Friday, October 1, 2010
The excitement was palpable; "This really is the first Goldilocks planet,"
gushed R. Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution in Washington, co-
discoverer along with Stephen Vogt of UC Santa Cruz. "Goldilocks" is a
reference to the planets orbit, smack in the middle of the habitable zone
of the star, Gliese 581. The planet, Gliese 581g is neither too hot nor
too cold. The NASA and NSF press releases came complete with an artists
rendering of a lovely planet with patches of blue suggesting the presence
of water. Of course, water would not appear blue in the red glow of Gleise
581, a red dwarf. How could scientifically unsophisticated viewers, the
vast majority of the billions around the world who saw the press conference
in high definition, be expected to understand that the information content
of this image, coming from the top science agencies of the world's leading
space power, was less than zero? Alas, the planet is tide-locked, always
exposing the same face to its red-dwarf sun; Goldilocks must eat her
porridge straddling the Terminator separating the too-cold dark side of
GL581g and the too-hot illuminated side. The sad part is there was no need
for the hype; everyone felt the tingle. Homo sapiens is a tiny step closer
to finding an answer to the most profound question humans can ask: Why?
There are many astrobiologists, perhaps realizing that we will never travel
to another star, who insist the prospects for finding life, or at least
fossil life, on Earth's nearest planetary neighbour remain high in spite of
past disappointments. According to a News Focus story by Richard Kerr in
today's Science, they point to salt deposits as evidence of a warmer and
wetter past. The danger is that frustrated scientists will give in to
the "bungee jumpers," who are more interested in adventure than in trying
to find an answer to some profound question. They want a manned mission to
conduct the search, but humans would be committed to remain on Mars for 18
months, waiting for the next conjunction with Earth. It's not a pretty
picture; countless millions of Earth organisms will hitch a ride to Mars in
every human gut, and multiply in their excrement. We would find life on
Mars, but it would look familiar. Mars should be quarantined.
Perhaps someday the far side of the moon will be a quiet spot to listen for
radio messages from across the galaxy. For now, Congress decided it's time
to stop looking back at the moon and look forward. Constellation, the
program that was to have sent astronauts back to the moon to establish an
outpost without a purpose, was cancelled by legislation written by the
Senate and passed by the House Wednesday night. The bill also extends the
life of the shuttle for one last trip to the ISS in 2011. However, NASA
must then switch to private contractors to ferry passengers and supplies to
the largely forgotten, but still costly, ISS. Perhaps next year they can
find a way to shut the ISS down without publicly acknowledging that it had
been a pitiful mistake.
|
