YouTube Transcript:
Experts: Life on Proxima B Could Be Unlike Anything We've Ever Imagined!

it would take between 1,000 and 81,000
years for a spacecraft to reach Alpha
centor if we used conventional
propulsion plus astronauts would have to
deal with the countless risks of the
mostly unexplored interstellar medium
but there might be a way out of this
seemingly hopeless situation GRS scale
spacecraft that rely on lasers when it
comes to traveling through space one of
such Concepts is called the swarming
Proxima centuri and it has recently been
chosen for the NASA Innovative advanced
concepts program you see traveling
through Interstellar space is a question
of speed energy and distance Proxima
centuri sits 4.25 light years away from
the solar system that's 25 trillion
miles which is incredibly far away for
comparison the farthest distance ever
traveled by a spacecraft is 15 billion
miles from Earth Voyager 1 has been
moving in outer space for more than 46
years reaching a maximum speed of over
38
mph traveling at the speeds that we can
allow at the moment will make
Interstellar Transit exceptionally long
and totally impractical and don't forget
about the energy requirements such a
journey would demand anything other than
a tiny spacecraft weighing a few grams
doesn't look feasible but the solution
might have been found bouncing photons
off of a laser sale could solve the
speed problem but since a single Photon
doesn't have much momentum a lot of them
are needed and since even in a couple of
decades we probably won't have a lot of
power available the thrust will be weak
that's why the mass of the probes has to
be minuscule not tons but grams The
Proposal suggests using a 100 gaw laser
Beamer boosting thousands of tiny space
probes with laser sails to a speed of 10
to 20% of the speed of life
this Mission concept might be ready for
development around
midcentury then the probes could reach
Proxima centuri as early as
2075 the researchers involved in the
project have already demonstrated how a
fleet of a thousand spacecraft could
deal with the difficulties of
interstellar travel while maintaining
Communications with Earth at the same
time the 8-year roundtrip time lag
caused by Interstellar distances and
general rela ity makes it impossible to
control the swarm of the probes from our
planet that's why the fleet must possess
a great degree of autonomy when it comes
to navigation and deciding what data
should be delivered to Earth one more is
Su is the cost of such a mission the
greatest expense will be the Lasser ra
while the tiny Probus might be
reasonably cheap to produce the
scientists believe that their project
can be developed with a budget of $100
billion it's not so much much compared
to the usefulness of such a mission
which is likely to be astronomical how
come Red Dwarf Proxima centor which is a
member of the alpha centor star system
has an earthlike Planet orbiting it
Proxima centor B it's the closest
exoplanet to Earth its mass is similar
to that of our planet and it travels in
the habitable zone of its parent star
which means there might be water in this
world as well as an atmosphere rich with
oxygen
this planet might Harbor life or it
could be a dry Rock in any case it's a
promising Target in the search for alien
life unfortunately we can't detect the
planet's bio signatures because our
usual methods for detecting them don't
work with Proxima centor B most
exoplanets are discovered and explored
through the transit method where a
planet regularly passes in front of its
parent star and we see a recurring dip
in the star's brightness that's how we
know that the planet is there but
Proxima centor B isn't a transiting
Planet it was discovered by a different
method when we look at the light coming
from Proxima centuri we can notice that
the gravitational pull of Proxima
centuri B makes the star wobble a bit
that's how astronomers found out that
the planet was there they also managed
to estimate its size and mass but no one
can figure out much more than that
hopefully a swarm of tiny space probes
will help us solve this mystery
[Music]
Venus has more volcanoes than any other
planet in the solar system more than
1,600 and a day on Venus measured by how
long it takes to rotate once on its axis
takes longer than the time it takes to
complete a full orbit of the sun wow and
that's just Monday an extreme greenhouse
effect warms the planet surface up to
87° F hot enough to melt out L winds
there reach the speed of 450 mph in the
middle Cloud layer faster than the
speediest tornadoes on our planet the
pressure on Venus's surface is 90 times
higher than that at sea level on Earth
what a great place for a vacation huh
and recently this incredible place has
become even more intriguing in the toxic
venutian atmosphere there's something
that might mean the existence of life
unfortunately scientists haven't had a
chance to collect any microb specimens
or snap any pictures of Life there but
they've discovered a chemical called
phosphine and it's a big
deal if it's not some previously unknown
chemistry that produces the gas then
there must be a kind of microbial life
involved in the process phosphine is
made up of three atoms of hydrogen and
one atom of phosphorus this gas is toxic
to any normal life form that needs
oxygen including us humans on our planet
phosphine can be found in places with no
or little oxygen for example marshes and
swabs the gas is created by complex
mixtures of bacteria living there they
can also be produced industrially the
weirdest thing is that phosphine isn't
supposed to be in Venus's atmosphere at
all this gas needs precise pressure and
temperature and tons of hydrogen to form
it wouldn't be all that surprising to
find it on Saturn or Jupiter the famous
gas giants but on Venus totally
unexpected there's no way phosphine can
be produced naturally on this planet
tiny amounts of it can be created during
volcanic eruptions lightning storms
minerals blown up to the surface or
meteorites entering Venus's atmosphere
but it's not nearly enough to explain
what the astronomers have observed it
would only make one 10,000th of the
phosphane the telescope saw but let's
start from the very beginning in 2017 a
group of scientists led by James Greaves
from Cardiff University started to use
the James Clerk Maxwell radio telescope
in Hawaii that's a mouthful the main
idea was to search for phosphine gas it
would be a sign of Life on Venus when
the data came back and the researchers
analyzed it they were shocked the
phosphine signal was powerful the team
checked the results several times they
wanted to make sure no other substance
mimic the presence of phosphine gas so
now does it mean there's life on Venus
well not necessarily if this gas is
created by some mysterious organisms
it's a big question how they survive on
Venus on our planet some microbes can
thrive in the environments with the
acidity of 5% but no more on Venus
though clouds are almost entirely made
of acid and even though they have a
rather Pleasant temperature of 86° f
these clouds contain more than 90% of
sulfuric acid DNA amino acids proteins
life components on Earth would be
dissolved there in the blink of an eye
the surface of the planet is too hot for
any kind of complex molecules to make up
life the venutian atmosphere is almost
50 times as dry as the driest place on
our home planet there's a theory that
microbes might hide in scarce water
droplets floating in the atmosphere but
it hasn't been proved yet right now the
research team's waiting for more
telescope time they're going to look for
other gases associated with life
but even if they find more evidence life
forms on Venus will be made up of
building blocks absolutely different
than those on Earth or they might be
protected by a sulfuric acid resistant
shell it can be made of such substances
as sulfur wax graphite or something else
we can't imagine of course some experts
question the idea of Life on Venus they
think the gas might be produced during
some geologic or atmospheric processes
happening on the planet but the
supporters of both theories agree on one
thing the discovery is extraordinary
interestingly astronomers have always
tried to find Signs of Life on giant
planets icy moons or even closer on Mars
but they've never seriously considered
Venus if additional telescope
observations and future space missions
confirm that phosphine is produced by
living organisms we can be in for a
bunch of exciting surprises then people
would know of a planet with an alien
biosphere well alien to us and this
planet would be just next door to earth
now speaking of visiting Venus though
would it be possible for people to land
on this planet after all robots are
already tooling around the red planet
surface on the proide Venus is closer to
Earth than Mars but it also has much
harsher conditions the planet is hotter
than Mercury even though Venus is almost
double the distance from the Sun the
temperatures are higher than the melting
point of many metals and some of them
like lead or bismuth can fall as snow on
the highest mountain peaks if you set
foot on the planet you'll find nothing
but Barren Rock giant basaltic Plains
are littered with volcanoes and
mountains in some places the surface
melts because of the heat underneath
after it releases some of it the rock
solidifies again if people ever go to
this planet they will most likely build
floating cities in the Clouds of Venus's
atmosphere spere at about 31 Mi above
the surface the conditions like the
pressure and gravity are similar to
those on Earth the temperature is rather
manageable too at around 167° F think
Death Valley California on a really hot
day the atmospheric pressure is half of
what we have at sea level on our planet
if you went outside you'd be fine
without a pressure suit the pressure
you'd feel would be the same as at the
top of Mount Kilimanjaro Plus this
Colony would be protected from the sun's
radiation better than one on Mars if the
atmosphere was the mission's final
destination Landing a spacecraft or
rather making it hover in the air would
look very different the idea is to use
an airship in the upper atmosphere for
long periods of time the Airship wrapped
in an arrow shell would enter the
planet's atmosphere at a speed of 24,000
ft per second in the next 7 Minutes its
speed would drop to around 50 00 ft per
second after that a huge parachute would
open it would slow the spacecraft down
even more and then things would get a
bit hectic the arrow shell not needed
anymore would drop away the Airship
would then inflate itself all the while
hurling through the atmosphere toward
the planet surface its speed would be at
least 330 ft per second it would get
larger and larger and its drag and lift
would increase soon the parachute
wouldn't be needed anymore the crew
would get rid of it and the Airship
would fill with air completely if
everything went as planned it would stop
30 Mi above Venus's surface after that
the Airship would travel around the
planet it would be moved by the wind
which can reach a speed of 220 mph at
the top of the cloud layer if you
decided to move closer to the surface
though you'd have to be extremely
careful the wind in the middle layer can
get twice faster the Airship could be
filled with a breathable mixture of
hydrogen and oxygen gases such a
combination would be less dense than the
venutian atmosphere it would provide the
needed boyancy you know to stay up there
Venus is famous for its super dense
clouds these clouds make the planet
shine bright enough to be seen from
Earth Venus reflects more than 75% of
the light that comes from the sun this
reflective Cloud layer exists thanks to
a haze of sulfuric acid droplets in the
atmosphere and they gather exactly at
the height where they Airship would
float luckily people already have a
method to overcome the problem of
acidity a few materials for example
Teflon and some types of plastic have an
amazing acidic resistance they could
protect the outsides of the ship so
let's say you needed to work on a
platform outside then you'd be able to
do it wearing only a chemical Hazard
suit and carrying necessary oxygen
supply ooh sounds like fun huh yeah me
neither
[Applause]
you're gazing up at the night sky wow
for much of our history we've been
looking for life among these stars and
the planets near
them but space has eyes too and there's
someone out there looking at us
maybe scientists claim that at least 29
distant planets may be watching us right
now
so comb your hair and smile we've so far
identified at least
1,715 neighboring star systems in the
Milky Way that can detect our planet
with conventional
telescopes these stars are located in
our galaxy so if they were to point
their telescopes at our sun sooner or
later they would see a small dot that
passes between our home star and the
Observer this is called a Transit it's a
method of detecting planets in astronomy
for example you can observe Transit
phenomenon right at home with a
telescope you have to point it at the
Sun and wait then you'll see Mercury
that's the closest planet to the Sun and
now you see it as a small dot Mercury
Transit process can last about 5 hours
and this phenomenon happens about 14
times in a century you'll be able to
observe the next transit on November
13th 2032 mark your calendar
likewise you can observe Venus the
second planet from the Sun but because
it's farther away its transits are less
frequent the last one was in 2004 and
2012 the next pair of transits is
expected in 217 and
2125 hey I won't be around
then so these star systems have the
opportunity to observe our planet but
long range telescopes work a little
