{"id":1751,"date":"2017-10-13T00:04:18","date_gmt":"2017-10-13T00:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=1751"},"modified":"2021-01-07T18:53:38","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T18:53:38","slug":"finding-new-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding New Worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#alien\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20160719ff\/20160829-_90889505_artwork_eso-mkornmesser-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>We could detect oxygen in Proxima Centauri b&#8217;s atmosphere. It&#8217;s a biosignature, but not proof of life.<\/p>\n<p>Some extrasolar planets are like Earth, almost. Many are unlike anything in the Solar System.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll be looking at recently-discovered worlds; some almost familiar, others wonderfully unexpected. Also an informal &#8216;top 10 best exoplanets&#8217; list.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Imagined worlds\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#lowell\">Lowell&#8217;s &#8220;Canals&#8221;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#venus\">Venus, Imagined<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#barsoom\">Barsoom, Amtor, and Science<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#lowellian\">Lowellian Drama<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#pareidolia\">Pareidolia and Percival Lowell<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In the news\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#alien\">Alien Auroras?<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#not\">Not Quite Earth-Like<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#stellar\">Stellar Grand Theft<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#extrasolar\">Extrasolar Planets: Some Truly Alien<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#earth\">&#8216;Earth 2.0,&#8217; Almost<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#strange\">Strange New Worlds<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<li>Faith, reason, and reality\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#aristarchus\">Aristarchus was Right<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#babblers\">&#8220;Babblers&#8221;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#embracing\">Embracing All Truth<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#assumptions\">Assumptions<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#life\">Life and Learning<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<h4><a name=\"lowell\"><\/a>Lowell&#8217;s &#8220;Canals&#8221;<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/paleofuture.com\/blog\/2009\/6\/27\/the-martian-base-1951.html\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20160719ff\/20160927-1951-exploration-of-space-mars-paleofuture-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>In a way, looking for life on other planets seemed much easier in 1951.<\/p>\n<p>Many folks, scientists included, thought we should look for a planet like Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Two other worlds in the Solar System, Mars and Venus, seemed promising.<\/p>\n<p>Both are inside our star&#8217;s habitable zone.<\/p>\n<p>Venus is nearly as massive as Earth. Mars has ice caps, and seasonal changes that reminded Earth-based astronomers of our planet&#8217;s temperate zone summer-winter vegetation cycle.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;d learned that much by the time Mariner 4 reached Mars. Scientists hadn&#8217;t taken Lowell&#8217;s &#8220;canals&#8221; seriously, but we were pretty confident about finding some sort of life on the red planet.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#1\">1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/europa-mars-and-someday-the-stars\/#because\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/201508ff\/20151029-623px-Mars_m04_11e-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>Then Mariner sent back back images of craters. Lots of craters.<\/p>\n<p>No &#8220;canals,&#8221; no rivers. The probe&#8217;s instruments detected no planetary magnetic field. Surface air pressure was 4.1 to 7.0 <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bar_(unit)\">millibars<\/a>, 410 to 700 <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pascal_(unit)\">pascals<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s about 0.6% of sea level pressure here. It&#8217;s not a vacuum, but far from the Earth-like atmosphere 19th century observations suggested.<\/p>\n<p>Hopes for finding life on Mars had gone from vegetation of some sort, to Lowell&#8217;s canal-building Martians, to variously-defined &#8220;simple&#8221; life, to &#8216;nothing there but craters and dust.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>We started getting a more complete picture of Mars after orbiters arrived. The planet isn&#8217;t nearly as Earth-like as we&#8217;d hoped, but the question of Martian life is still open.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re also learning that life isn&#8217;t nearly as finicky as we thought. I&#8217;ll get back to that.<\/p>\n<h4><a name=\"venus\"><\/a>Venus, Imagined<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/davidszondy.com\/futurepast\/venus.html\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20170908ff\/Venus02-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>After observing a transit in 1761, Mikhail Lomonosov said Venus might have an atmosphere. Other astronomers had confirmed Venusian air by the 1930s.<\/p>\n<p>Most figured the planet was nearly covered by clouds.<\/p>\n<p>That was enough for science fiction writers and artists.<\/p>\n<p>Pulp science fiction was in full bloom. Writers churned out stories about heroes and villains, exotic empires and mysterious wastelands. The genre&#8217;s science was more reality-based than realistic.<\/p>\n<p>Artist Frank R. Paul imagined a tropical Venus with dinosaurs and &#8220;Munchkin villages.&#8221; (&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/davidszondy.com\/futurepast\/venus.html\">Venus<\/a>,&#8221; Tales of Future Past, David S. Zondy)<\/p>\n<p>Edgar Rice Burroughs gave us rousing tales of Carson Napier&#8217;s adventures on Venus: called Amtor by its very-human natives. The adventures started when Napier made a wrong turn on his way to Mars and landed on Venus instead.<\/p>\n<p>The Burroughs Amtor tales were filled with about as much stark scientific realism as his Barsoom adventures.<\/p>\n<h4><a name=\"barsoom\"><\/a>Barsoom, Amtor, and Science<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Barsoom#Green_Martians\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/201508ff\/20151028-765px-Barsoom_green_martian-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>I&#8217;m not sure why I see more discussion of Barsoom than Amtor.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe it&#8217;s because science started catching up with imagination sooner for Mars than for Venus.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;d found carbon dioxide in Venusian atmosphere by 1940.<\/p>\n<p>Rupert Wildt used that data, plus other factors, and said Venusian surface temperatures were above water&#8217;s boiling point. Flyby and orbital missions confirmed it. The planet&#8217;s surface is over 450 \u00b0Centigrade. That&#8217;s hot enough to melt <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Solder\">solder<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If Venus supports life, it&#8217;s not &#8216;life as we know it.&#8217; Its atmosphere has sulfuric acid the way Earth&#8217;s has water.<\/p>\n<p>Life not-as-we-know-it on Venus is possible, but not likely. The planet&#8217;s atmosphere is out of chemical equilibrium.<\/p>\n<p>So is Earth&#8217;s. Our home&#8217;s atmosphere is about 20% oxygen. It&#8217;s a very reactive element. Critters like us need it, plants produce it. Without life, Earth&#8217;s atmosphere wouldn&#8217;t have nearly that much oxygen.