Astronomers Have Found Life on Another Planet, But What Does This Mean?

The puzzle.

In our galaxy, the Milky Way, there are 100 billion stars, and more than 100 billion planets spinning around stars. Our sun has eight planets. What are the odds that our planet, earth, is the only one with life? One chance in 100 billion, so it’s very unlikely. To say this another way, it’s highly likely that life exists on other planets in our galaxy.

This is why the very large array (VLA) in New Mexico has been listening for radio signals (techno-signatures) from alien civilizations. It’s made up of 27 separate large antennae in a Y-shaped pattern, and the antennae are tuned to radio waves, not visible light. So far, they haven’t received any “communications” from alien sources. The VLA, which is situated about 50 miles west of Socorro, is also used to address other problems in astronomy.

The New Search For Life On Another Planet.

We are more familiar with telescopes that study stars and galaxies in visible light. If such a telescope is receiving light from a star that has a planet revolving around it, the planet will look like a tiny black dot. This means, first, the light from the star is dimmed very slightly as the planet crosses the surface of the star.

Second, some of the light from the star passes through the atmosphere of the planet, if the planet has an atmosphere, like our earth does.

Third, if the atmosphere of the planet has chemicals in it, like carbon dioxide which is causing global warming at earth, the light from the star would contain a unique signature of the chemical when it’s analyzed by a spectroscope.

In this way, an astronomer can find out what chemicals exist in the atmosphere of the remote planet. Are there nitrogen and oxygen and carbon dioxide, like on earth, or ammonia and methane and benzene or some other gas in the atmosphere of the remote planet.

With an approach like this, an astronomer can see if the remote planet has an atmosphere like the earth does, with chemicals that may indicate that life exists.

Remote planets that revolve around other stars are called exoplanets, and as of early June almost 6,000 of them have been discovered in recent years.

The Life Chemicals.

As you can imagine, you need a very powerful telescope to engage in a study like this. The most powerful telescope in the world is the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which has been placed in orbit around earth. The latest discovery by the JWST was to identify in an exoplanet the signature of one of two life chemicals called dimethyl sulphide (DMS) and dimethyl disulphide (DMDS). On Earth, these gases are produced by phytoplankton and bacteria in the oceans, so they are usually indicative of life.

But where is this planet that may have life? It revolves around a red star that is 124 light years away from us (700 trillion miles). This is far beyond what any human could travel in a lifetime. The planet is called K2-18b and is about twice as large as the earth.

Another strange result: “The amount we estimate of this gas in the atmosphere is thousands of times higher than what we have on Earth,” the lead scientist said. In other words, if the signal comes from an ocean on K2-18b, it must be packed with living plankton and bacteria.

But it’s also possible that the DMS life signal originates from some non-life planetary geology, and the scientists are investigating this.

Does This Mean There Are Other Intelligent Beings In The Universe?

First, the scientist leading the discovery says it would mean that life is not unique to earth, and probably exists in millions of other exoplanets. By this, he means single-cell life like plankton and bacteria. It doesn’t prove that multi-celled life forms exist on K2-18b, because that would take another big step. Same for intelligent life, which would take another even bigger step. So, we don’t have an answer yet about whether intelligent beings exist on other planets beyond earth.

If intelligent beings do exist on other exoplanets, what would this tell us about God and Jesus?
I don’t know…..for those of you who believe in God and Jesus, feel free to add your opinion to the Comment section below.
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Wishing you best regards from Albuquerque, where it is 100F degrees today, and it is hot!
The Gray Nomad.
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When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

[Book of Psalms, chapter 8.]