differently actually The Observer will
not see a black dot with the sun in the
background the telescope will measure
the brightness of our star when Earth
begins its Transit between the Sun and
the Observer the telescope will record a
slight drop in the brightness of the
star because our planet is blocking the
path of the sun's
Rays those far away scientists of
extraterrestrial civilizations will be
able to calculate this drop in
brightness and determine the size of our
planet
but not all 1700 plus star systems may
have extraterrestrial life scientists
have narrowed it down to 29 planets near
some of these Stars they're potentially
habitable that means these planets are
roughly earthlike in size and within the
habitable zone of their host star that
means they're not too close to the star
so it's not too hot for a potential life
the water doesn't evaporate there like
in a Boiling Pot and they're not too far
away away so it's not too cold and the
water doesn't freeze into thick sheets
of ice and since water is the basis of
life we can assume that Civilization
might exist there theoretically these
planets could have seen Earth transits
in the last 5,000
years so while we were building the
Pyramids of Giza or
Stonehenge an extraterrestrial
civilization may have been watching
us one of these planets is only 11 light
years from our home
near the Ross 128 star a red dwarf in
the constellation Virgo there's an
exoplanet about twice the size of Earth
and right in the habitable zone of its
host
star theoretically the inhabitants of
this planet could see Earth Transit the
sun on a regular basis for 2,000 years
but about 900 years ago the planet lost
its position and can no longer continue
observation the other planet where Earth
can be seen transiting is 12 .5 light
years away near the star called Tea
Garden the window for observing our
planet will open there in about 29
years we're betting heavily on the
trapist one star system it hosts at
least seven exoplanets almost like our
solar system and four of them are in the
habitable zone of the star but they
won't be able to start observing Earth
until 16th centuries from
now but we can try to make contact with
these planets right now
they're all close enough to us to pick
up our radio
signals radio waves can travel through
space at the speed of light and our
planet has been emitting radio signals
continuously since
1895 so we're like noisy neighbors in
the radio spectrum if there's a planet
somewhere with an intelligent
civilization within 125 light years of
us our radio noise would have already
reached them the only problem is it
would take about the same time to get a
response from that
Civilization the other problem with
radio is that any civilization uses it
for a relatively short period even now
on Earth we use Bluetooth and fiber
optics more than radio except for maybe
traffic reports and over time all the
radio noise we create will simply
disappear also radio communication
assumes that an extraterrestrial
civilization is Advanced enough to use
this technology
but who knows maybe there are life forms
in space that are really different from
ours our radio signals already could
have reached that planet but its
inhabitants simply aren't capable of
receiving
them and the moment these life forms
build antenas to receive the signal will
no longer emit them but we don't lose
hope and we even send encrypted radio
signals into space to communicate with
extraterrestrial civilizations in 1974
we sent the aasbo message into
Interstellar
space if some civilization can decipher
it they'll get a rectangle like this it
has all the information about Humanity
at the top is our number system then the
atomic numbers and then our DNA which is
pictured below then a human being itself
of course below is a diagram of our
solar system earth the third planet from
the Sun is slightly elevated this is how
the extra terrestrial civilization will
understand which planet this message
came from below is a diagram of the
aasbo radio telescope
itself another option how to deliver a
message to a distant planet is to
literally send a mail delivery there it
could be a space probe and we've already
done that these are voyagers 1 and two
they were launched in 1977 and are still
operational in 2012 Voyager 1 became the
first ever human-made object in
interstellar space it travels to distant
stars and carries a message written on a
golden record the disc contains
greetings in 55 Earth languages a lot of
music from different parts of our planet
different sounds like ocean noise human
voices and animal
sounds in addition there are 116 images
on the record these are pictures of
people and Earthly landscapes in these
pictures there's information about the
sun and our
DNA the record case contains
instructions and a needle to play the
record there's also a map of our
Galaxy's Pulsar so that astronomers from
an extraterrestrial civilization can
find our solar system the main
disadvantage of sending a message this
way is time Voyager 1 will reach its
first stop the galise 445 star in 40,000
years Voyager 2 will reach the Ross 248
star in 42,000 years and in about
296,000 Years it'll pass Sirius the
brightest star in the night sky I can't
wait also an extraterrestrial
civilization can detect us with
calculations and formulas all it takes
is a little observation of the Sun in
Star systems with planets the host star
doesn't stand still it rotates around a
small
orbit this is because the heavy star
attracts the planet but the planet also
has its own gravity and resists this
shifts the star a little and causes it
to orbit around an extraterrestrial
civilization can calculate the shift of
the Sun and determine the mass of the
planets near the star using such a
method astronomers were able to find 548
exoplanets now suppose we made contact
with an extraterrestrial civilization
near the closest star Proxima centuri
there's indeed an exoplanet there but
radiation from the host star would
destroy any life forms but imagine we
still got a return signal it would be
the slowest chat in history because our
message would take 4.2 years to reach
the planet and we'd have to wait another
4.2 years to get a response and so we
arranged to
meet this civilization doesn't know how
to fly into space so we have to take the
first step although though Proxima
centuri is the closest star to our solar
system it takes about 73,000 years to
travel there by conventional rocket so
we have to learn to travel at the speed
of life but even then it would take 4.2
years to travel there imagine if we
found extraterrestrial life on the other
side of the Milky Way our galaxy is
100,000 light years wide so the journey
from edge to edge would take 100
millennia
so we either have to cheat the laws of
physics or transfer all of human
civilization to a giant spaceship that
will travel from star to star for
thousands of years and when it launches
from Earth only the great great great
great and many more greats of the first
crew will be able to see another star
system from the spaceship portal hey can
you move your head I'm trying to see out
the
window one of the biggest questions that
has been tor string the minds of
astronomers and common folks is why
haven't we found aliens yet you'd think
with a universe so big and filled with
tons of stars and planets we'd have
already bumped into some
extraterrestrial neighbors by now this
question was first asked by famous
physicist enrio fmy during a lunch with
his fellow scientists they were chatting
about UFO sightings and aliens and
suddenly fmy asked where is everyone it
seemed like a casual comment but it
sparked a huge debate if the universe is
packed with stars planets and the
possibility of alien life how come we
haven't seen any yet this discussion
gave birth to something we now call the
fairy Paradox it goes like this based on
what we know there should be Advanced
alien civilizations out there perhaps
even many of them they'd likely have
technology that could allow them to
travel across space or at least send us
signals to let us know they're there but
here's the kicker to despite all of our
technology and all the searching we've
done we haven't found a single shred of
solid proof that these Advanced
civilizations do exist so where are they
over the years a lot of theories trying
to explain this Paradox have seen the
light of day let's talk about some of
the most interesting ones the rare earth
hypothesis claims that Earth might just
be super rare and planets like ours with
life are incredibly
uncommon in this case we could be the
only planet in the the Milky Way
harboring life or at least intelligent
life we might also be the first
intelligent civilization in our galaxy
to reach this level of development in
other words we could be Pioneers however
unbelievable it may sound at the same
time it's not very scientific to rely on
a rare Chance some people think that
maybe Advanced civilizations were once
here but left the Milky Way perhaps they
developed the technology of interstellar
travel enabling them to fly between
galaxies or they could use other exotic
ways like wormholes hypothetical
structures connecting disperate points
in SpaceTime maybe they found more
interesting and pleasant places to live
far away from us one sad possibility is
that when a civilization becomes too
advanced it ends up destroying itself
whether through War environmental
destruction or something else it could
be that most civilizations don't last
long enough to reach out to others now
imagine an advanced civilization being
wiped out by a disease before they could
even start exploring stars in other
words it's possible that civilizations
just don't survive long enough to meet
others another hypothesis not very
flattering to us what if these aliens
are using technology that we just don't
understand maybe they're communicating
in ways we can't detect like using
signals beyond our current understanding
of physics scientists are discussing
such possibilities but haven't found any
any yet aliens might also be
intentionally avoiding us they could be
out there but staying Silent not so
eager to reveal themselves until we're
ready speaking of being ready some
people think that aliens could be
waiting for us to reach a certain level
of development before they make contact
maybe they don't want to interfere with
our growth until we're more advanced
advanced civilizations could also go
into virtual realities and if they can
live in digital worlds they might stop
caring about exploring the physical unit
Universe why bother another wild idea is
that some civilizations might go into a
type of hibernation waiting for the
universe to cool down because it might
be more energy efficient to do so and
last but not least there's this creepy
possibility that our entire universe is
a computer simulation and aliens are
hidden from us on purpose it's something
like a video game that doesn't reveal
all its Secrets at once until you get to
the next level
now let's talk about the odds of Life
out there we know that in just our
galaxy The Milky Way There are probably
around 20 billion planets that are
roughly Earth sized and located in the
habitable zone which means they're just
the right distance from their stars to
have liquid water but how many of these
planets actually have life could it be
most of them just a few or almost none
and out of the planets that do have life
how many host intelligent beings with
technology
in the 1960s a scientist named Dr Frank
Drake tried to estimate the number of
civilizations in our galaxy that could
contact us he came up with a famous
equation later called the Drake equation
it looks complicated but the idea is
pretty simple it helps us calculate the
number of intelligent civilizations
based on things like how many stars are
born each year how many have planets how
many planets could support life and how
long a civilization might last
here's what it looks like let's look
into this equation in more detail n is
the number of intelligent civilizations
that could contact us R is the rate of
star formation in our galaxy FP is the
fraction of stars with
planets NE is the average number of
planets per star that could support life
f is the fraction of those planets where
life actually develops fi is the
fraction where intelligent life
arises FC is the fraction of
civilizations that can and want to
communicate L is how long these
civilizations last before they disappear
the problem is we don't know the exact
values for most of these factors so when
we plug in numbers which we know with
large errors we get answers with very
large errors too depending on the values
the number of civilizations in our
galaxy could be anywhere from almost
zero to tens of thousands right now the
best estimate we can come up with gives
us a very small number close to zero in
other words even though our galaxy is
huge it's possible we're all alone here
or nearly alone one big reason we
haven't met any aliens yet is that even
if they do exist we might not be able to
visit them at least not with our current
technology the speed of light is a hard
limit in physics meaning nothing can
travel faster than it this makes
Interstellar travel super slow the
situation could be better if there were
exotic ways of travel such as wormholes
and warp drives one day they may turn
out to be real but so far there is
little hope for that even if we can't
meet Aliens face to face there are still
ways we might discover them one of the
biggest projects is called seti search
for extraterrestrial intelligence seti
scientists use huge telescopes to listen
for radio signals from distant planets
if an alien civilization is sending out