<\/p>\n<p>Oxygen is a biosignature, evidence of life. Scientists think any sort of chemical imbalance may be a biosignature. But not necessarily proof of life.<\/p>\n<p>Probes also found a fair amount of hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide in the upper Venusian atmosphere. Those substances react with each other.<\/p>\n<p>Carbonyl sulfide is present too. It&#8217;s not easy to make in the lab, but some critters on Earth produce the chemical. The same could be true on Venus. Or not.<\/p>\n<p>Volcanic activity is another source of carbonyl sulfide on Earth. Maybe that&#8217;s where it comes from on Venus.<\/p>\n<p>Another oddity is a chlorine-rich layer just under the Venusian cloud deck.<\/p>\n<p>My guess is that something other than exotic biochemistry is happening on Venus. But I also suspect that Earth&#8217;s biochemistry is just one of many varieties. I&#8217;ll get back to that, too. Our sort of life chemistry is nucleic acid\/protein (O) in water.<\/p>\n<p>The more we learned about Mars, the less like Earth it seemed. But thinking terrestrial life could survive there seemed plausible until the 1950s.<\/p>\n<h4><a name=\"lowellian\"><\/a>Lowellian Drama<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/mars-aliens-and-seti\/#paul\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20160719ff\/20160922-Karte_Mars_Schiaparelli_MKL1888-658.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\"><\/a><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">(From Giovanni Schiaparelli, via Meyers Konversationslexikon\/Wikimedia Commons, used w\/o permission.)<\/span><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/mars-aliens-and-seti\/#crash\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20160719ff\/20161129-Giovanni_map_mars-658.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\"><\/a><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">(From Giovanni Schiaparelli, From NASA&#8217;s &#8220;On Mars: Exploration of the Red Planet. 1958-1978, via Wikimedia Commons, used w\/o permission.)<\/span><br \/>\n(Giovanni Schiaparelli&#8217;s maps of Mars, 1877 (top) and 1877-1886. (bottom))<\/p>\n<p>Someone noticed Martian polar ice caps in the 1600s: Giovanni Domenico Cassini or maybe someone else.<\/p>\n<p>Other astronomers noticed Martian seasonal changes in the 1700s.<\/p>\n<p>Astronomical tech kept improving. Mapping Mars started in the 1800s. Fr. Pietro Angelo Secchi, at the Vatican Observatory, drew some of the first color maps of Mars.<\/p>\n<p>Fr. Secchi described &#8220;channels&#8221;on the Martian surface in 1858. &#8220;Channels&#8221; in Italian is &#8220;canali.&#8221; &#8220;Canali&#8221; aren&#8217;t necessarily artificial. I don&#8217;t know if Lowell would have seen &#8220;canals&#8221; on Mars without that &#8220;canali&#8221; as inspiration.<\/p>\n<p>Giovanni Schiaparelli mapped an extensive canali network 1877. We still use many of his names for Martian features: like Hellas, Tharsis, and Chryse.<\/p>\n<p>Channels, natural and otherwise, usually have water in them on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Assuming that water filled the Martian channels seemed reasonable. At first.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"william\"><\/a>William Wallace Campbell&#8217;s 1894 spectral analysis showed no water in the Martian atmosphere. (<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/mars-aliens-and-seti\/#paul\">December 16, 2016<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"percival\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Percival_Lowell#Canals_of_Mars\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20160719ff\/20160922-Lowell_Mars_channels-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>Percival Lowell saw &#8220;canali.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He was pretty sure they held water: and were canals, artificial channels. His &#8220;Mars&#8221; (1895), &#8220;Mars and Its Canals&#8221; (1906), and &#8220;Mars As the Abode of Life&#8221; (1908) said they were Martian engineering projects.<\/p>\n<p>It makes a good story: citizens of dying world, uniting in a doomed struggle for survival.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;&#8230;On the earth the sea-bottoms still hold seas, on Mars they only nourish vegetation&#8230;.<br \/>\n&#8220;&#8230;once fertile fields become deserts&#8230;.<br \/>\n&#8220;&#8230;That it [a canal network] joins the surface from pole to pole and girdles it at the equator betrays a single purpose there at work. &#8230; Nations must have sunk their local patriotisms in a wider breadth of view and the planet be a unit to the general good&#8230;.&#8221;<br \/>\n(&#8220;Mars as the abode of life,&#8221; Percival Lowell (1908))<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h4><a name=\"pareidolia\"><\/a>Pareidolia and Percival Lowell<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Librarian_(painting)\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20170501ff\/20170714-Arcimboldo_Librarian_Stokholm-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>I think Percival Lowell was telling the truth, as he saw it.<\/p>\n<p>From what I know of his work, it seems likely that he honestly believed he was seeing canals on Mars.<\/p>\n<p>I also think he was mistaken.<\/p>\n<p>We didn&#8217;t get a clear look at Mars until Mariner and other probes sent images from their flyby and orbital missions.<\/p>\n<p>Astronomers had been viewing the planet from Earth&#8217;s surface, millions of miles away, through our turbulent atmosphere.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#2\">2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>The best human observer is still human. Sometimes we see things that aren&#8217;t there.<\/p>\n<p>Arcimboldo&#8217;s odd paintings use pareidolia.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s what psychologists call our knack for unconsciously arranging jumbled data into something familiar.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"were\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cydonia_(region_of_Mars)#.22Face_on_Mars.22\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20170908ff\/20171013-Martian_face_viking_cropped-165.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>We&#8217;re really good at seeing faces.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes we see faces when we&#8217;re looking at a pile of books or a piece of chicken. (<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/miracles\/#using\">August 13, 2017<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s one reason the Catholic Church has procedures for evaluating reports of miracles. We&#8217;ve been dealing with astonishing stories for millennia.<\/p>\n<p>Some folks who report them honestly believe they witnessed a miracle, or think they might have. Some want others to think they did. A few saw something extraordinary happening. And that&#8217;s yet again another topic.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h4><a name=\"alien\"><\/a><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\">1. <\/span>Alien Auroras?<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/proxima-centauri-b-looking-for-life\/#proxima\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20160719ff\/20160829-_90889505_artwork_eso-mkornmesser-658.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\"><\/a><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">(From From ESO\/M. Kornmesser, via BBC News, used w\/o permission.)<\/span><br \/>\n(Artist&#8217;s concept of Proxima Centauri b.)<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/38397-proxima-centauri-planet-could-be-green.html\">A &#8216;Pale Green Dot&#8217;: Why Proxima Centauri b May Have a Shiny Tint<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\nNola Taylor Redd, Space.com (October 9, 2017)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A world orbiting the sun&#8217;s closest stellar neighbor may have a shiny green tint to it \u2014 and not necessarily because it&#8217;s covered in leafy plants.