Back in the Dark Ages of 1992, radio astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail announced the discovery of two planets orbiting the pulsar PSR 1257+12.
At the time, our civilization thought it was a momentous occasion. We knew there were other planets in the galaxy. We have been discovering
them since 1988. But this was a real breakthrough in astronomy at the time.
Back then nobody imagined a planet could survive around any destructive celestial objects.
A pulsars, as you know, are actually rapidly rotating neutron stars. Most of these stars
emit regular pulses of radio waves. Some will also emit x-rays and gamma radiation
at a rate of up to one thousand pulses per second. We now set our atomic
clocks to the closes pulsar when we are away from the planet Earth.
Scientists back then thought that nothing could survive the bombardment of
this kind of intense radiation. But there they were. Two rocky worlds,
orbiting a neutron star. Bathing in radiation and cooking like meatballs
in your kitchen's microwave.
For the next sixty-five years after 1992 the race was still on to find life on other planets. Which I can say, with utter confidence, that people were still thinking like neanderthals as far as their imagination goes.
If the discovery of the first two planets orbiting a neutron star
should have taught them anything, is that what they thought we knew to be true, is actually, that they
knew nothing about what lies within the grand expanse of the Universe.
Scientist were looking for planets around yellow stars, before
realizing there were more red stars in our galaxy. When a pulsar showed
us that planets can orbit almost any celestial body, scientists finally
opened their collective eyes and started searching around any object
that glowed in the dark.
They found out in the pursuing decades that almost every kind of star
has planets. From gas giants, to rocky worlds, to ice planets made up
of different kinds of frozen gases.
We now call those frozen worlds oases. Gas stations to fuel our space craft as we traverse our galaxy.
Once we got out farther than our own solar system, we
found out that planets in other systems were full of life. And not just in the "Goldilocks
Zone" as it was once called. A Zone which only suited our needs as human beings.
The Sagan telescope, on a fixed orbit around Pluto, was the first to find life on an icy world orbiting Alpha
Centauri A. Scientists thought that the constant evolution of its
changing surface was due to either ice volcanoes or an ocean of water
below the crust. As it turns out, the best way to describe the kind life on that planet
would be as if the whole world was infested by some kind of termite that eats ice crystals. Always boring and
eating their way from one end of the planet to the other.
After that, scientists once again opened their eyes to the possibility
that when they made assumptions, like thinking that the Universe acts the way they thought it should.
To summarize, after it was first detected that almost all types of Stars have planets, it was discovered that almost every solar system has some type
of life. The next big quest is to find, what we think is intelligent life out their in the
Universe.
Yet, I still have my doubts that we will be able to recognize it right
away since as a collective species, we are not imaginative enough to think outside the carbon life form format.
So, unless intelligent life pops its beautiful head up and slaps us in the face to say hi, I believe we won't notice for centuries!
This is,
Transcending Into One Of My Future Lives To Make The Point How Humans Will Look Back At Astronomers Of Today 100 Years From Now
Jim Hauenstein,
And,
“I'm sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It's just been too intelligent to come here.”
- Arthur C. Clarke - That is my story and I am sticking to it!
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