signals we might be able to pick them up
and if we have a very powerful telescope
we might use it to take super detailed
pictures of distant planets maybe even
earthlike ones hundreds of light years
away this could give us a whole new way
to search for signs of alien life in any
case even though we haven't found aliens
yet the search is far from over whether
it's through new technology better
understanding of physics or just
listening to the Stars we might one day
find that we're not alone in in the
universe until then the question where
is everyone keeps sparking
curiosity chances are we're going to
find life beyond Earth by 2035 and
there's no need to travel to a galaxy
far far away our Milky Way galaxy is
full of totally suitable environments
don't get too hyped up though we're
talking about microbes or chemical
markers not Hollywood like green
humanoids even so when we finally find
traces of life it will change how we see
our place in the
universe NASA's Kepler space telescope
discovered something incredible almost
every Star has planets and many of these
planets might be habitable rocky planets
like Earth and Mars are even more common
in our galaxy than gas giants like
Saturn and Jupiter also we already know
that our galaxy is very rich in water
there's water in interstellar clouds
where stars and planets form in the deis
fre discs around other stars in comets
just everywhere what's really hard
though is finding life
itself ideally to finally find it we
need to land on every single planet out
there and literally check under each
Rock but thanks to the newest research
we can at least narrow down the search
to potentially habitable
Worlds the James web Space Telescope a
super powerful telescope that was
launched into space in 2021 is on to
this it checks the atmospheres of nearby
super Earths rocky planets that are a
bit bigger than Earth it searches for
Life related gases chemicals that can
only be produced by living things and
they already found some clues for
example they detected signs of such a
chemical on a planet called
k218b this planet is 120 light years
away which is pretty close on a space
scale this planet is in the goldilock
zone which means a Zone around the star
where the temperatures are just right
for liquid water to exist it orbits a
red dwarf star the smallest type of star
there is such stars are a bit fainter
than our sun it will take about a year
to check if these hints of Life are real
if so it would mean that life is much
more common than we previously thought
but even if it's not there are 10 more
Goldilocks planets on their list to
study the James web Space Telescope is a
very very cool tool but it has limits it
can't detect small earthlike planets due
to their size to fix this NASA plans to
launch another tool the Widefield
infrared survey telescope this one will
be even better at spotting such planets
and Life rated chemicals and also we
have the seti project seti stands for
search for extraterrestrial intelligence
this project has been on a hunt for
extraterrestrial creatures since the
1980s they also believe that we'll find
signs of life within the next 10 years
not so long ago they started a super big
and cool project it's called Cosmic and
it uses an array of radio telescopes in
New Mexico you might have seen those in
the movie
contact Cosmic allows scientists to
listen to hundreds of thousands and
potentially millions of star systems at
the same time if there are any
interesting signals scientists can check
them right away instead of waiting for
weeks or even months the signals
themselves are often very sudden and
short but Cosmic can detect even the
shortest ones that last Nan seconds
Cosmic can also help with other research
like studying mysterious and unexplained
fast radio bursts or even Dark Matter
this is the biggest and most powerful
tool for searching for extraterrestrial
life we've ever created but it's not
enough to just listen why don't we reach
out ourselves NASA has sent some signals
into deep space in 2002 their deep space
Network sent a signal to the Pioneer 10
satellite but there was an obstacle in
the path a white dwarf star 27 light
years away from Earth if there's a
planet around this star perhaps the
signal reached them too if there are any
intelligent species there we could
receive a reply by
2029 the DSN keeps sending powerful
Transmissions into space these signals
will bump into 222 Stars within the next
three centuries maybe someday we'll
receive a reply from somewhere far away
but why haven't we received a response
yet there are about 200 billion galaxies
in the universe each with around 100
billion stars if just 1% of those Stars
had one planet that's still two 200
quintilian possible planets and we can
narrow it down even further if the
chance of them having life is one in a
trillion that would still leave us a few
hundred th000 planets so where is
everyone this is a famous question known
as the firmy
Paradox the first possibility isn't that
terrifying it's possible that the
universe is full of life but this life
isn't intelligent in our traditional
sense some planets might have microbes
birds or space dinosaurs this is called
the Great filter Theory it suggests that
there are certain filters that life has
to overcome in order to become
intelligent and maybe other species just
haven't overcome them yet think about it
life on earth started in the ocean then
crawled onto land Diversified into many
forms went extinct in massive events
five times evolved again and eventually
led to to humans we built societies
developed healthc care and only then
started searching for another life
there's another idea called the guian
bottleneck hypothesis which suggests
basically the same thing while it might
not be too hard for basic life to start
it's incredibly tough for that life to
survive and thrive over long periods
Venus might have had oceans and
earthlike conditions too but something
went wrong its oceans boiled away way
because of a runaway greenhouse effect
now it's sterile Mars also had liquid
water on its surface once and both the
moon and Mercury had thick atmospheres
for a short time meanwhile Earth has had
liquid water on its surface for almost
its entire existence it's super rare and
remarkable for a planet to hold
temperatures from 32 to 22° F for
millions of years so maybe it's a
mistake to look for intelligent life
especially the one that uses the same
technology as we do it evolved under
completely different conditions after
all that's also where the so-called
Drake Equation comes in it's a formula
that gives us a chance to calculate the
potential of Life becoming intelligent
on a
planet to calculate the result we need
to know several variables how many stars
there are how many of them have planets
the chance of these planets having life
and and so on unfortunately we don't
know these numbers yet and the result
might be insignificant but let's assume
that there is at least one other
intelligent species why haven't we met
yet there might be many reasons maybe
they don't think we're interesting
enough or maybe the problem is with us
perhaps we keep missing their signals or
maybe we miss the entire species itself
the universe is insanely huge and
ancient it's over 14 billion years old
if we compress Earth's entire
evolutionary history into a 24-hour Day
Life starts at 4:00 a.m. dinosaurs go
extinct at 11:40 p.m. humanlike
creatures appear 2 minutes before
midnight in this analogy humans have
existed for just 77 seconds and are
technology capable of detecting
extraterrestrial life is even newer less
than a second with such vast distances
and time spans the chances of us
existing at the same time as other
civilizations are slim if their
civilization lasted only a few Millennia
we could easily miss them entirely but
that doesn't mean we should give up our
search scientists were worried that
Earth's radio signals had dimmed over
time but a recent study showed that it's
actually the opposite the numbers of our
satellites keeps growing and this makes
our planet more
detectable by the end of the decade we
could have a 100,000 satellites making
Earth incredibly bright in the radio
spectrum if there is an advanced
civilization out there they will easily
spot us even from very far distances
astronomers are super optimistic about
it there is a high chance they'll find
extraterrestrial creatures while you and
I are still around the search for et is
on it's most definitely on with the
successful launch of the James web
telescope the search for Earth likee
planets has become a riveting topic of
worldwide attention apart from the James
web telescope other tools are being used
to find good earthlike candidates the
test satellite and the Kepler Telescope
are at the Forefront of searching for
other Earths after we first clear the
air of a few pesky philosophical
questions we'll take a close look at
these two searches and what the James
web telescope hopes to find so why are
we searching for earthlike planets well
because we can incredible advances and
Earthbound telescope technology have
enabled Ultra precise observations of
Starlight which led to the earliest
discovery of exoplanets as planets go
around Stars there's a gravitational
interaction between the planet and the
star they pull each other the planets
pull upon the star will cause the
Starlight to wobble back and forth ever
so slightly as the planet or planets
orbit the star this has always been the
case but the wobble of the staright was
never able to be detected because
Starlight always twinkles you know
twinkle twinkle Etc Adaptive Optics
inside telescopes is the technological
breakthrough that first enabled
astronomers to find exoplanets by taking
the twinkle out of Starlite mechanical
springs on the underside of telescope
mirrors bend the mirrors ever so
slightly to neutralize the Distortion
the twinkle caused by Starlight passing
through Earth's atmosphere without the
glimmer of Starlight the slight wobble
caused by planets pulling
gravitationally on the stars is observed
able the bigger the Wobble the more
planets it's called the astrometric
method of exoplanet detection isn't that
a mouthful whole star systems and
literally thousands of exoplanets were
inferred to exist around nearby Stars by
analyzing the wobbly patterns of
Starlight but the planets themselves
could not be seen suddenly our solar
system was not unique anymore
astronomers got giddy over the
inescapable conclusion that probably
every Star had planets it became
impossible not to ask the poignant
question is the earth unique or are
there other Earths what's the big deal
about finding earthlike planets anyways
well considering all the financial
resources the developed countries are
spending on finding earthlike planets it
can be said without a doubt that it's
definitely a big
deal including the launched James web
telescope which cost 10
billion the Kepler space telescope which
cost $550 million and the test satellite
which cost $200 million the investment
in finding earthlike planets is
certainly eyebrow raising now if you
keep in mind that these costs are just
for the hardware and to get a sketch of
the full magnitude of the search you
must also include the salaries of a team
of data miners PhD analysts and
postgrads all across the globe in
universities National Space agencies and
private institutions we will conclude
that finding another Earth is truly an
immense undertaking now suppose we find
one then Earth is not alone anymore it's
not that we can actually go to any of
these planets anytime soon Interstellar
travel requires some breakthroughs in
physics and technology and well we
aren't there yet but knowing that there
are planets out there in the Milky Way
that are like Earth in all the essential
respects like liquid water oxygen and
habitability will make space less foring
more welcoming more exciting to study
and explore it may also give us more
pride in our home planet and make us all
better earthlings the triple Mission
looking for other Earths the Kepler
Telescope the test satellite and the
James web telescope use distinct
approaches to find exoplanets and the
synonym test tells us what that method
is the T stands for transiting and
that's the key to the whole exoplanet
search e stands for you guessed it
exoplanets the target of the excellent
investigation of another Earth s stands
for survey because Tess looks at
hundreds of thousands of nearby stars
and S stands for satellite because Tess
is orbiting Earth unlike the James web
Space Telescope which will orbit the sun
when a planet passes in front of a star
that is called a Transit the planet will
block some of the light coming from the
Star this decrease or dimming of the
star can be measured the dimming of
Starlight tells lots of things about the
planet by knowing how bright the star is
and how much the star's light was dim by
a transition in front of the star we can
tell how giant the planet is or how
close it is but we won't know which is
it big or is it close until the planet's
orbit is also tied it means our test
satellite must take long duration videos
of the Stars ooh video of the Stars
Hollywood should like that the test
satellite doesn't have a telescope it
uses four CCD cameras to stream live
long duration videos of as many stars as
possible hundreds of thousands of stars
why so many well because for a Transit
of a planet to be observed it must pass
directly between the test satellites
cameras and the star if the planet is
not on the exact line of sight angle
between the star and Tessa's cameras it
cannot be seen because it will not cut
off any star lights planetary transits
are rare for example Venus passes across
