Here’s a question for you….how many planets do we know about?

The old answer used to be 9.  Today, the answer is not 8 (with the loss of Pluto), but instead 358.    Yes…that’s right…358! For more than a decade now, astronomers have been finding distant planets orbiting distant suns.  The first was discovered in 1995.  Now, we know of 350 other planets outside of our own solar system.

Amazing isn’t?

I would love to show you a picture of these planets, but there aren’t any.  These “exoplanets” are discovred by their gravitational impacts on their suns and other planets. 

Almost all of those planets have been determined by astronomers to be much too big, or too far/too close to its sun to support life.  When astronomers say that the planets are too big, they mean that the planets have likely developed a toxic gaseous atmosphere which would almost certainly not harbor life.  If a planet was too far away or too close, liquid water may not exist.

All that scientists have found are gas giants (similar to Jupiter).  That is, until now.  This is truly some of the most exciting news from this new field of astronomy. 

A telescope in Chile was pointed at the star “Gliese” in the constellation Libra.  Two planets were recently discovered… Gliese 581 d and Gliese 581 e. 

Gliese 581 d has an orbit in what astronomers call the “habitable zone”….an orbit around the sun where a planet could sustain ingredients to support life.  The problem with 581d is its size.  According to the Grenoble Observatory in France, “d” is 8 times as large as Earth.   A big ball of just rock is unlikely, but astronomers from the observatory have stated that deep oceans could possibly exist on the planet.  Interesting, huh? I could envision at least amoeba or some other single-celled organism there, couldn’t you? 

Gliese 581 e is not in that “habitable zone” .  Instead it orbits its sun too close to hold liquid water.  However, the size of “d” is only about 2 times the size of Earth, making it the smallest exoplanet ever discovered”. Its surface is probably mainly rock, but its proximity to its su, makes it too hot to sustain life.

While these discoveries do not prove the existence of life on other planets, we are certainly getting closer to that big discovery: a potentially life harboring planet.  It would be interesting to see how the scientific and religious communities would react to such a discovery.  A scientist with the Grenoble Observatory stated that finding a planet of the right size and distance from its star is the “Holy Grail of exoplanet research”.  

What would your reaction be if this life harboring planet was found? I would be excited.  Think about the billions of stars out there.  There must be planets similar to Earth out there.  I’m confident there’s life elsewhere, but confirming it would be exciting to me. 

Let me know what your reaction would be if the “Holy Grail of exoplanet research” was found.  Drop me an email at tdelsanto@wpri.com