Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Rumours Of A New Earth-like Planet Near Our Closest Neighbour Surfac

By Arjun Walia via Collective Evolution, 15 August 2016

Recent rumours of an Earth-sized planet orbiting Proxima Centuri are flying around the internet. It’s the nearest star to the Sun within the habitable zone.

The story first appeared in German newspaper Der Spiegel, but the source remains anonymous. Spiegel credits the discovery to the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and says the official announcement will be made by the end of this month, but ESO has refused to comment on the matter.

IFL Science argues that the silence on this discovery suggests “the public will have to wait to learn how similar the planet is to Earth in mass. Likewise, it is unclear whether it lies in the heart of the habitable zone, or at the edges, where conditions are more tenuous. Even at the best possible location, Proxima’s tendency for large flares would endanger prospects for life.”

The search for habitable planets continues, and mounting evidence is making it clear that the building blocks for life are abundant not only in our own galaxy, but throughout the entire universe.

Scientists estimate that there are trillions of planets within this galaxy, and they know that the majority of stars have planets, so the question becomes, what fraction of stars have planets that are Earth-like?

According to Dan Shostak, a senior scientist with the SETI Institute, “it might be 1 in 5.” This means that there are probably billions of Earth-like planets within our own galaxy, and for all we know, billions more contained within the billions or trillions of other galaxies out there. We haven’t even mentioned alternate realities or other dimensions and universes. Quite mind-altering to think about, isn’t it?

Does A Planet Really Need To Be Earth-Like To Host Life?

Does a planet really need to be Earth-like to be able to

host life? Probably not, but we make assumptions based on what we know about life and what is required to sustain it here on Earth. Who knows what the biological makeup and requirements for life are for an alien being? For all we know, there are beings that require an entirely different atmosphere, and which are composed of different elements, than what we see here on Earth.

If we narrow our search to Earth like-planets, we are still left with billions, if not trillions, of potentially habitable planets, but just imagine the other possibility, which would make the odds for intelligent life within the universe even more of a certainty.

Is Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life Already Visiting Our Planet? 

Statements regarding UFOs and the supposed visitation of intelligent extraterrestrial life to planet Earth have been given to us from various scientists over the decades, from one of the founding fathers of modern rocketry to men like Dr. Edgar Mitchell, who has walked on the moon.

There is abundant evidence to support the idea that we are being visited, and have been being visited for some time.

Posted with permission from CE

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