Earth's view of the sun only every
couple hundred years yet Tessa's cameras
are seeing many planetary trans it among
the hundreds of thousands of stars it
takes streaming long duration videos of
and you know what that means it means
there must be hundreds or thousands of
times more planets than are observed by
the transiting method it is therefore an
inescapable conclusion that every Star
has planets planets are
everywhere and now the James web Space
Telescope with its giant 21t 4in wide
mirror is entering the search it is a
technological Marvel a wonder of the
modern world a miracle of advanced
engineering anticipation is reaching a
fever pitch but with the heightened
anticipation comes an almost equal
amount of trepidation and some things
can still go wrong before the James web
Space Telescope returns its first
pictures after the Hubble Space
Telescope for example was launched in
1990 a repair Mission had to be launched
in
1993 the mirror on the Hubble was not
very well ected and its pictures were
very blurry astronauts had to go up and
execute a spectacular space walk to fix
the
mirror after the fix the pictures Hubble
sent back were more precise than it was
ever designed for this is how an
improved model
appeared that cannot happen with the
James web telescope the Hubble orbits
the earth and is accessible to
astronauts the James web Space Telescope
orbits the Sun and is well beyond the
moon out of the reach of astronauts
because their there is no spacecraft
equipped to carry him there it cannot be
manually fixed if something goes
wrong adding to the challenges the James
web Space Telescope has only one onboard
camera to inspect any damage it may
suffer or mechanical malfunctions that
might develop in the harsh environment
of interplanetary space any remote fixes
will need to be done blind from Earth
the James web Space Telescope is now
fully deployed the at mirror segments
will need to be aligned to produce a
single image this critically important
process will take several months to
complete once the telescope is fully
deployed 70 of the first 286 observation
assignments of the telescope Target
exoplanets using data from previous
exoplanet searches it will not have to
waste time searching for exoplanets
their locations and orbits are already
known the James web telescope will go
right after them the James web Space
Telescope is not an optical telescope in
the same sense as the Hubble Space
Telescope or any ordinary telescope that
sees visible light it sees infrared
light the pictures of planets are
expected to be bright dots somewhat
fuzzy if they have atmospheres the
Spectra of the planets will yield the
most information about the exoplanet any
gases around an exoplanet will absorb
some Starlight as the Starlight passes
through the planet's atmospheres Suppose
there is methane in the planet's
atmosphere oxygen or carbon dioxide the
gas is that most indicate life in that
case the James web telescope will be
able to pick them up by spectroscopic
analysis an entire portrait of the
exoplanet can be formed from the
infrared information its temperature
ranges atmospheric content the
likelihood of liquid water and even the
probability of life and that's a big
deal the James web Space Telescope has
other missions to perform too it's
assigned to examine star formation and
Planet formation in nebula in the Milky
Way understanding how solar systems form
is part of the search for another Earth
by detecting infrared light the James
web Space Telescope will appear to the
farthest away galaxies galaxies whose
visible light gets blocked by dust and
gas these distant galaxies were formed
shortly after the big bag Galaxy
formation is an essential mission for
the James web telescope these most
disting galaxies are accelerating away
so fast that the light they emit is
stretched below the frequency of the
visible spectrum into the infrared the
great telescope can see these previously
invisible galaxies we hope to learn
about the mysterious dark energy that is
causing the universe to expand at an
ever increasing velocity hope is high
that the James web Space Telescope will
significantly expand our knowledge of
this amazing Universe we all live
in okay quick space riddle why is the
search for life in the the universe like
a tree because you're always looking for
a place to plant it you know plant it
plant it okay settle down anyway water
is the basis of life in any part of the
universe so potentially inhabited
planets must have liquid water on them
to support life an incredible number of
circumstances must come together for
this the planet must be in the habitable
zone of the star then the temperature
and atmospheric pressure on the planet
surface will be suitable for simple life
forms to begin to evolve a little closer
to the star and the water will evaporate
leaving no chance for oceans and seas to
form this is what happened on Venus it
has a size and mass similar to the Earth
but it's too close to the Sun and no
life can exist on its surface too far
from the star and the planet becomes too
cold water can only exist in the form of
ice on the surface and there just might
be liquid water deep
below Neptune is one example of this in
addition the planet must be solid and
have an atmosphere that protects it from
solar radiation and allows living
organisms to breathe in our galaxy alone
there are countless Stars really you
can't count on them near each one of
them may be a planet they're called
exoplanets and some of them may be in
the habitable zone and have everything
for life to form on them from a list of
4,500 known exoplanets scientists have
identified 24 that can be superhabitable
this is the type of planet that is
suitable for the Existence and evolution
of life even more than the earth such
planets must be twice as massive as the
Earth and 1.3 times larger a bigger size
means stronger gravity and a denser and
warmer atmosphere this will ensure a
greater diversity of all living
organisms on the planet in addition we
should pay attention to the host star
around which the superhabitable planets
will orbit and there should be a
McDonald's nearby ideally it should be
smaller than the Sun and have a lifespan
of at least 15 to 30 billion years for
comparison the lifespan of the sun is
under 10 billion years and it took about
4 billion for complex life forms to
appear here Stars such as the sun can
simply run out of fuel before life can
develop on its
exoplanet scientists suggest focusing on
dwarf stars they're smaller and less
luminous than the Sun but their lifespan
can be between 20 and 70 billion years
this will give living organisms enough
time to develop and evolve climactic
conditions on superhabitable planets
will also be different the average
temperature should be 8° F higher than
on Earth and there should be more water
in the form of clouds liquid and
humidity these conditions are the most
favorable for biodiversity so the whole
planet would be looking like tropical
forests on Earth all 24 candidates for
the title of better than Earth hey are
more than 100 light years away from us
and with the Advent of the new
generation of telescopes we'll probably
be able to find out exactly if there is
life there and if the conditions there
are suitable for humans now let's take a
look at the potentially inhabited
exoplanets T garden B it's an exoplanet
that orbits a red dwarf star about 12
light years away from the solar system
typically red dwarfs can emit flares
that blow away the atmosphere of the
planets in its orbit but this host star
is calm and relatively passive T garden
B has almost the same mass as the Earth
it makes a complete circle around its
star in about 5 days yep you got it
right a year on tea garden B is less
than a week on Earth hold on your hats
the furthest potential inhabited planet
is Kepler 1638 B it's in the
constellation signis about 3,000 light
years away from us it belongs to the
super Earth class it's twice as wide and
four times as heavy as our home planet
the gravity on it will feel much
stronger even a normal jump will be much
harder for you than on Earth although if
this planet is really inhabited local
life is used to such
conditions LHS
1140b this planet is very Rocky and
solid although its size is only 40%
larger than the earth it's seven times
as massive it has a strong gravity of
3.25 GS for comparison when you take off
on an airplane you experience an
overload of about 1 and 1/2 G's so on on
this planet you'd barely be able to
stand on your feet because of its large
mass this planet has a thicker
atmosphere and because of the greenhouse
effect its temperature can be above 19°
F and it rotates around its star quite
quickly it makes a full circle in just
24 days and now let's look at the
constellation Aquarius here's an ultra
cold dwarf trapist one a small planet
orbits in its habitable zone it's three
times lighter than the earth its
temperature is similar to ours but the
gravity is half as weak but we would
still feel comfortable there remember
the people that went to the moon there
the gravity is only 16% of the Earth's
that's what makes the astronauts move so
funny Kepler 452b is in a system that
resembles the older sister of ours the
hostar is only 11% older than our son
and is almost 2 billion years old older
the exoplanet itself is 6 1/2 billion
years old compared to 4 1/2 billion of
earths but these sisters are very far
from each other if you travel at the
speed of the New Horizon spacecraft it
will take about 26 million years to get
there so bring a big
lunch this is the closest exoplanet to
us Proxima centari B it orbits the Red
Dwarf Proxima centuri which is the
closest a star to the sun this planet is
just 4.2 Lighty years away from us its
size and mass are very similar to those
of the earth it probably has an icy
structure like Neptune although Proxima
centari is the closest star after the
sun we can't see it with a naked eye
because it's too
dim so all these planets including the
24 that scientists have recently found
are in the habitable zone of their host
stars and and in theory we can colonize
them and make them suitable for human
life in the future but here we'll have
to solve one big problem even the
nearest exoplanet is too far away for us
today our modern rockets can fly at five
times the speed of sound and even at
such speeds it will take us more than
100,000 years to get to proximus centari
on one of them well we need to come up
with something a bit faster to travel to
a a new home on one of these exoplanets
and perhaps scientists already have the
answer warp drive ooh this is a piece of
technology that will allow us to
manipulate space and time it creates a
kind of a bubble in which the normal
Laws of Motion don't work so the
spacecraft will be able to significantly
exceed the speed of light and this isn't
science fiction Humanity already has
such technology although just in theory
yet it's aluer warp drive and no I
didn't make that up since no object that
has mass can travel at the speed of
light we need to do one trick the
spacecraft has to move by compressing
the space in front of it and expanding
it behind it thus not only the ship is
moving but also the space time inside
this warp drive bubble and the maximum
speed can be 10 times that of light but
to warp the SpaceTime the ship must be
incredibly large and to power it will
need the amount of energy close to what
the whole planet of Jupiter generates
still recent calculations of NASA's jet
propulsion lab show that the ring around
the ship which should create the
so-called warp field shouldn't be
perfectly round as it was thought before
it can be more donut shaped ah Donuts
this will greatly simplify the design
and construction and will make it
possible to test this technology on a
spacecraft the size of a Voyager 1 Pro
even though it still seems impossible
scientists are already saying that there
is hope and while we don't know what
technology will be used in 2069 NASA
plans to launch its first Interstellar
mission to explore potentially habitable
planets outside of our solar
system various rumors say that the speed
of light can be achieved with Laser
Technology if the probe is very small it
can be launched to the alpha centari
star at almost the speed of light there
are also two other alternatives to power
spaceships these are nuclear energy and
energy from matter and antimatter
collisions oo these Technologies are
still a mystery to humanity though well
for the time being stay
[Music]
tuned 2022 and 23 have been Landmark
years for discovering new fascinating
worlds last year NASA surpassed 5,000
confirmed exoplanets the list is
incredibly diverse it includes Rocky
super Earths gas giants like Jupiter ice
giants like Neptune and so on and this
is just the beginning there might be
more than a trillion exoplanets in our
galaxy alone but the most important
question is how many of them are
habitable you know for us are there
there any planets on this list that
could have life on them or that could be
a future home for us of course there
are and in 2022 2023 we found as many as
five of them so buckle up and hang on
for a wild ride beyond our solar
system the first planet on our list is
Wolf
1069b a boring and stodgy designation so
I'll simply nickname it Wolfie because
hey who's going to stop me NASA
a new study conducted by 50 star ey
astronomers confirms something awesome
this exoplanet Wolfie which is located
just 31 light years away from us could
potentially be a rocky World in other
words theoretically it's a habitable
planet the team behind this discovery
used a technique called radio velocity
to detect the exoplanet this is a way