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Researchers have found a way to characterize potential auroras on the nearby exoplanet Proxima Centauri b and found that, if the planet sports oxygen in its atmosphere, the auroras may give the atmosphere a greenish cast&#8230;..&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Proxima_Centauri#Observation\">Proxima Centauri<\/a> is a red dwarf. We didn&#8217;t know red dwarf stars existed until astronomers started using telescopes.<\/p>\n<p>I haven&#8217;t confirmed this, but I think Robert Innes was first to spot one, in 1915.<\/p>\n<p>Since then we&#8217;ve learned that the part of our galaxy we can see has more red dwarfs than stars like our sun.<\/p>\n<p>Many are flare stars. We&#8217;re not entirely sure, but scientists think those red dwarfs have flares like our sun&#8217;s; and as powerful.<\/p>\n<p>Harlow Shapley said Proxima Centauri was a flare star in 1951. Scientists looking through photographic plates taken since its discovery. Shapley was right.<\/p>\n<p>Our star&#8217;s flares didn&#8217;t affect us much, apart from lighting up northern skies, until we started stringing telegraph lines.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#3\">3<\/a><\/sup> We eventually connected sparking telegraph equipment and aurora with solar &#8216;weather.&#8217;<\/p>\n<h4><a name=\"not\"><\/a>Not Quite Earth-Like<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/seti-what-if\/#worlds\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20170908ff\/Gliese_667_Cc_sunset-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>We&#8217;ve found planets around many red dwarfs, including Gliese 667 Cc and the TRAPPIST-1 system. (<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/new-worlds-the-search-continues\/#not\">June 2, 2017<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/seti-what-if\/#worlds\">December 23, 2016<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/proxima-centauri-b-looking-for-life\/#proxima\">September 2, 2016<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Some planets circling red dwarfs are like Earth. They&#8217;re about the same mass and diameter.<\/p>\n<p>That very strongly suggests they&#8217;re made of rock and metal, like the Solar System&#8217;s inner worlds. Some even have atmospheres. We think the odds of finding life on one of those planets is pretty good. Or not.<\/p>\n<p>On the one hand, some would be about the right temperature. Red dwarfs last much longer than stars like ours, so life could have plenty of time to develop.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, many red dwarfs are flare stars. Stellar flares affect Earth, but not enough to bother life here.<\/p>\n<p>Flares on red dwarfs are about as powerful as Sol&#8217;s. They&#8217;d have about the same effect on planets as far from the stars as Earth is from ours.<\/p>\n<p>But a red dwarf&#8217;s habitable zone is tiny compared to the Solar System&#8217;s. A planet at the right distance to host life would almost certainly be tidally locked, with one face always facing its sun.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Sunlight&#8217; would be twice as bright during a flare.<\/p>\n<p>That might not make a big difference, but the radiation would. At this point we&#8217;re not sure if an Earth-like planet&#8217;s magnetic field could be strong enough to protect its atmosphere and any critters living there.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#4\">4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Prospects for finding life on Proxima Centauri b look slim. Probably.<\/p>\n<p>On the &#8216;up&#8217; side, the planet&#8217;s aurora should be at least 100 times brighter that Earth&#8217;s. That&#8217;s bright enough to register on our instruments, here in the Solar System.<\/p>\n<p>In a way, we&#8217;re now at the point we were three centuries back, when astronomers could see ice caps on Mars.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h4><a name=\"stellar\"><\/a><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\">2. <\/span>Stellar Grand Theft<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/the-closest-star-system-to-earth-could-be-concealing-a-dark-long-kept-secret\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20170908ff\/20171009-464-proxima_1024-658.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\"><\/a><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">(From NASA\/ESA\/Hubble, via Science Alert, used w\/o permission.)<\/span><br \/>\nPeter Dockrill, Science Alert (October 9, 2017)<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/the-closest-star-system-to-earth-could-be-concealing-a-dark-long-kept-secret\">The Closest Star System to Earth Could Be Concealing a Dark, Long-Kept Secret<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\nInterstellar theft is a thing.<br \/>\nPeter Dockrill, Science Alert (October 9, 2017)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The nearest star system to our own could hold our best chance of finding a habitable, Earth-like exoplanet \u2013 but it may also be concealing a dark, long-kept secret.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Alpha Centauri, located just 4.37 light-years from our own Solar System, is the closest thing we have to a neighbour in the galaxy, but it looks like one of its three stars could be a victim of theft on an interstellar scale&#8230;.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Don&#8217;t let expressions like &#8220;theft on an interstellar scale&#8221; fool you. There&#8217;s solid science going on here.<\/p>\n<p>Our Solar System&#8217;s planetary orbits are pretty stable, and have been for the last several billion years, most likely.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/tides-and-our-moons-origin\/#when\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20160719ff\/20161205-formation_of_the_Moon_944x708-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>We&#8217;ve learned a bit about gravity, planets, and orbital dynamics.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists are pretty sure that orbits of Mercury, Venus, and Earth are stable.<\/p>\n<p>Fairly stable, that is. Venus and Mercury almost certainly won&#8217;t collide during the next few billion years.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re nearly certain that the Solar System wasn&#8217;t nearly that stable at first.<\/p>\n<p>What we&#8217;re learning about this universe makes a lot more sense if we assume that gravity and inertia have worked pretty much the same way for the last few billion years.<\/p>\n<p>We think moon- and planet-size objects changed orbits fairly often when the Solar System was new. Sometimes they collided. That may be how we got our moon. (<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/exoplanet-frontier\/#still\">June 30, 2017<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/tides-and-our-moons-origin\/#when\">December 9, 2016<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/philae-jupiter-and-life\/#dynamics\">September 9, 2016<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Making the same assumptions about reality and physical laws let astronomers make sense of what they observe in our part of this galaxy.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8216;interstellar theft&#8217; paper published last month may or may not be on the right track. I think the idea looks plausible. Whether or not it&#8217;s accurate? That&#8217;s something we&#8217;ll be closer to knowing when scientists analyze more data.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s science.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#5\">5<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>Intellectual rotgut like the recent Nibiru predictions is something else.