Bring your Own Planets (BYOP)

So Kepler has found 715 more planets. Or they have found 715 more planets within the data they already had. Either way this brings the total to a whopping 1,750 planets that we know of beyond our solar system. OK, that's great. But what most people might be asking is, "what exactly does that mean? Furthermore, what precisely does that mean for me?"

Planetary Potluck.. BYOP (Bring your Own Planet)

We humans are a strange, strange species. For a very long time during our past history we actively searched out people who spoke out against the existence of a supernatural being that created everything on the planet. We persecuted scientists who said that the Earth was round and that it was not the center of the universe but rather that it rotated around the Sun!

In a short period of time however we have sure come a long way. From what I just described to us actually having a telescope in space, orbiting around the planet, searching for others. It truly is amazing. So now that we have this information, what next? That is just it. At this point the count of these planets is just information. We really do not have any other info about them like their size or what their made of. Are they like Earth or are they like Venus or Mars? We really don't know.

Because of the way we found these planets it is really hard to tell. But don't let that make you think we had other options. Honestly, I think the way these planets were found was probably the best way to do it considering what we were working with. These planets were found using a method that, to make it as simple as possible, basically the telescope watches a particular star and waits to see if the light from that star dims at all because something passed in front of it. When something passes in front of it, the amount that the light dims can tell us something about what is passing in front of it. So to can the rate at which it happens. All of these things put together, and done on a massive scale and for a long period of time is how Hubble found these planets.

So here we are. We have all of these planets and we know very little about them. So we can go back to that original question. What does this mean for us? In my opinion it means a lot. Consider Galileo. Yea, he is the guy that was persecuted for saying the Earth was round and that we rotate around the Sun. When you consider what he knew in his time and what we know in ours, the difference is tremendous. Yet, in the grand scheme of things, the amount of time that has passed between his age and ours is minuscule. On a cosmic scale it is an amount of time that is barely even noticed.

Regardless of how small it is or isn't we are here now and we are living in that period of time. So it is up to us to do something with it. Consider further what is happening in our day and age. Look at all the technology that we have and what we are doing with it. A quick example. My 9 year old daughter. She is the youngest of three. She got her first phone a month ago. Might be a bit young, I know, but we have our reasons and this is not the topic of conversation anyway. Back to the point. My daughter has a cell phone that she knows how to use every inch of. What does this mean?

Back in the 1960's the technology that she holds in her hands is more than the government would have trusted to the average soldier. It is more than most intelligence or counterspy agents had. Yet today it is not only in  the hands of children but used by millions of people across the globe. In addition the technology in these phones, as great as it is, pales in comparison to the tech found in anything that is considered "high tech" for today's age. Where am I going with this?

How much have you paid attention to the general "news and information" of the space industry these days? Let me give you a quick crash course. The government run programs have cut budgets in a big way and have essentially re-purposed themselves and what their main goals are. The private space industry has grown from one company to multiple companies. Each of them have a stake in our future. That is after all where all this is leading. Just as in the past with Galileo, his discoveries were all about where the human race could go with the new knowledge. Where will we go with our new knowledge?

The planets that we have found and continue to find are all too far away at the moment to do anything about. But to me, this is what we need. We need something that will push science to create a way for us to travel through space faster. Our biggest stumbling block in space exploration is the distances we must travel and the time it would take to do so. Planets, galaxies, and everything in space is hundred of light years away from us. In order for us to go and really explore anything we need to be able to travel much faster than we have the means to currently. This is not easy science.

So out of all of the things that we have recently discovered in space, the planets are among the most interesting. They are because they provide us with a way to increase our reach. They provide us with a way to secure our future. We must at some point face the fact that our time on this planet is limited. Eventually there will be a natural disaster that will be big enough to be an extinction event. It happened to the dinosaurs and it will happen to us. It is a fact and all that stands between us and it is time.

So what are we to do? We cannot fight it and we cannot prevent it. Those who are able to survive whatever it turns out to be will be able to rebuild our society but in order to do that they must survive. The only way to do that is to not be on Earth when it takes place. I know this sound a bit strange and maybe even pretty far-fetched. But consider the facts for a moment. Yellowstone National Park. The park is basically a huge super-volcano. This is a scientific fact! They have also discovered that over the lifetime of the planet the super-volcano has erupted multiple times and it happens about every 100,000 years or so. At this point it is over-due.

This is only one example. There are a number of other extinction-type events that could take place at any point. So we should be somewhat prepared and the only way for us to do that is to find another home. It might seem a bit "out there" but it is our only choice. Besides that it is also something that everything is leading up to anyway. All of our space exploration and space travel all leads to one eventual outcome and that is to colonize another planet. It will happen at some point and it is one of those things that in every way is a positive for our species.

So these planets that we are looking for and finding, we should recognize that this is but the first step in our space evolution. We are evolving into a race of people that will explore space and eventually find a new place to call home. As we continue to progress through our evolution and generation after generation continue to move into the future we will find more about these and other planets in our galaxy. Hopefully we will then have the ability to travel to them to explore them further. Hopefully we will have used these planets as a reason to build the means to travel through space at a pace that allows for a timely exploration of these and any other planets we can find. We will need to because our planet has a lifespan just like any other living thing. Eventually it will die and I surely hope that we have a place to go when that happens.