scientist study the movements of stars
and planets it's as if when you're
playing catch with a friend as they thr
throw the ball to you you can see it
coming closer and closer it's kind of
like radial velocity when a planet is
moving towards us it makes the stared
orbits appear to be coming closer to us
when the planet is moving away from us
it also makes the star look more distant
scientists can use this information to
figure out what the planet is doing and
how big it is and that's how they found
Wolfie this exoplanet is estimated to be
the Earth's size and about 1 and A3
times the mass of our planet it's
orbiting a red dwarf star who all call
Wolfie's Mama but here's the real kicker
Wolfie orbits within its star's
habitable zone which means it's a prime
candidate for liquid water to exist on
its surface that's like hitting the
exoplanetary jackpot ooh wish I had a
ticket the study estimates that if
Wolfie does have an earthlike atmosphere
temperatures could rise as high as 55° F
which would mean liquid water could pull
on the planet's day side but here's the
catch the exoplanet is tidally locked to
its star meaning that the same side
always faces the star just imagine one
side of the planet is always Bast in the
warmth of its star while the other is in
Eternal Darkness like Middle School just
kidding the team behind the discovery
believes it's a prime candidate for
further studies but we'll probably have
to wait another 10 years for answers
until then we'll just have to keep
searching the skies with our telescopes
and crossed
fingers our next planet is toi 700e H
what's a good nickname NASA has just
discovered a new planet that's set to
take the galaxies by storm or shall we
say by orbit I'll nickname it toys were
us it's almost the size of Earth most
likely has liquid water on its surface
and it's only 100 light years away we're
not talking about a road trip of course
but this is close enough in the grand
scheme of things
toys were us is the fourth planet in its
system and it's got a bit of a short
orbit just 28 days to Circle its star
well at least you would have a birthday
every month hooray this time the
discovery was made using the transit
method planets themselves are incredibly
small and hard to attack but when a
planet is in front of its star it blocks
some of the light coming from it making
it look a little bit dimmer as soon as
the planet moves away the star gets
brighter again so to find the planet
scientists watch very carefully to see
if the star's brightness changes if it
does that means there's probably a
planet playing hideand-seek with us and
that's how they discovered toys were us
the test mission discovered it it
discovered 66 new exoplanets and 2,100
more candidates waiting to be confirmed
Tess has been very busy creating Imaging
for 75% of the sky talk about efficiency
toy is where us is located in the
optimistic habitable zone between
planets C and D but it may be tily
locked just like Wolfie so we might have
to settle for a one-sided Water World
the discovery of toys were us is a
promising Prospect for future followup
observations and it demonstrates the
potential for tests to find even smaller
exoplanets in the future who knows it
may find a new home for Humanity Among
the Stars one day or at least a new
vacation spot
next we have twins GJ 1002b and GJ
1002c the Galaxy just got a little bit
closer to us with the discovery of two
exoplanets which I'll nickname Hansel
and grle that are just a stone throw
away from our solar system that's right
these two earthlike planets are located
less than 16 light years away which is
just a hop skip and a jump in space
terms for comparison Proxima centuri B
is the closest Earth Mass exoplanet at
4.2 Lighty years away so these two new
neighbors are among the closest to us
they both orbit a red dwarf star with
barely 1/8 the mass of the sun it's
quite cool and faint but that's okay
since both planets are very close to it
Hansel takes 10 days to orbit its star
while grle takes just over 21 days even
more birthdays I guess the discovery was
made by an international scientific team
and was no small feed the team had to
work together with two instruments
espresso and carmenes the result a cafe
lat nah what they got were measurements
so accurate you could practically count
the number of craters on the planet
surfaces the big deal is the planets are
located in the habitable zone of their
star and are just the right size making
them excellent candidates for future
atmospheric studies the lead author says
nature seems bent on showing showing us
that earthlike planets are very common
with these two we now know seven in
planetary systems quite near to the sun
who knew our neighbors could be so
friendly in conclusion the discovery of
Hansel and gredle is a giant leap for
human kind so let's all raise a glass of
H2O or whatever they drink on exoplanets
and celebrate
it the last planet on our list is LP
Bob this super Earth located about 98
light years away is roughly 40% larger
than our home planet moreover it has a
twin which I'll nickname Ray which is up
to 75% larger than Earth more space is
always good right the two planets orbit
around the red dwarf star unfortunately
Ray is quite hot to the touch with an
estimated temperature of
253° f so don't touch its sibling Bob is
located in the habitable zone of its
star making it a prime candidate for the
potential of life but let's remember
that the actual temperature of the
planets depends on their atmospheres
it's possible that Bob being the
outermost planet has a runaway
greenhouse effect making it more like
Venus than Earth so it might be too hot
to be habitable at all but let's not
lose hope yet the James web Space
Telescope launched in December 2021 is
on the case with its cuttingedge
technology and Powerful instruments
including spectrographs it can peer into
the atmospheres of exoplanets and reveal
which ones might be habitable so let's
see what it discovers this planet has
been listed as the second most favorable
habitable zone terrestrial planet now
it's on the list with seven other
earthlike planets all about 40 light
years away from us maybe they'll become
our new homes in the future maybe we
should fix the home we have but until
then enjoy this moment and celebrate all
these new discoveries who knows how many
more planets we'll find in the future
considering how much technology develops
each year thousands millions meanwhile
Bob and Ray anel and grle toys Were Us
Wolfie and her mama will all be out
there waiting for
us you take off from Earth and park your
spacecraft somewhere near the moon
you're now almost 240,000 Mi away from
your home planet that's almost 100
widths of the United States
now you take out a giant hammer and an
enormous chisel using the robotic arms
of your spaceship you place the Chisel
at the Earth's north pole and strike its
head with the hammer Earth splits open
like an eggshell and you see it another
planet it's Thea and it's hiding inside
our planet like a yolk in an egg you'd
need to go back in time 4.5 billion
years to find out how it got
there this beautiful nebula will soon
become our solar system colored dust and
various space debris are slowly coming
closer toward the Common Center soon
this jigsaw puzzle of debris becomes too
heavy and dense the temperature inside
the giant is rising soon it gets so high
that it triggers a nuclear Chain
Reaction Another Second and Bam there's
an explosion so powerful that the shock
waves travel far into dark space and the
blinding Flash from this blast can be
seen from the other side of the Milky
Way galaxy when the dust clears a little
you can see that a bright light is still
shining at the very center of the
explosion this newborn star is the sun
it weighs as much as 333,000 Earths if
the sun was a bucket you'd need 1.3
million earth-sized planets to fill it
you're interested in a small object over
there 93 million mil away from the Sun
this pile of rocks and hot lava is Earth
right now now the planet is busy forming
its core while the oceans of lava are
gradually cooling down but a few tens of
million years after the sun's birth you
notice a strange object hurdling toward
Earth it's Thea this small planet was
born at about the same time as Earth and
now it's following a crazy spiral
trajectory at enormous speed scientists
believe Thea was kind of a ball Jupiter
and Venus played with Venus was pulling
Thea in One Direction then and Big
Brother Jupiter pulled it back but the
sun makes up 99.8% of the mass of the
entire solar system that's why the star
sets its own rules it makes Thea move in
almost the same orbit as Earth so they
inevitably come closer and closer to
each other until they become Nextdoor
neighbors we see that Thea is the size
of Mars and as wide as the Atlantic
Ocean from New York to
Portugal a collision can't be avoided
Thea is traveling toward Earth at nearly
9,000 mph that's 11 times faster than
the speed of sound if the smaller Planet
crashes into Earth at a particular angle
Earth will most likely be torn apart as
well as Thea itself the Collision will
cause a huge blast visible on other
planets even on a bright day nothing
will be left but some burning dust and
debris even if Thea touches Earth only
lightly it'll still knock out a chunk of
our planet the size of Australia but the
collision with Thea happens at a perfect
45° angle it strikes the Earth at
tremendous speed the explosion literally
vaporizes huge amounts of rock and the
shock wave sends the remaining debris
into Earth's orbit a huge crater is
formed at the impact site soon it gets
filled with boiling lava the remnants of
Thea and the ejected fragments of earth
begin to orbit our planet according to
one version these fragments form Two
Moons at first they travel together but
one day they get too close to each other
and Collide forming one large space body
the other Theory claims that all the
shards start being pulled by the
remnants of Thea sometime later they
form the moon as we now know it at that
point in the past though it's just Red
Hot Rock and lava the collision at this
angle slightly tilts our planet and
accelerates its rotation it's because of
Thea that we have different seasons and
24 hours in a day Earth has lithospheric
plates these are enormous solid pieces
that make up the crust of our planet
after the collision with Thea they start
to break and crack it causes carbon a
primary component of all known life on
Earth to start moving all over our
planet so Earth gets some kind of
metabolism after a few hundred million
years the first living creatures start
to appear on our planet over nearly 4
billion years simple single celled
organisms have been evolving into the
life you see today according to
scientists such a collision is a very
rare event the probability that
somewhere out there there's a planet
like ours that has survived the same
catastrophe is extremely small this may
be the reason why we are yet to find
traces of other civilizations out there
in
space meanwhile the remains of Thea are
still here on Earth of course it doesn't
look like an entire planet stuck inside
our own most of the fragments have
melted and blended into the Earth's
crust if you take the top layer off our
planet you'll see two huge lava blobs
the size of entire continents they're
right below Africa and the Pacific Ocean
presumably these are the remains of Thea
they didn't mix with Earth's mantle
because of different densities it's like
mixing water and oil in a glass the oil
will always float up over the water and
create an even layer on top of it but if
you raise those lava patches up to the
surface they'd be 100 times higher than
Mount Everest other remains of Thea
might be on the moon the Apollo space
missions brought back many soil samples
for analysis scientists have concluded
that the Moon is very similar to Earth
in structure people could drill deep
down and take samples there then they'd
analyze the blobs from Earth if their
structure matched it'd be 100% proof
that Thea did hit Earth 4.5 billion
years ago and that's how we got the moon
but for the time being Thea remains
somewhat mysterious scientists are still
not sure that the planet actually
existed the whole idea perfectly fits
the model of the moon's creation but in
fact this incredible Collision may have
never
happened hop on the bright side of life
together with our brand new te's hoodies
and more click the link to pick your
choice now you travel 41 Lighty years
away from Earth to the Planet 55 kry e
it's about twice the size of Earth and
eight times heavier you take out your
giant hammer again and use it to hit the
Chisel the planet cracks and you see
it's a giant Diamond the temperature on
this planet is tens of times higher than
that of earth and its soil is rich in
carbon the heat puts a lot of pressure
on this carbon its structure changes
first it turns into graphite some more
pressure and graphite turns into diamond
on Earth diamonds form at depths below
60 M where the pressure is 50,000 times
greater than on the surface the
temperatures there rise over 1,000°
which is as hot as fire diamonds are
rejected closer to the surface in
volcanic eruptions still people have to
dig mines 1500 ft deep to find these
beautiful gems the golden jubilee
diamond is the biggest cut and faceted
diamond on Earth it weighs as much as a
chocolate bar and is the size of a
hamster its price is about $12 million
now imagine a diamond the size of an
entire
planet you decide to fly back to the
solar system your destination is
Jupiter's moon Europa it's as wide as
the distance between Seattle and Houston
and its mass is less than 1% the mass of