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#6\">6<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>I suspect it&#8217;s a high-proof mix of fermented tabloid science, my culture&#8217;s folklore and superstitions \u2014 with a dash of Bible verses. (<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/planet-9-maybe-nibiru-no\/\">September 29, 2017<\/a>)<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h4><a name=\"extrasolar\"><\/a><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\">3. <\/span>Extrasolar Planets: Some Truly Alien<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/WASP-19b\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20170908ff\/20171010-800px-Exoplanet_Comparison_WASP-19_b-658.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\"><\/a><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\">(From Aldaron, via Wikimedia Commons, used w\/o permission.)<\/span><br \/>\n(Best-fit size of WASP-19 b compared to Solar System&#8217;s Jupiter; as reported in the Open Exoplanet Catalogue in November 2015.)<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.digitaltrends.com\/cool-tech\/best-exoplanets\/\">The 10 best exoplanets we&#8217;ve discovered so far, ranked<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\nPatrick Daniels, Digital Trends (October 1, 2017)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Are you tired of the same old scenery? Do you look up at the sky and think, &#8216;Man I&#8217;m tired of all this blue!&#8217; ? Has your wanderlust exhausted Earth&#8217;s options?&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sci-news.com\/astronomy\/gliese-3942b-super-earth-05258.html\">Gliese 3942b: Super-Earth Found Orbiting Nearby Star<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\nNatali Anderson, Sci-News (September 25, 2017)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Designated Gliese 3942b, the newfound alien world is about 7.1 times as massive as the Earth&#8230;.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.skyandtelescope.com\/astronomy-news\/atmosphere-heavy-metals\/\">An Atmosphere of Heavy Metals<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\nJavier Barbuzano, Sky and Telescope (September 18, 2017)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Researchers have found strong evidence of titanium oxide in the atmosphere of a hot giant planet, adding new insights to the complex motions of these planets&#8217; extreme atmospheres.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Astronomers might have observed one of the molecules that govern the atmospheric structure of a hot Jupiter&#8230;.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.skyandtelescope.com\/astronomy-news\/puffed-hot-jupiter-surprisingly-dark\/\">Puffed-Up Hot Jupiter Is Surprisingly Dark<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\nJavier Barbuzano, Sky and Telescope (September 21, 2017)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Researchers have found that a football-shaped, ultra-hot gas giant that\u2019s being devoured by its host star is also one of the least reflective exoplanets ever found.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Imagine a football-shaped planet covered in a fresh layer of asphalt and you might get close to what WASP-12b, a hot Jupiter 900 light-years away, would look like to a hypothetical space traveler. Add a faint red glow like that of a smoldering iron and you\u2019re probably dead on&#8230;.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>We didn&#8217;t start finding planets circling other stars until recently. But folks have wondered about other worlds for a very long time.<\/p>\n<p>A few centuries ago we learned that Aristarchus of Samos was right. The stars are other suns. More about that near the end of this post.<\/p>\n<p>During the 19th century, a few folks said they&#8217;d spotted planets circling other stars.<\/p>\n<p>Most astronomers didn&#8217;t take the claims seriously. It wasn&#8217;t that they &#8220;believed in&#8221; a lack of extrasolar planets.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/exoplanet-frontier\/#unexpected\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20170501ff\/20170626-spacedocom-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>Those who had their heads on straight thought they couldn&#8217;t detect exoplanets with their technology. They were right.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists didn&#8217;t &#8220;believe in&#8221; a planet circling Barnard&#8217;s star, either.<\/p>\n<p>But Peter van de Kamp had pretty good evidence for a roughly Jupiter-mass planet orbiting the red dwarf.<\/p>\n<p>That was in 1963.<\/p>\n<p>It took a decade of painstaking work to show that it probably isn&#8217;t there. Follow-up observations with much better tech haven&#8217;t found anything.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists are pretty sure the star doesn&#8217;t host any Jupiter-size planets in close orbits. Smaller worlds and planets in wide orbits are possible, but haven&#8217;t been detected.<\/p>\n<p>We have, however, found more than three thousand other exoplanets, with more being confirmed as scientists work through growing databases.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#7\">7<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re also learning that the Solar System&#8217;s planets are a small sample of worlds we&#8217;ll find.<\/p>\n<h4><a name=\"earth\"><\/a>&#8216;Earth 2.0,&#8217; Almost<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/trappist-1-water-life\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20160719ff\/20170227-eso1706d-furtak-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>We haven&#8217;t, quite, found &#8216;Earth 2.0.&#8217; But we have found quite a few almost like ours. Seven circle TRAPPIST-1.<\/p>\n<p>TRAPPIST-1 is 39.5 light-years away. It&#8217;s close, but not the nearest planetary system. I&#8217;m reasonably sure we&#8217;ll send probes to Proxima Centauri and Epsilon Eridani first.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"patrick\"><\/a>Patrick Daniels put his &#8217;10 best&#8217; list in reverse order, with #1 coming last.<\/p>\n<p>I enjoyed his lighthearted look at some of the darkest, hottest, and strangest worlds we&#8217;ve found so far.<\/p>\n<p>I doubt some of his names, like &#8220;The Dracula Planet&#8221; for TrES-2B, will get the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iau.org\/\">IAU<\/a> stamp of approval.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/International_Astronomical_Union\">International Astronomical Union<\/a>. It&#8217;s a professional outfit of PhD-plus astronomers. One of their functions is giving their official stamp of approval to names for astronomical objects and features.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll acknowledge that it&#8217;s nice having somewhat-consistent names for all the worlds we&#8217;re finding. It&#8217;s arguably easier than remembering that the Charles V comet and Great Comet of 1556 are the same comet: C\/1556 D1. (<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/jesus-and-expectations\/#comets\">December 11, 2016<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Happily, the IAU doesn&#8217;t seem particularly pompous. Not yet.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the Patrick Daniels &#8216;top 10,&#8217; with my not-as-colorful descriptions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>TrES-2b \u2014 The Dracula Planet<\/b><br \/>\nKepler-1b, a hot Jupiter, darkest known exoplanet<\/li>\n<li><b>Kepler-36c\/b \u2014 That&#8217;s no moon!