Tag Archives: exoplanet

Billions of Earth-size planets … Yes, but ….

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On the news wire for November 5:

“Milky Way may host billions of Earth-size planets – LA Times
There’s no place like home, but scientists now say that Earth-size planets orbiting sun-like stars in a so-called habitable zone are so common that there could be as many as 11 billion in the Milky Way alone.”

We have NASA colleagues who strive hard to find evidence for water on Mars or to reach into space for habitable planets. And we may find many houses with rooms and spaces fit for life in the universe … but the real question is: Why do we make the leap to say if it’s fit for life, we will find life? Let us think one step further.

Starting on planet Earth and examining every aspect of life from sophisticated research efforts we now find the ultimate dilemma. Science indicates laws and conditions ( the application of physics, chemistry, and material sciences ) is likely equal across the universe. If life starts here it could by the same means start elsewhere. That is logic used by many persons.

Okay, now the wrench to throw into the works. Human explorations of planetary science (i.e. of Earth ) and every conceivable approach to how chemicals could or can come together to create first life … all come to dead ends. Human ingenuity suggests there must be an answer because … well … because here we are alive today.

Bottom line: Scientists cannot tell you how life arouse from chemicals. So why would any other planet elsewhere be any better than this known fit for life earth? You can think about that because we want to go to the bigger problem now known to the sciences.

Life is not simply metabolism, form, reproduction, or historical records of species. Life is an innovation. A first innovation for first appearance and we will not toss out the word evolution here, because some change in life forms appears over time (from existing life).

The problem is simply life is based on information. Information in DNA and also epigenetic information that is elsewhere in living beings and not in the DNA. The point raised here is simple. No one in science has explained how the initial information arouse. Most biological, genetic and evolutionary research shows change over time, but based on existing information in life forms. Explaining new innovation that gives us new forms based on new information is lacking.

There is more to this presentation than written here. The main point is that the universe can have trillions of habitable planets, but unless chemicals can make life and information is somehow introduced to direct life’s forms and being … you can count all the planets you want to no gain.

Is this a case of skepticism? Actually, not at all. This post is simply drawing attention to the status of what science also knows as fact. And that gives cause to not being so moved by planetary discoveries, because the real question for which we desire answers concerns the source and origin of life in the first place.

Director, WindowView.org

Related Window Links:
Chemical Origins — Yes or No — What Does the Evidence Show
Time Required for Macroevolution to Occur
Living On A Privileged Planet

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Life on Mars a Non-Starter?

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The list serve delivered the following clip today:

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Rover’s findings suggest Mars’ atmosphere was lost soon after formation
The inhospitable atmosphere of Mars has been around a long time — about 4 billion years or so, according to data collected by NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover, along with studies of Martian meteorites. Scientists think that the Red Planet lost its atmosphere fairly soon after its formation. “A lot of the atmosphere of Mars might have been lost pretty rapidly,” noted Paul Mahaffy of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, lead author of one of two studies published in the journal Science. Space.com (7/18)
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On the one hand, the Earth’s atmosphere has long been protected by a magnetic field that is continually generated by the movement of an inner molten core. Were the core to cool and the inner motion cease, the Earth’s protective shield would drop and the atmosphere and water on the surface would begin to be stripped away.

So why is it so hard to understand that the non-molten core of the Red Planet goes hand-in-hand with the current lifeless conditions on Mars? And yet NASA spins on hopes of exciting life-supporting data from Mars, only to report the atmosphere has long been inhospitable. While the presence of water and signs of water’s activity on the planet surface are interesting data, the lack of a favorable atmosphere is sufficient to douse the fires of hope for life on Mars.

In a recent presentation on expoplanets, we observed the optimistic assessment of NASA scientists for more tantalizing data from distant solar systems. Yet Mars, so close by, reminds us that it takes a long list of factors to favor life, factors that Earth has in its column … sufficient for life here, but a list that many hopeful prospects will find a probabilistic stretch to acquire.

Are we saying no life nowhere else? Actually, no. But the priorities for finding life elsewhere might be tempered by the unsettling reality that conditions on Earth are undergoing dramatic change. We could focus more on space-based research to focus on Earth, because that IS where we know life certainly does exist!

The irony is in the scientists who want ever more to look outward and request more funds for doing so, when humanity ever more so needs to look back in on itself and what we are doing here. No atmosphere on Mars is an inhospitability worth waiting to explore later, while the atmosphere here is heating up … and we mean HEATING up in a big way!

Director, WindowView.org

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