Kepler 438b, a viable opportunity?

· by · in Physics. ·

Keplar 438b is around the same size as Earth is and orbits a cooler star than the sun with a year of around 35 days. Temperature wise it is around the same as the Earth – which most importantly means that water, and in principle life could exist on it…. the down side? It is blasted with solar flares every now and then which would probably wipe any inhabitants out.

And before you get too excited, it also would presently take around 2 million years to travel to this place so it isn’t a reality for our generation to ever visit it. In fact we don’t really know all that much about it, but we know enough to know that if we could withstand the  flares and actually reach the place we could live there. But this provokes a broader point in my mind, so while the question is answered the post is not done.  Why is it so exciting to find new planets and do we need to?

The appeal of a new planet

I mean isn’t it obvious? It’s new! Why does a new text book sell for more than a second hand one?… the value is the information and that is the same in both.  People like new things. The honeymoon period of a relationship is a great parallel for how humans tend to feel about new things… it is the same with Earth. The honeymoon period is over and people want to try something new. It is in the most literal sense a world of possibilities. We have in many ways messed this world up in so many ways; we have exploited the resources the world has, we kill each other over pathetic conflict and we war over borders we have defined ourselves. and don’t mean anything. A new possibility would mean we could reset the bad in theory and start a clean slate.

Of course this does beg the question of the ability of the human race to learn. Whilst on the one hand death is our greatest friend and allows us to make the most of our lives, through another lens it also makes us short sighted. People tend not to give a huge amount of concern to what will happen to the universe in 1000 years – it just does not seem relevant.

The death of the universe 

We know with complete certainty that the universe will die.. it will collapse and all life trapped within it will end. In my earlier post I talked about how individuals struggle with death. How does an entire race come to terms with extinction? Our ancestors will have to come to terms with this and if nothing is done then life will cease to exist within this universe and that will quite simply be it. If we don’t do something the universe will reach the end of it predicted timeline and we will have to live in fear of extinction. I firmly believe that we live in a multiverse – a large suspension of may different universes, in which there are various universes all at different stages of life. If we want to avoid a gruesome end, then we can’t sit around thinking this stuff is science fiction – we have to expand the limits of human travel. We have to get on and do this and find a way to jump between universes to escape the dying one and move to the next.

To finalise I pose questions not answers. Is it right to seek eternal life? We already concluded in a previous post that death was a necessary and important part of life when it comes to a single human. Well perhaps the death of the universe is a necessary part of life? Is it right or wise to push further into the unknown when our own planet is in disarray? I don’t know the answer to these questions but am always interested to hear an opinion or two.

15 responses to “Kepler 438b, a viable opportunity?”

  1. I think it will be good if wont be able to colonize another planet for long time, because then we would really appreciate at least this one and maybe cared about it more. If we would be now able to colonize planet, Earth would not have such value to us and we would not care for destroying it since we would have plenty of space to go.

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  2. Hi Joseph nice post, I feel that the universe will not end, it is almost flat and with the amount of energy to survive practically forever . A system expands when it has energy to lose, when it loses all that energy it would merge with the higher dimensional space that holds our Universe together. No doubt all the matter in our universe will end as it is not compatible with 10-11 dimensional space, but that would not stop the quantum fluctuations caused by scalar fields.. New ten dimensional manifestations of existence will continue will pop up which might be for infinitely long time

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    • A very interesting comment and not something I had thought of like that. I suppose as humans we see the universe ending as matter ceasing to exist but really there is more to it than that

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  4. Attempting to universe jump, awesome. Eternal life, not so much, something to do with aging and being frozen or whatever laborious else scientists come up with for the preservation of the physical body. Reminds me of the elders in the movie Underworld, not exactly a pretty sight, bordering gross even! 😀

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  5. Very thought provoking, not only the article, itself, but several of the comments. These subjects have been of interest to me ever since I was a tyke, much to my mother’s chagrin (she was brilliant, but the concept of delving too deeply into “what is out there” was uncomfortable for her, therefore, a “no-no” for me :/ ).

    I’ve enjoyed reading a number of your posts, most especially now, for much of this is touched upon in the novel on which I’m working. I’m in no way a scientist, and nor are any of the characters in my book, but I (and therefore they) are intelligent enough to translate these theories into lay-understanding, if that makes any sense!

    Thank you for visiting my blog, but thank you even more for maintaining such an interest site yourself. I’m quite sure it will be of benefit to me at one end or the other of my “research”.

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    • It makes perfect sense and I am very much looking forward to reading your writing. I think there is often a barrier of snobbery in science, which when broken down leaves a fascinating subject that really is accessible to everyone. In someway or another, I do believe every person is interested in the world around us. Thank you very much for reading and for commenting!

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      • Thanks. I will likely make several incorrect assumptions during the course of developing this novel…but that’s okay, too. Until there is irrevocable proof that alternate theories are impossible, science will continue to be full of theories!

        My mother used to say, “There’s always someone that knows more than you do, and sometimes they’re the ones that seem to know the least!”

        Mama was wise 😀

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      • Well, I’m posting early drafts of the first few chapters of the novel, if you’re interested.

        You’ll note that I don’t delve deeply into these and other subjects, but I do want such “experiences” to be believable, and you have a way of explaining things so that even a layperson can grasp the concepts…regardless of naysayers!

        Anyway, the several times I’ve visited your page, I’ve caught another little glimmer of “AWESOME!”

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      • Really glad to have you reading, it means a lot and even more glad that you are appreciating some of the writing! I’ve always been firmly of the belief that there isn’t anything in this universe that can’t be understood by each and every one of us, we just need to hear the explanation that resonates with us. To me – if you can’t explain something simply it just means you don’t really get it!

        And I am very much interested thank you for letting me know I am really looking forward to reading

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  6. Hi, Josef
    I can find an answer from Quran and that is it:
    یَوْمَ نَطْوِی السَّماءَ کَطَیِّ السِّجِلِّ لِلْکُتُبِ

    کَما بَدَأْنا أَوَّلَ خَلْقٍ نُعیدُهُ وَعْداً عَلَیْنا إِنَّا کُنَّا فاعِلینَ
    The Day when We will fold the heaven like the folding of a [written] sheet for the records. As We began the first creation, We will repeat it. [That is] a promise binding upon Us. Indeed, We will do it.
    If we study more about this verse we can find out that universe continues to expansion and after that, it will start contract of itself.

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    • Very interesting! I am not sure I totally agree that is is direct reference – i.e. it is not 100% clear that is what it means but it is an interesting idea none the less

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