<\/b><br \/>\nTwo planets in very small orbits<\/li>\n<li><b>OGLE-2005-BLG-390 \u2014 Love the snow? This one is nicknamed &#8216;Hoth&#8217;<\/b><br \/>\nAbout five times Earth&#8217;s mass, coldest known exoplanet<\/li>\n<li><b>PSR B1257+12 system \u2014 A light show to die for<\/b><br \/>\nA pulsar named Lich with three known planets: Draugr, Poltergeist and Phobetor<\/li>\n<li><b>55 Cancri e \u2014 An intergalactic prospector&#8217;s dream<\/b><br \/>\nEight times Earth&#8217;s mass, probably a &#8216;carbon planet&#8217;<\/li>\n<li><b>Kepler-16b \u2014 Where your shadow will never be lonely<\/b><br \/>\nSaturn-mass planet orbiting a binary star<\/li>\n<li><b>Wasp 12 b \u2014 A crumbling planet being eaten by its sun<\/b><br \/>\nA &#8216;hot Jupiter&#8217; orbiting a sun-like star<\/li>\n<li><b>Kepler-452b \u2014 Earth&#8217;s bigger, older cousin<\/b><br \/>\n&#8220;Earth 2.0,&#8221; almost<\/li>\n<li><b>Proxima B \u2014 Only a hop, skip, and four light years away<\/b><br \/>\nA nearby terrestrial planet<\/li>\n<li><b>Trappist-1 System \u2014 A fistfull of Earths<\/b><br \/>\nSeven terrestrial planets<br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: small;\">(Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.digitaltrends.com\/cool-tech\/best-exoplanets\/\">Patrick Daniels<\/a>, Digital Trends, Wikipedia)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><a name=\"strange\"><\/a>Strange New Worlds<\/h4>\n<p>Gliese 3942b, WASP-19b and WASP-12b aren&#8217;t like any planets in the Solar System.<\/p>\n<p>Gliese 3942b is a super-earth: a rocky world like Earth, but much more massive. We&#8217;ve found quite a few. Some might support life. Probably not Gliese 3942b, not life as we know it. It&#8217;s a hot world. Scientists figure lead wouldn&#8217;t melt on its surface: it would boil, fast.<\/p>\n<p>WASP-19b and WASP-12b are hot Jupiters. We&#8217;re finding a fair number of these, too.<\/p>\n<p>I think they&#8217;re more of a surprise than the super-earths. Jupiter and other big outer planets in the Solar System are just that: outer planets.<\/p>\n<p>Models for planetary system development generally assumed that the Solar System was typical. It seemed reasonable.<\/p>\n<p>We expected other systems to have comparatively small, rocky worlds close to the star, big hydrogen-rich planets out where it&#8217;s nice and cool.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s not what we&#8217;re finding.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists could have assumed that they were wrong about everything and chucked the idea of understanding physical laws.<\/p>\n<p>The notion that nothing makes sense, including the universe, may be fashionable. But most scientists still figure physical laws exist. That means we can learn how things work.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of giving up, scientists took another look at how planets form. I talked about orbital dynamics earlier.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;ve got all the answers. I&#8217;m quite sure we don&#8217;t. But we&#8217;re solving some puzzles, finding intriguing new ones in the process.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h4><a name=\"aristarchus\"><\/a>Aristarchus was Right<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/adam-and-the-animals\/#zeal\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20160719ff\/BiblicalCosmologies.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>Folks have wondered about how Earth fits into the universe for a very long time.<\/p>\n<p>Mesopotamian cosmology was closely tied to their religious beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>Mesopotamian literature is almost certainly the source for imagery like &#8220;the pillars of the earth&#8221; in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/1samuel\/2#09002008\">1 Samuel 2:8<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/job\/9#22009006\">Job 9:6<\/a>, and the dome of heaven in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/psalms\/150#23150001\">Psalms 150:1<\/a>. (<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/kic-8462852-and-strange-stars\/#psalms\">December 2, 2016<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Ancient Greeks had their religions, too.<\/p>\n<p>Their philosophers considered theological issues. They also discussed the sort of realities we call &#8220;scientific.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Some said we lived in a universe of nested spheres, with Earth in the center. Some figured Earth goes around our sun.<\/p>\n<p>Philosophers came up with pretty good reasons for thinking their ideas were right.<\/p>\n<p>With their technology, they couldn&#8217;t go much beyond making compelling arguments.<\/p>\n<p>After we developed telescopes, and improved on the original designs, we realized that some of the ideas matched reality better than others.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve learned that Aristarchus was right. The stars are other suns.<\/p>\n<p>Aristotle said Earth is at the center of the universe, and is fundamentally different from the sun, planets, and stars.<\/p>\n<p>Aristotle was a very smart man, and had good logic backing up his cosmology.<\/p>\n<p>Folks like Ptolemy had tweaked it a bit, trying to make it fit observations. They did a pretty good job.<\/p>\n<p>European scholars rediscovered Aristotle, starting around 1100. Many were huge fans of the Greek philosopher when speculation about other worlds was on the table.<\/p>\n<p>Most academics of the 12th century figured Aristotle&#8217;s geocentric universe was on the right track.<\/p>\n<p>Some Aristotelians said other worlds couldn&#8217;t exist: because Aristotle said so.<\/p>\n<p>In 1277 the bishop of Paris got involved. He said discussion was okay, <strong>and<\/strong> that God decides how the universe works. Not Aristotle. (<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/a-mixed-bag\/#propaganda\">August 4, 2017<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/baryons-gravity-waves\/#from\">March 24, 2017<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/kic-8462852-and-strange-stars\/#God\">December 2, 2016<\/a>)<\/p>\n<h4><a name=\"babblers\"><\/a>&#8220;Babblers&#8221;<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/repeatable-results-that-arent\/#there\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20170306ff\/20170426-450px-De_revolutionibus_1543-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>Fast-forward to the 1500s. European politics was headed toward the Thirty Years&#8217; War.<\/p>\n<p>It was an inopportune time to declare unyielding allegiance to revolutionary ideas. Or refurbished old ideas in revolutionary wrapping, for that matter.<\/p>\n<p>That got Giordano Bruno killed.<\/p>\n<p>Copernicus had the good sense to say his heliocentric model was theory. He realized that &#8220;there will be babblers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Quite a few non-babbling folks, including a cardinal and a bishop, urged him to publish. (<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/repeatable-results-that-arent\/#there\">April 28, 2017<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Galileo insisted that folks accept his heliocentric ideas as incontrovertible fact.<\/p>\n<p>Galileo was right, pretty much. But it would be centuries before astronomical tech let scientists find evidence backing up Copernican math. Almost.<\/p>\n<p>Copernicus wasn&#8217;t spot-on accurate, but his heliocentric model matched reality better than Aristotle&#8217;s physics. (<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/new-worlds-the-search-continues\/#galileo\">June 2, 2017<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Presenting Giordano Bruno as a heroic scientist, martyred by despotic forces of superstition and oppression, seems to have started in the 19th century. There&#8217;s a little truth to it.<\/p>\n<p>As far as I can tell, Bruno was executed because he said his theology must be true. His personality apparently alienated folks, too.<\/p>\n<p>I think killing someone for insisting on pantheism or pandeism is wrong. But I don&#8217;t think that makes him a martyr of science.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#8\">8<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<h4><a name=\"embracing\"><\/a>Embracing All Truth<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/exoplanet-frontier\/#about\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20160719ff\/20160916-794px-LombergA1024-658.