Earth its surface is enclosed in an icy
crust it's about 19 Mi thick but what if
you crack this crust with your giant
hammer wow Europa is completely covered
in water it's freezing here three times
colder than at the North Pole on Earth
the water turns into ice almost
instantly but the ocean beneath the
surface is still liquid Europa interacts
with Jupiter gravitationally just like
the moon with Earth this creates tidal
forces and heats europa's core the core
melts the ice around it the result is a
huge ocean 2 to three times larger than
all of Earth's oceans combined
scientists believe that water is the
basis of life it may mean that life may
exist on Europa there could be thermal
Springs just like at the bottom of our
oceans the water there is probably much
warmer and even though the pressure and
temperature in such places are likely to
be extreme simple bacteria may live
there Europa is almost the same age as
Earth this means there's been enough
time for living organisms to appear and
evolve who knows maybe some Advanced
civilization is already blooming under
this crust of ice they may be building
big cities and dreaming of conquering
space right now but the only thing
people can do at the moment is send a
probe to Europa and find out if life is
possible
there this is Neptune the next stop is
Pluto stand clear of the closing doors
please one day with top-notch future
Technologies One Stop from Neptune to
Pluto won't see much further than Time
Square from Bryant Park today there are
huge ice mountains on Pluto valleys that
go further than your eyes can see 160 m
large craters almost as big as the
largest one on earth and no life the
reasons are obvious the long distance
between Pluto and the sun guarantees
freezing temperatures on that dwarf
planet it also ensures a trip of a few
billion miles plus it's smaller than the
moon so it would get crowded very soon
if people started dwelling there still
there's one reason which makes life
there not that far-fetched the sun has a
lifespan and Cycles within it our solar
system used to be nothing but a cloud of
gas and dust as a result of a
gravitational collapse at the center of
this Cloud the gas and dust started
gathering in specific denser places
these pulled more and more matter as
time went on and something called
conservation momentum made the mass
start rotating and heating up because of
immense pressure later there appeared a
disc similar to what Saturn has but it
was made of entirely different
substances and right in the center there
was the ball that eventually became the
Sun a protostar is a young star that's
still Gathering its mass and that's
exactly what the sun was before the
temperatures and pressures inside of it
lighted up its core millions of years
later it became the sun we see every day
but it won't stay this way forever it
will heat up even more and eventually
get bigger and denser turning into a red
giant it may one day get big enough to
swallow up Venus and Mercury chances are
it might swallow even planet Earth even
if it doesn't devour our planet the sun
might get close enough to touch us well
if this happened life on Earth wouldn't
be possible but then in just a few
minutes the sun loses about 40% of its
mass and shrinks about 10 times what it
used to be it's not as bright and indeed
not as hot as it used to be by this
moment Earth will have already been
deserted people might want to start
traveling around base or settle down on
another planet where life is sustainable
like the exoplanet Kepler 62f which by
the way is even bigger than Earth while
all of this was happening Pluto was
changing before every resource was
frozen inside of the dwarf planet water
gases like methane carbon monoxide you
name it but as the sun was reaching its
peak Luminosity Pluto was slowly warming
up and losing a lot of what it had to
the vastness of space at the same time
an atmosphere formed up if the
atmosphere gets thick enough it would
create favorable life conditions then
instead of spaceships a tiny percentage
of us would be able to set up colonies
on the dwarf planet the temperature is
comfortable there almost t-shirt weather
it even resembles Earth a tiny bit
Canyons filled with water beautiful
endless Fields with trees and lots of
space to run around and mineral water
pockets on the ground good enough to
drink Pluto's rotations are different
than Earth's an earth day is 24 hours
and sometimes it still feels like it
never ends but on Pluto a whole rotation
around the sun takes 153 hours because
it's pretty far away from the Sun after
several hours without sleep we get tired
and our eyes get red it means we'd have
to take several naps throughout the day
on Pluto a year on Pluto equals 248
Earth years unless we come up with some
sort of technology to get us to live
that long our entire lifespan would be
less than half a year on the dwarf
planet so houses on Pluto might need to
be equipped with cryo Chambers whenever
you feel like dreaming for a long time
you jump in it and wake up 50 Pluto days
later on the dwarf planet there are also
seas and beaches so it's just like a
tiny Earth far away from the actual
Earth the food on Pluto could be tastier
we might find a way to make the
ingredients more Savory and even try to
grow them faster during the trip you
plant a carrot and 2 days later it's
ready to be in your salad there could
also be new ingredients for our salads
on Pluto maybe 2 m tall mushrooms we've
never seen before the animals we would
take with us on the trip would get
released into their new home forever and
with time they would evolve and adapt to
their new environments the law of the
Jungle could change a bit too Lions
might not be Kings anymore deer are
their antlers are twice the size of what
they used used to be but to be fair so
are the deer most of the animals that
were already here used to live
underwater but with time the amphibian
started shifting to the surface just
like Earth at the beginning of Life
Pluto could only be a temporary home
though once the sun has finally reached
its Final Phase Pluto would get Frozen
and lifeless again people instead would
need to try to find a planet that stays
in the goldilock zone of another galaxy
the goldilock zone is the exact proper
distance from the Star like the sun
where the temperature is perfect for the
water to stay liquid it's the rule
scientists search for when looking for
other planets that can sustain life we
can try setting new colonies on one such
planet or even try to set up our own
artificial home not exactly a planet or
a spaceship but a combination of both
something huge built right in space say
a wheel with gravity everywhere we go so
we don't fall off it would float in
space toward the new exoplanet capable
of fitting enti States in this whole
trip might happen just because the sun
first grew too much and then having
reached the culmination of its life
cycle it would finally become a white
dwarf it's going to be a pretty long
journey and entire Generations will be
born here you'll have a choice sleep
your way through the Journey until
humans finally reach their new exoplanet
or enjoy the trip in this fantastic
spaceship there's all you need on board
malls bigger than those on Earth large
futuristic cities even places to farm
Fields with rich soil made artificially
and finally after a long journey the
exoplanet it's even somewhat better than
Earth the planet is Giant and has more
continents the continent's center isn't
as far from oceans which means there
aren't as many desert areas though the
sun of this planet is an orange dwarf
it's not as hot as our yellow dwarf sun
today it's a bit smaller but here's the
kick orange dwarfs live somewhat longer
they remain stable for between 15
billion and 45 billion years despite
that this new planet is full of
rainforests because the planet itself is
warmer it means more biodiversity and
creatures we've never seen before but
even if nothing out there is suitable we
could try and terraform this planet
instead if we take Mars as an example we
could create a greenhouse effect by
Smashing icer comets and releasing
ammonia in them making the planet warmer
we could also start planting trees we'd
probably need some Earth soil to do that
or we'd have to modify mars' soil to be
similar to ours sooner rather than later
the atmosphere would be close to the one
we have on Earth we'd be able to breathe
too because of the trees then we can
melt Mars's polar ice caps and voila
water the problem is the solar winds and
sun explosions that might strip it of an
atmosphere just as quickly as we can
create one if not faster it has no
magnetosphere either which means it
can't protect us from radiation so
long-term Mars wouldn't be a good choice
maybe out there in the vastness that is
space there is a perfect Planet waiting
for
us we'll start with one of the most
recent and shocking discoveries of 2020
perhaps our solar system has life beyond
Earth this is Venus the second planet
from the sun and the sister of our home
planet it's called so because it has a
similar size and mass but the conditions
on it are simply terrible the
temperature on its surface reaches 890
de fight because of the Greenhouse
Effect and the atmospheric pressure on
it is as strong as if you were 3,000 ft
underwater but in this hostile World
there can actually be life for many
years there have been discussions on
this subject in 2007 scientists
discovered there once had been an ocean
on Venus that is in the distant past
there could have been some form of
life but in the fall of 2020 there was
an epic argument in which scientists
tried to find out whether life on Venus
exists right now in September the
discovery of a new life marker on Venus
was announced the alma telescope in the
atakama desert found found phosphine gas
above the planet and the amount of this
gas suggested that it may have been
produced by certain
microorganisms but already in October
the data was analyzed again and the new
results indicate it was an
error so today we consider Venus to be
uninhabited once more but who knows
maybe soon we'll get new data and new
disputes will arise in scientific
circles and while some scientists are
scratching their heads and still
concentrating on Venus others have
looked into distant space and discovered
24 planets on which life can exist and
on all of them living conditions are
much better than on Earth such planets
are called super habitable these super
planets must be 1.3 times larger than
the earth and twice as massive thus they
will have stronger gravity and as a
consequence a denser and warmer
atmosphere so the climate on
superhabitable planets must be similar
to the tropical climate on Earth this
will ensure the maximum diversity of
living
organisms the host star of such a planet
must be a red dwarf they're much smaller
than the Sun and not so bright but their
lifespan can reach 70 billion
years for comparison the lifespan of the
sun is seven times shorter and it's
already passed half of it slow slow and
steady wins the race it will give enough
time for potential life to develop and
evolve and here's a suitable planet for
the title of superh habitable Kepler
1649c in 2020 it was named the most
similar planet to Earth it's only 6%
larger than our home World it orbits a
red dwarf a quarter the size of our sun
the planet is in the habitable zone of
the star and makes a complete circle
around it in 19 18.5 days the climate on
Kepler remains a mystery it's known to
receive about 75% of the light we get
from the Sun so the temperature on its
surface may be close to Earth's but we
still don't know the composition of the
atmosphere and other necessary
conditions for life to appear
there the next Discovery is one of the
most amazing spectacles ever seen by
Humanity it's the Collision of a star
with a black hole in September 20 2019
scientists began watching how for 6
months a sunlike star was being
spaghettified light from this event
traveled 215 million light years and we
saw a star about 860,000 Mi wide slurped
up by a black
hole this black disc is so heavy that it
has incredibly strong gravity nothing
can leave its gravitational field and
now we see a star slowly approaching it
first first the glowing light layers of
the star begin to stretch towards the
black hole it looks as if the star is
simply unrolling like a ball of
thread then we see this hot plasma
lingering at the edges of the black hole
and it may seem these particles are now
orbiting it but it's just an illusion
this ring of light is called The Event
Horizon the black hole curves not only
space but time as well this close to it
time slows down to the Observer it looks
as if the light near the edge of the
black disc has almost stopped but in
fact it has long been absorbed by the
dark
abyss when a black hole eats a certain
amount of star material it starts
spitting it out powerful beams of energy
are ejected at speeds of over 6,000
m/s this is the light that attracted
scientists attention in the end the
black hole has completely absorbed about
half of the star and spit out the other
half into space and even though we
watched this process for only a couple
of minutes it was happening for 6
months and here is one of the youngest
planetary systems that Humanity has ever
observed Au
microscopi it's so young there's still a
disc around it from the debris this
system was made of but this time we
don't even hope to find life here the
host star of this exoplanet continually
emits radiation flares that would wipe
out any form of life from the planet's
surface the planet that orbits this
dangerous star is called Au mckb and
it's just a newborn baby by astronomical
standards it's so close to its star that
