life, such as methane and liquid water. Technology does not yet exist to reach such exoplanets, but there are closer planets that can fill the same role. There are three factors essential to sustaining life: liquid water, an energy source, and enough nutrients to sustain a population.
Habitable planets provide an insurance policy for when humanity will inevitably exhaust the Earth’s resources, and therefore it is better to start researching new exoplanets now and finding ways to live on them with the least impact on Earth’s environment and biodiversity.