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\"><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth\u2014in a word, to know himself\u2014so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves (cf. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/exodus\/33#02033018\">Ex 33:18<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/psalms\/27#23027008\">Ps 27:8<\/a>&#8211;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/psalms\/27#23027009\">9<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/isaiah\/63#29063002\">63:2<\/a>&#8211;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/isaiah\/63#29063003\">3<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/john\/14#51014008\">Jn 14:8<\/a>; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/1john\/3#70003002\">1 Jn 3:2<\/a>)&#8230;.&#8221;<br \/>\n(&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/w2.vatican.va\/content\/john-paul-ii\/en\/encyclicals\/documents\/hf_jp-ii_enc_14091998_fides-et-ratio.html\">Fides et Ratio<\/a>,&#8221; Pope Saint John Paul II (September 14, 1998))<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve seen my &#8216;science&#8217; posts before, you know why I think science is a good idea, <strong>and<\/strong> think faith and reason should get along.<\/p>\n<p>Some folks apparently believe that religion and science are at war, that someone can either be reasonable or Christian. Or at least think faith might be unreasonable.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t see it that way. I&#8217;m a Catholic.<\/p>\n<p>Using my brain isn&#8217;t an option for me. It&#8217;s a requirement. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s1c3a1.htm#156\">156<\/a>&#8211;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s1c3a1.htm#159\">159<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p3s1c1a5.htm#1762\">1762<\/a>&#8211;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p3s1c1a5.htm#1775\">1775<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p3s1c1a6.htm#1776\">1776<\/a>&#8211;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p3s1c1a6.htm#1779\">1779<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p3s2c2a5.htm#2293\">2293<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Faith is, or should be, my willing and conscious decision to embrace all of God&#8217;s truth. <strong>All<\/strong> of it, not just what we&#8217;d learned in Aristotle&#8217;s day. (Catechism, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s1c3a1.htm#142\">142<\/a>&#8211;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s1c3a1.htm#155\">155<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Someone doesn&#8217;t have to be a scientist to be a Catholic. That&#8217;s just as well for me, since my academic training is mostly in history and literature.<\/p>\n<p>But being a Catholic doesn&#8217;t interfere with being a scientist. (<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/miracles\/#faith\">August 13, 2017<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/repeatable-results-that-arent\/#science\"> April 28, 2017<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>I think God&#8217;s universe follows knowable physical laws. (Catechism, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s2c1p3.htm#268\">268<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s2c1p4.htm#279\">279<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s2c1p4.htm#299\">299<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s2c1p4.htm#301\">301<\/a>\u2013<a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s2c1p4.htm#305\">305<\/a>; &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20150212-ff-Documents\/Gaudium_et_spes.pdf\">Gaudium et spes<\/a>,&#8221; 5, 15, Bl. Pope Paul VI (December 7, 1965))<\/p>\n<p>Being curious, thinking, and studying the universe, is part of being human. The order and beauty we notice in the process is one way we can learn about God. (Catechism, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s1c1.htm#31\">31<\/a>&#8211;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s1c1.htm#32\">32<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s1c1.htm#35\">35<\/a>\u2013<a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s1c1.htm#36\">36<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s2c1p4.htm#301\">301<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s2c1p4.htm#303\">303<\/a>&#8211;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s2c1p4.htm#306\">306<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s2c1p4.htm#311\">311<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p1s2c1p4.htm#319\">319<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p3s1c1a1.htm#1704\">1704<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p3s2c2a5.htm#2293\">2293<\/a>&#8211;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p3s2c2a5.htm#2296\">2296<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve known Catholics whose devotion to ignoring what we&#8217;re learning about God&#8217;s creation is as fervent as the most rabid &#8216;creation science&#8217; fundamentalist&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<p>Happily, I realize that what they believe isn&#8217;t what the Church has been saying. And that&#8217;s yet another topic.<\/p>\n<h4><a name=\"assumptions\"><\/a>Assumptions<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/davidszondy.com\/futurepast\/man-from-venus.html\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20160719ff\/ManfromVenus-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>Percival Lowell assumed that Martians were similar to us in biology and psychology.<\/p>\n<p>But I don&#8217;t think he or any scientist thought Martian princesses would look like Dejah Thoris of Helium. Or even that their society must include princesses.<\/p>\n<p>If we have neighbors who aren&#8217;t from Earth we may eventually meet some who look almost exactly like humanity&#8217;s current model: at a distance and in dim light.<\/p>\n<p>I think fictional aliens like Frank R. Paul&#8217;s &#8220;man from Venus&#8221; are slightly more plausible. Not in detail, but in not being too obviously human-like.<\/p>\n<p>Even there, Paul&#8217;s aliens often had our body plan. Right down to being upright bipeds.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe that is the only possible shape for creatures with bodies and free will.<\/p>\n<p>I strongly suspect God is more inventive than pulp science fiction artists. But I won&#8217;t say that we must have neighbors: or that we can&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>Again, I&#8217;m a Catholic. The 1277 rules were rescinded, but the principle still applies. God&#8217;s God, I&#8217;m not, and neither is any expert. Not even Aristotle.<\/p>\n<h4><a name=\"life\"><\/a>Life and Learning<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/seti-what-if\/#what\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20130220ff\/Cambian-Period-Burgess-Shale-520-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>Like I said earlier, life isn&#8217;t nearly as finicky as we thought.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve found critters on Earth&#8217;s ocean floor, clustered around hydrothermal vents. They&#8217;re thriving at temperatures that would kill us, even if we had enough oxygen.<\/p>\n<p>Even critters living in conditions we find comfortable don&#8217;t all look like us. Insects, for example, have their skeletons on the outside.<\/p>\n<p>Terrestrial life hasn&#8217;t always been as it is now.<\/p>\n<p>Body plans for some Cambrian critters are like today&#8217;s models. Others, like the \u2014 thing \u2014 with five eyes and one tentacle: not so much.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/seti-what-if\/#not\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20130220ff\/598px-Agaricocrinus_americanus_Carboniferous_Indiana-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>About two thirds of Earth&#8217;s animals were sessile, attached to the seafloor, until about a quarter-billion years back.