it makes a complete circle around it in
8.5 days the age of this planet is only
12 million years so at the time Au MCB
was born mastadons walked on the surface
of our planet
and Meadows and savanas were covering
the Earth's face so you and I can
consider ourselves oldtimers because the
age of the Earth is almost 4.5 billion
years the next Discovery took place in
early 2020 and it's very similar to a
landscape from Science Fiction it's a
planet with two suns well more precisely
it doesn't orbit around a single star as
we are used to in our solar system but
around a binary star system toi
1338 the first big star is like the sun
the other is a red dwarf which is three
times smaller these Stars completely
Circle each other in a little over 14
days the planet that orbits these stars
is the size of Saturn which is much
larger than the earth although the
sunsets and sunrises there look
incredibly beautiful this planet is
unlikely to be suitable for any form of
life it's outside the habitable zone of
its host Stars so it probably doesn't
have liquid
water mysterious radio signals from
outer space have also been received in
2020 we're talking about fast radio
bursts scientists recorded such signals
before but recently they have managed to
prove that they are repeated after a
certain period of time the new data have
forced the scientists to come up with a
very bold theory that their Source may
be a
magnetar a magnetar is a neutron star
that is small and has a huge mass
compared to ordinary stars like the Sun
but they have the strongest magnetic
field in the entire universe their
lifetime is very short though only 1
million
years but what baffled scientists the
most this year was discovering that the
Moon is rusting corrosion needs oxygen
and water to take place but the moon
doesn't have its own atmosphere to have
both the main Theory says the solar wind
is to blame it moves at great speed and
scrapes oxygen from the upper layers of
the Earth's atmosphere the wind
continues to carry oxygen molecules
through space and eventually they reach
the surface of the Moon and cause metal
ore to
rust by the way the signature red color
of Mars was created because of the rust
for a long long time there was an
atmosphere and water in combination with
iron on its surface it triggered a long
process of rusting which has lasted
since ancient
times another stunning Discovery was
found on the surface of the Moon with a
stratospheric telescope it's an aircraft
that carries a telescope the plane
raises it to an altitude of 8 m and this
allows it to have a picture quality
comparable to that of space telescopes
and with the help of such an usual
Observatory scientists were able to find
water on the surface of the Moon water
molecules were found in one of the
largest craters on the visible side of
the satellite but the number of water
molecules is still extremely small there
the Sahara Desert has about 100 times
more water than the surface of the
Moon among all the planets of the solar
system our Earth is unique since it's
the only one that has developed life but
what if we got a competitor what if a
second Earth appeared out of nowhere
then there would be two different
scenarios the first is the destruction
of both planets the second has an
unexpected but pretty logical ending but
let's start with the catastrophic
scenario the second Earth with the same
conditions could only exist if it
received absolutely the same amount of
sunlight as our planet the orbit that
our Earth follows is perfect for getting
the necessary amount of solar heat if we
were a little further away the entire
surface of our planet would resemble
Antarctica and if Earth were a little
closer to the Sun we'd all live in a
huge desert inhabited by very few living
beings so for the second Earth to be
identical to ours it would need to
follow the orbit of our
planet two massive objects can exist
close to each other the union of Earth
and the moon is a great example but if
the second object was as heavy and huge
as our planet there wouldn't be enough
space for both of them the gravity of
Two Earths would be a huge problem the
Two Worlds would Collide because they
would be pulled toward each other this
process would last for hundreds of
millions of years and in the end the two
planets would transform into one giant
world and their remnants would be flying
around the newly formed Planet
resembling the rings around Saturn or
one of the planets would push the other
out of its orbit in this case one of the
earths would hurdle toward the Sun and
burn like a match in its atmosphere it's
also important to remember that Earth is
moving at a speed of 67,000 mph at all
times this is more than 80 times faster
than the speed of sound and now imagine
two huge planets that are flying toward
each other at such a speed even a
microscopic organism living in the mouth
of a volcano wouldn't stand a chance to
survive the Collision Of Two Earths even
the moon would be Torn to Pieces by the
blast wave but let's imagine that
Earth's twin is following another orbit
somewhere between Mars and Earth even in
this situation people's lives would
change Forever by the way the theory
that Earth might have a twin appeared
long ago scientists of the past believed
that the second planet could be hiding
on the opposite side of the sun thanks
to Modern Technologies and astronomy we
know this Theory isn't true otherwise
our telescope sces and other equipment
would have already caught some signals
from this planet scientists study space
objects thousands of light years away
from us so they would definitely notice
another world in the neighborhood but
anyway let's imagine that the second
Earth does exist and we've discovered it
recently the entire field of astronomy
and astrophysics will immediately
receive hundreds of billions of dollars
in funding the study of Earth's twin
will become a priority goal for people
experts will put forward hundreds of
hypothesis about what the second earth
looks like and what's happening there
the planet is almost at the same
distance from the Sun as we are this
means the weather must be the same there
soon scientists find out that Earth's
doppelganger has liquid water and
continents but they aren't like ours
their shapes and location are different
most likely life exists there too but
what is its origin there's a hypothesis
that life on our planet appeared thanks
to amino acids brought here by a
meteorite it's highly improbable that
the same thing happened to another world
life most likely emerged there in a
completely different way perhaps the
fish didn't get out of the water on that
planet and the first intelligent
creatures appeared in the ocean these
could be amphibians with scales and fins
or octopus-like Monsters with huge
tentacles fish on the second Earth could
have come out of the water and grown
limbs but what if they didn't like
walking on the ground then this world
might be inhabited by intelligent bird
people or life could have originated
deep in the soil then Evolution would
create humanoid moles or highly
developed
worms to find out for sure scientists
send a Rover there a similar Mission to
Mars was a success so there shouldn't be
any problems with this one people on
Earth are waiting what will the Rover
find on the other side it will take
several years for the ship to get there
strangely 2 days after the launch it
returns but wait this is not our space
probe all this time the inhabitants of
the second Earth have been watching our
planet too at one point they also sent a
probe it's made of the same materials as
ours it has a camera and a recording
device but people are worried because
the Rover looks similar to a mechanical
spider can it be that giant tarantulas
live in that world scientists understand
that that we need to communicate we send
our guests a radio signal with some
information about our civilization they
catch this message and send their own it
contains strange symbols that resemble
scratches linguists all over the world
are trying to decipher it meanwhile
astronomers send the guests a recording
of human speech a few days later our
satellites catch a message from our
space neighbors with their voices
scientists are about to play the
recording the whole world is listening
with baited breath
and it's a growl a terrible an
absolutely incomprehensible growl it has
pauses and an unusual Rhythm but it's
nothing resembling human speech the
whole planet is panicking all countries
are preparing for an invasion the most
important thing now is to build Shields
to protect the planet no one can decrypt
the message it's possible that our
neighbors can't understand us either
people make a last attempt to establish
some contact we send a video to explain
to our guests with the help of gestures
and signs that we only want peace and
collaboration the answer doesn't take
long to wait our satellite receives
their video file scientists play back
the recording and it's shocking we see
dinosaurs in robotic suits life on the
second Earth has been developing in the
same way as on our planet but the
infamous colossal meteorite didn't fall
there over millions of years of
evolution dinosaurs have have become
sensient in the video they're growling
and pointing with their claws at the
picture of our Earth then they start
growling even more loudly and is it
laughter the recording ends people
consider this the announcement of the
invasion several years have passed
during this time scientists have
exchanged messages with Dinosaurs
several times and it seems we're
beginning to understand them it turns
out that the reptiles also want peace
they say that their planet was once
inhabited by humanoids similar to humans
but a massive flood wiped them away
dinosaurs managed to survive and evolve
into intelligent beings it will take
many years before people set foot on
their planet and when this happens
Humanity will feel relieved realizing
that we're not alone but what if there
was no intelligent life on the second
Earth people would also be happy we
would know that we'd always have another
home perhaps we'd start exploring
Earth's twin right away or begin mining
its resources to replenish ours in any
case our lives wouldn't change
immediately because that land would be
too far away from our planet dozens of
generations would pass before people
begin settling on the second Earth our
homeland Planet would be losing more and
more resources so everyone would want to
move to a new world in the beginning
only the richest would be able to do it
but with time space travel would become
cheaper people would probably invest a
lot of of money to build a paradise on
the second Earth if this happened we'd
be visiting this world during our
vacation to breathe fresh air and enjoy
nature in any case the human population
would grow this means that sooner or
later the second Earth would become as
loaded as the first one and then people
would start searching for a new home
Among the Stars by the way if any life
exists on a planet similar to ours it's
likely to look like octopuses there's
even a theory that o puses came to Earth
from some other world any animal has
several evolutionary stages of
development for example elephants and
mammoths descended from one common
ancestor 5 to 6 million years ago
looking even further almost all mammals
evolved from one ancestor they shared
with reptiles each species has been
changing over millions of years but not
octopuses they suddenly appeared on a
family tree from the point of view of
evolution squids would have to evolve
into octopuses Millions of years from
now but look they're already here
besides octopuses are incredibly smart
their genetic code is much more diverse
than the human one they may be visitors
from another planet that is similar to
ours but of course this is only a
hypothesis hop on I've prepared a tour
around Earth's fellow planets let's
start with Mercury the smallest planet
in the solar system during the day the
temperature on the surface of this
planet can reach 800° f and during the
night it can drop to - 290° F the
temperatures here are so extreme because
the planet has no atmosphere instead of
it mercury has a thin exosphere that's
one of the reasons why Mercury is not
habitable the temperatures and solar
radiation are too extreme for any
organism to survive there now let's
imagine there's a way to live on Mercury
then what would life there look like
Mercury surface resembles that of the
Moon Over time meteorite left lots of
marks on it unlike the moon's surface
Mercury is grayish
Brown now look up the sun on Mercury
would appear almost three times as large
as it does on Earth the sunlight would
be almost seven times brighter I wonder
what type of sunglasses people would
wear if we lived there can life appear
on this planet in the future don't get
your hopes up it's very
unlikely now how about landing on Venus
you might think the hottest planet in
our solar system is mercury since it's
the closest to the Sun but in reality
this title goes to Venus what is it that
makes Venus boil the biggest reason is
its atmosphere it's made up almost
entirely of carbon dioxide the
atmosphere is so thick that it leads to
the planet warming up non-stop basically
the gases in the atmosphere prevent
thermal radiation from leaving Venus so
the planet simply can't cool down the
water on its surface constantly turns
into vapor if the surface of Venus was
food then its atmosphere would be the
microwave that's why the temperatures in
this world can go up to
87° fhe what would it be like to live on
Venus on Earth seasons change because of
the planet's tilt but Venus doesn't
experience any significant changes
