If a leading U.S. astrophysicist is to be believed then the great mystery of life-sustaining planets beyond our own is no mystery at all. Such worlds almost definitely exist, they just haven’t been 'officially' discovered yet.
AAAS conference sees astrophysicist talking life-sustaining planet discovery. Image: NASA.
Speaking during the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), prominent astrophysicist Alan P. Boss suggested that around half of “a few dozen solar-type stars” located within 30 light years of our own sun could be contributing to life on Earth-like planets.
According to Boss, an astrophysicist with the Carnegie Institute of Washington and author of The Crowded Universe: The Search for Living Planets, we could uncover Earth-like planets by applying the technology of NASA’s Kepler space telescope, which is scheduled for launch on March 05.
With the powerful telescope aboard orbiting French-European satellite COROT already being used to uncover Earth-like planets with the potential of sustaining life, Boss told conference attendees that he would be “absolutely astonished” if the new Kepler telescope failed to extend those positive results.
In championing the far-reaching abilities of Kepler and COROT, Boss claimed that their resulting discoveries should provide insight that can be used “to go ahead and build the next space telescope to go and examine these planers, after we know they are there.”
Once scientists are armed with such advanced stargazing technology, according to Boss, new imagery of Earth-like planets will enable better investigation of their atmospheres to determine whether they include vitally important methane and oxygen.
“That will be pretty strong proof they are not only habitable but actually are habited,” enthused Boss, who was keen to stress that life does not mean the presence of “intelligence.”
“I simply say if you have a habitable world… sitting there, with the right temperature with water for a billion years, something is going to come out of it,” said Boss during a press conference. “At least we will have microbes.”
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