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe animal-analogs invariably shift from mostly-sessile to the more mobile mode we&#8217;re used to. Or maybe not.<\/p>\n<p>People, self-willed creatures with bodies, might be as incurably social and noisy as we are. Maybe that&#8217;s inextricably linked to intelligence.<\/p>\n<p>Or maybe it&#8217;s just one possible option. (<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/new-worlds-the-search-continues\/#more\">June 2, 2017<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/seti-what-if\/#noteven\">December 23, 2016<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not up to me. This is God&#8217;s creation. God decides how it works. Part of our job is learning about it.<\/p>\n<p>Terrestrial organisms share a common biochemistry, although details vary. Some bacteria are photosynthetic but not green, for example. Oxygen is toxic to some.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t think there must be life on Venus because something&#8217;s maintaining a chemical imbalance in the atmosphere. But scientists aren&#8217;t ruling it out.<\/p>\n<p>All terrestrial life uses water as a solvent. Some scientists think life not-as-we-know-it could use sulfuric acid instead.<\/p>\n<p>Hydrogen sulfide is another possible water-substitute, and fairly common on Jupiter&#8217;s moon Io.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/#9\">9<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p>We don&#8217;t know if any of the hypothetical life chemistries scientists are finding actually exist. But scientists have mathematical models saying they could.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s good to see other scientists following up on Boston University&#8217;s Isaac Asimov&#8217;s &#8217;60s alternative biochemistries speculations:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fluorosilicone in fluorosilicone<\/li>\n<li>Fluorocarbon in sulfur<\/li>\n<li>Nucleic acid\/protein (O) in water<\/li>\n<li>Nucleic acid\/protein (N) in ammonia<\/li>\n<li>Lipid in methane<\/li>\n<li>Lipid in hydrogen<br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: x-small;\">(&#8220;View from a Height&#8221; Isaac Asimov (1963), Lancer Books (p. 63))<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We&#8217;re third from the top in that list, nucleic acid\/protein (O) in water.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/labor-day-seti\/#seti\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20130220ff\/the_search-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" align=\"right\"><\/a>If we find life on other worlds, I think it could easily be made of nucleic acids and proteins in water.<\/p>\n<p>We could find nothing but life that&#8217;s biochemically like Earth&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<p>But I wouldn&#8217;t count on it.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve learned that other planets in the Solar System, even the ones a bit like Earth, aren&#8217;t quite like Earth.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve learned that some worlds circling other stars are a bit like the Solar System&#8217;s. Others are not.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve learned that Earth and this universe do not follow Aristotelian physics.<\/p>\n<p>We may find life throughout this galaxy. Or not. Either way, I think we&#8217;ll keep learning that there&#8217;s more to learn.<\/p>\n<p>And that&#8217;s still another topic:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/labor-day-seti\/\">Labor Day SETI<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(September 8, 2017)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/exoplanet-frontier\/\">Exoplanet Frontier<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(June 30, 2017)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/life-enceladus-gliese-1132-b\/\">Looking for Life: Enceladus and Gliese 1132 b<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(April 21, 2017)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/trappist-1-water-life\/\">TRAPPIST-1: Water? Life??<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(March 3, 2017)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/proxima-centauri-b-looking-for-life\/\">Proxima Centauri b, Looking for Life<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(September 2, 2016)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<p><sup><a name=\"1\"><\/a>1<\/sup> Looking for life, early informed speculation:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wikipedia\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/History_of_Mars_observation\">History of Mars observation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Observations_and_explorations_of_Venus\">Observations and explorations of Venus<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Life_on_Mars\">Life on Mars<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Life_on_Mars#Early_speculation\">Early speculation<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><sup><a name=\"2\"><\/a>2<\/sup> Venus and Mars, imagined and real:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wikipedia\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Atmosphere_of_Mars\">Atmosphere of Mars<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Atmosphere_of_Venus\">Atmosphere of Venus<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mars\">Mars<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mars_in_fiction\">Mars in fiction<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Venus\">Venus<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Venus_in_fiction\">Venus in fiction<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/stream\/marsabodeoflife00loweiala\/marsabodeoflife00loweiala_djvu.txt\">Mars as the abode of life<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\nPercival Lowell (1908) via <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/about\/\">Internet Archive<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><sup><a name=\"3\"><\/a>3<\/sup> Lights in the sky:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wikipedia\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Aurora\">Aurora<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Aurora#Interaction_of_the_solar_wind_with_Earth\">Interaction of the solar wind with Earth<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Aurora#Historical_theories.2C_superstition_and_mythology\">Historical theories, superstition and mythology<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Aurora#Auroral_events_of_historical_significance\">Auroral events of historical significance<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Coronal_mass_ejection\">Coronal mass ejection<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Coronal_mass_ejection#Impact_on_Earth\">Impact on Earth<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Coronal_mass_ejection#Theoretical_models\">Theoretical models<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Coronal_mass_ejection#History\">History<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Geomagnetic_storm\">Flare star<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Earth's_magnetic_field\">Red dwarf<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Solar_storm_of_1859\">Solar storm of 1859<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sws.bom.gov.au\/Educational\/3\/1\/1\">A Solar Flare Effect<\/a><br \/>\nMagnetic Field, Space Weather Services, Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/journals.aps.org\/prl\/abstract\/10.1103\/PhysRevLett.117.171101\">Transient Weakening of Earth&#8217;s Magnetic Shield Probed by a Cosmic Ray Burst<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: small;\">P.\u2009K. Mohanty, K.\u2009P. Arunbabu, T. Aziz, S.\u2009R. Dugad, S.\u2009K. Gupta, B. Hariharan, P. Jagadeesan, A. Jain, S.\u2009D. Morris, B.