throughout the year things are pretty
constant at night and during the day too
and what about the view of the sky the
clouds on Venus appear yellow or bright
white they're mostly made of poisonous
sulfuric acid but then why does Venus
appear reddish orange when you look at
it from Earth talking about the true
colors of planets can be a tricky
business the Hue of a space body might
be different when you look at it from
another planet if we traveled all the
way to Venus a reddish brown surface
would welcome us the molecules of carbon
dioxide and sulfuric acid block sunlight
coming into Venus's surface hence the
reddish orange color of the planet oh
and did you know that Venus is often
called Earth's twin both planets are
nearly equal in size both have
relatively young surfaces and thick
atmospheres with clouds plus the orbit
of Venus is also the closest to Earth
that might raise a question about the
possibility of Life on Venus I'm sorry
to break the news but nope Venus is not
habitable the next destination is Mars
unlike Venus Mars has Seasons due to the
planet's tilt on its axis it also has a
the secondary seasonal effect caused by
its highly elliptical orbit the southern
hemisphere has colder Winters and hotter
Summers than those in the northern
hemisphere the average temperature on
Mars is 80°
F but temperatures can also range from
the poles to the equator and they can
change very dramatically within a single
week still not that bad compared to the
previous two planets huh is Mars
habitable the number one thing a living
organism should worry about out here is
space radiation Earth has a magnetic
field and a thick atmosphere to protect
its surface from radiation Mars has
neither the planet's gravity is 1/3 of
Earth's so weaker gravity and a thinner
atmosphere make it harder for any living
being to survive on the red planet in
2013 NASA reported an ancient freshwater
lake that could have been a hospitable
environment for microbial life this is
evidenced now that liquid water once
flowed on Mars This confirmation
suggests that Mars could have had the
necessary environment to support life
but what happened to the water on Mars
the most popular explanation is that the
planet's atmosphere became too thin and
cold to keep liquid water on Mars's
surface The Disappearance of water might
also be related to the loss of early
magnetic fields or the reason might be
the red planet's size Mars is probably
too small to keep water so for now Mars
is not habitable but you know scientists
keep sending missions to Mars maybe
they'll find some new information let's
wait and
see now Jupiter have you ever wondered
what it might be like to live on the
biggest planet in our solar system
Jupiter's environment is an unlikely
place to support life the temperatures
on this planet and its composition are
too extreme for any organisms to appear
there Jupiter has layers of gas mostly
hydrogen and helium these gases fill the
entire planet quite literally there is
no solid surface on the planet gases go
all the way to the core below the
surface they become liquid and turn into
plasma because the atmospheric pressure
there is way more intense than any place
on Earth to put it into perspective an
organism on Jupiter has to resist 1,00
times more atmospheric pressure than it
would on Earth can a living being
survive in such conditions un likely
Jupiter is completely uninhabitable but
hey have you heard that its Moon Europa
might be a possible habitable zone
change of scenery Saturn it's the second
largest planet in our solar system like
Jupiter Saturn is a gas giant ball
mainly consisting of hydrogen and helium
what about temperatures on Saturn it's
freezing plus there are extremely
powerful winds there the winds in
Saturn's upper atmosphere reach the
speed of 1,000 600 ft per second let's
compare them to storms on Earth to have
a better understanding the strongest
hurricane ever recorded on Earth was
moving at 350 ft per second so the
answer to the question is there life on
Saturn seems pretty obvious Life as we
understand it doesn't exist there the
next stop is Uranus one of the largest
ice giants Uranus's atmosphere is
dominated by ice but it's not the only
reason that causes the planet's blue
color it's also the methane in the
atmosphere it absorbs red light and
reflects blue the same goes for Neptune
Uranus is the coldest planet in the
solar system the temperatures there can
be as low
as371 de
fenhe life on earth needs sunlight to
get energy but there's nothing on Uranus
that can produce any energy for life
forms to thrive the bottom line is
Uranus doesn't have the environment to
sustain life
heading for Neptune the second ice giant
what is there on the planet furthest
from the Sun obviously it's incredibly
chilly there's neither a source of
energy that bacterial life can exploit
nor a source of liquid water currently
scientists believe it's unlikely to find
life on Neptune because of such
unfriendly conditions so what makes our
planet so livable and I'm not just
talking about human life I mean any
living organisms even microbes life
requires very special conditions to
exist all living beings need some sort
of food water and the right temperature
to develop the atmosphere is a vital
element humans for instance need oxygen
to breathe and they can only survive in
temperatures that aren't extremely hot
or cold another thing is gravity all the
other planets I've mentioned don't have
exactly the same conditions as Earth
life there would probably be different
than what we have here all living beings
on earth have a adapted to our
atmosphere and life forms elsewhere
would need to be able to survive in that
planet's conditions is that Earth you
can see at a distance right just look at
it floating in space hanging out with
its Planet buddies you spot orange red
Mars and Jupiter with its asteroid belt
even tiny Pluto is
there all these planets keep their
distance from each other moving along in
their own orbits they're not very social
you see but that's a good thing it would
cause nothing but trouble if they
started to bump into each
other but even though there are others
Earth is the only planet we know that
has life and we've even figured out why
it's because it was lucky enough to
appear in the best spot in our solar
system in the goldilock
zone scientists say the key ingredient
for life is water but well there's water
on Mercury this planet has deposits of
water ice at its South and North Poles
but only because those places never see
the light everywhere else water simply
evaporates from the surface of the
planet Mercury is way too close to the
Sun Pluto has some water too astronomers
even think the dwarf planet might be up
to 30% water but it's frozen unlike
Mercury Pluto's too far away from the
Sun which is why all its water is in the
form of
ice but Earth hovers in a perfect spot
called the habitable zone it has the
right temperature for the water to
remain liquid and for all forms of life
to flourish but what if Earth was the
only planet in the solar system no Mars
no Jupiter no Mercury no Venus things
might have turned out a little different
than what we're used to remember that
massive asteroid that hit the Earth
around 66 million years ago well without
Jupiter and its asteroid belt our planet
would be constantly hit by meteorites
and asteroids and some of them would be
just as big as the one that caused all
that sorrow to the
dinosaurs these Rocky fellas would be
roaming around in space with no one and
nothing to stop them and if Earth was
the only planet out there it would also
be their only
target but that's not all look at all
this huge space Earth would have all to
itself it means our planet would have an
opportunity to travel a bit it could
even choose to leave the goldilock Zone
but then would life on the planet still
be the same so let's say earth started
drifting away from the Sun then it'd
soon get too cold on the planet picture
a place where the sun doesn't shine
anymore dark cold covered in ice and
snow all year round that would be our
Earth if it traveled further from the
Sun if this happened our cities would
start to look very
different right now Earth is full of
Life come to any park and you'll see
green trees and grass everywhere there
will be people walking sitting on the
benches enjoying the sun you'll
definitely spot someone playing soccer
or frisbee on the parks Lawns there will
be people resting on their blankets
soaking up the Sun a few people will be
reading their books
looking relaxed and happy back in space
you see Earth again the planet is still
in its favorite spot that's why life is
so beautiful down there but wait is it
moving our planet is definitely further
from the Sun now has it changed things
for Earth it actually looks a bit Bluer
now down there Famous Golden California
is not so golden anymore it's gloomy and
dark much like like all other places on
Earth New York is covered in ice even in
the hottest places the temperatures are
now below freezing including tropical
destinations like the
Bahamas after a while liquid water turns
into ice the oceans now look like giant
skating ranks except there's no one to
skate there since the planet has become
way too cold to support
life okay then what if instead of
drifting further away from the sun earth
moved closer with people still aboard
who the temperatures here are crazy too
hot to handle the climate would be
getting hotter and hotter natural
disasters would start to occur more
often hurricanes and floods would be a
common thing on earth now and pretty
soon the planet would get too hot for
people to handle particles from the Sun
would become a serious threat the
atmosphere would be struggling to
protect Earth from solar radiation but
this Shield would be growing weaker
liquid water would be nowhere to be
found anymore maybe only in underground
deposits Earth would look a bit like
Mars all Rocky and Barren the
Mississippi River would dry up and leave
behind a huge Canyon all the oceans
would be gone too at the moment the
Mariana Trench is the deepest known
place on Earth it's incredibly hard to
reach its bottom because of the immense
water pressure there
but without water trips to the deepest
spot on Earth would be possible it would
help people uncover some more of Earth's
Secrets if people still lived on the dry
and scorching hot planet that is in
other words if someone was to explore
Earth after the planet had moved closer
to the Sun everything would be
completely different but what if Earth
didn't move at all and everything
remained the same the only difference
there would be no other planets around
us it would change the way people
explore space sure there would still be
navigation communication and weather
satellites and maybe space telescopes
but there wouldn't be any other space
objects close enough for people to send
missions there this would affect the
future too if people had no desire or
opportunity to go to space they would
invest in their home planet they would
build Sky cities instead of looking for
other planets to
colonize these days if you get a
state-of-the-art telescope you'll see
distant stars and other planets the
better the telescope the more detail
there is for you to see but with no
other planets out there the picture of
space wouldn't be so exciting Stars
would still be visible and you might
even spot a meteorite or two and you'd
definitely see the moon but that's about
it space agencies would mostly be
focused on keeping Earth secure mainly
because asteroids would become fre qu
visitors to protect the planet
scientists would have to figure out ways
to get rid of them like a massive laser
beam when turned on it could go all the
way to the moon and even
further instead of building Rockets to
explore space SpaceX and NASA would be
in the asteroid clearing
business people wouldn't even think of
trying to contact other civilizations if
there were no planets similar to Earth
they would consider it a wasted effort
this means no radio signals being
constantly sent out to space a curious
fact in February of 2008 the beetle song
Across the Universe was beamed into deep
space it was done to celebrate both the
song's 40th anniversary and NASA's 50th
anniversary in the 70s people also sent
a radio signal out into space it
contains some basic information about
humans and the solar system but it was
more a feat of strength for technology
than an attempt to contact any alien
buddies we might have with no planets
around the world of sci-fi would change
too there would be no more movies about
deep space exploration no massive
spaceships and Rockets would appear on
the big screen and since there would be
no expeditions to other planets no
Rovers would be sent to space to look
for signs of life and explore new worlds
like what the Rovers on Mars are doing
right
now people would concentrate more on
their own planet for example they would
begin to explore its insides new
technologies would allow us to dig much
much deeper all the way through Earth's
crust and further and doesn't a trip to
the planet's core sound
exciting instead of astronauts there
would be explorers of the deep
underground new Drilling Technologies
would be invented to make the digging
process more effective there would be
new types of vehicles they would be
created to drill and protect explorers
from the enormous underground pressure
while exploring the world under the
planet surface people would likely find
absolutely new life forms those would be
mysterious creatures that evolved to
survive in the dark in extreme
temperatures and with barely any food it
certainly helped people understand more
about their home planet