\u2009S. Rao, Y. Hayashi, S. Kawakami, A. Oshima, S. Shibata, S. Raha, P. Subramanian, H. Kojima<\/span>; abstract; Physical Review Letters (October 20, 2016)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><sup><a name=\"4\"><\/a>4<\/sup> Habitability and habitable zones, informed speculation:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wikipedia\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Biosignature\">Biosignature<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Circumstellar_habitable_zone\">Circumstellar habitable zone<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Extraterrestrial_life\">Extraterrestrial life<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Habitability_of_red_dwarf_systems\">Habitability of red dwarf systems<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Planetary_habitability\">Planetary habitability<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Purple_bacteria\">Purple bacteria<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rare_Earth_hypothesis\">Rare Earth hypothesis<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tidal_locking\">Tidal locking<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tidal_locking#Mechanism\">Mechanism<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tidal_locking#Rotation.E2.80.93orbit_resonance\">Rotation\u2013orbit resonance<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tidal_locking#Occurrence\">Occurrence<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.3847\/1538-4357\/aa6040\">The Pale Green Dot: A Method to Characterize Proxima Centauri b Using Exo-Aurorae<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: small;\">Rodrigo Luger, Jacob Lustig-Yaeger, David P. Fleming, Matt A. Tilley, Eric Agol, Victoria S. Meadows, Russell Deitrick, Rory Barnes<\/span>; Abstract; The Astrophysical Journal (March 3, 2017)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><sup><a name=\"5\"><\/a>5<\/sup> Science:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wikipedia\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Formation_and_evolution_of_the_Solar_System\">Formation and evolution of the Solar System<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Stability_of_the_Solar_System\">Stability of the Solar System<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Planet_Nine\">Planet Nine<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nibiru_cataclysm\">Nibiru cataclysm<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nibiru_cataclysm#Scientific_rejection\">Scientific rejection<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nibiru_cataclysm#Conspiracy_theories\">Conspiracy theories<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nibiru_cataclysm#Planet_Nine\">Planet Nine<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nibiru_cataclysm#Public_reaction\">Public reaction<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/mnras\/article-abstract\/doi\/10.1093\/mnras\/stx2576\/4349757\/Was-Proxima-captured-by-alpha-Centauri-A-and-B\">Was Proxima captured by alpha Centauri A and B?<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\nF. Feng H. R. A. Jones; Abstract; Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (October 5, 2017)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><sup><a name=\"6\"><\/a>6<\/sup> Nonsense and bad ideas:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wikipedia\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2011_end_times_prediction\">2011 end times prediction<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Conspiracy_theory\">Conspiracy theory<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Heaven%27s_Gate_(religious_group)\">Heaven&#8217;s Gate (religious group)<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Heaven%27s_Gate_(religious_group)#Mass_suicide_and_aftermath\">Mass suicide and aftermath<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_people_claimed_to_be_Jesus\">List of people claimed to be Jesus<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nibiru_cataclysm\">Nibiru cataclysm<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nibiru_cataclysm#Scientific_rejection\">Scientific rejection<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nibiru_cataclysm#Conspiracy_theories\">Conspiracy theories<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nibiru_cataclysm#Planet_Nine\">Planet Nine<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nibiru_cataclysm#Public_reaction\">Public reaction<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><sup><a name=\"7\"><\/a>7<\/sup> Exoplanets, a half-century of discovery:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wikipedia\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Barnard%27s_Star\">Barnard&#8217;s Star<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Barnard%27s_Star#Claims_of_a_planetary_system\">Claims of a planetary_system<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Discoveries_of_exoplanets\">Discoveries of exoplanets<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Exoplanet\">Exoplanet<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><sup><a name=\"8\"><\/a>8<\/sup> History and science:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wikipedia\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Aristarchus_of_Samos\">Aristarchus of Samos<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Classical_planet\">Classical planet<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Geocentric_model\">Geocentric model<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Giordano_Bruno\">Giordano Bruno<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/History_of_astronomy\">History of astronomy<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><sup><a name=\"9\"><\/a>9<\/sup> More informed speculation:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wikipedia\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Extraterrestrial_life\">Extraterrestrial life<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hypothetical_types_of_biochemistry\">Hypothetical types of biochemistry<\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hypothetical_types_of_biochemistry#Alternative-chirality_biomolecules\">Alternative-chirality biomolecules<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hypothetical_types_of_biochemistry#Non-carbon-based_biochemistries\">Non-carbon-based biochemistries<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hypothetical_types_of_biochemistry#Arsenic_as_an_alternative_to_phosphorus\">Arsenic as an alternative to phosphorus<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hypothetical_types_of_biochemistry#Non-water_solvents\">Non-water solvents<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hypothetical_types_of_biochemistry#Other_speculations\">Other speculations<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hypothetical_types_of_biochemistry#Nonplanetary_life\">Nonplanetary life<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We could detect oxygen in Proxima Centauri b&#8217;s atmosphere. It&#8217;s a biosignature, but not proof of life. Some extrasolar planets are like Earth, almost. Many are unlike anything in the Solar System. I&#8217;ll be looking at recently-discovered worlds; some almost &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/finding-new-worlds\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[215,4],"tags":[38,59,37,61,107,198,64,27,41,22,40],"class_list":["post-1751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-being-catholic","category-science-news","tag-astronomy","tag-cosmology","tag-exobiology","tag-exoplanets","tag-extraterrestrial-intelligence","tag-extraterrestrial-life","tag-faith","tag-history","tag-planets","tag-science","tag-solar-planets"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Dwtw-sf","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1751"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4024,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1751\/revisions\/4024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}