SPACED OUT

It’s not so encouraging when the best compliment I get all  day is, “That is such a beautiful mask you are wearing.”

No wonder E.T. wanted to go home, but this is our planet, and Mother Nature is playing nasty tricks on us—-one more time. Hopefully, scientists will get us out of this mess; sooner rather than later. In the meantime, we are stuck on Earth with nowhere else to go. It has been long speculated that the planet Mars might be a solution, if you don’t mind a six-month trip, and sharing a locality with a bunch of microorganisms.

When I was in high school, the science teacher insisted that there were only nine planets. She didn’t like it at all when I said, “Are you sure?” Now, astronomers report, based on Kepler space mission data, that there could be as many as forty-billion earth sized orbiting planets, and the nearest one is only about twelve light years away.  However, you might not want to buy your flight tickets yet, because one light year is about six trillion miles. However, that only works if “red dwarfs are included.” That makes sense, because if there is a habitable planet you’d want a red dwarf to warm it up.

Scientists are knocking themselves out to discover if there are any species out there that would resemble life on our planet. However, in the year, 2000, Geologist and Paleontologist Peter Ward and Astrobiologist, Donald Brownlee published a book, “Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe.” They think that; “Earth-like life is rare in the Universe, whereas microbial life is common.”  On the other hand, in 2010, Theoretical Physicist, Stephen Hawking warned that humans should not try to contact Alien life forms, because they might pillage the Earth for resources.”

 I’m sure no intruders from outer space could pillage the Earth any better than we do. I find it interesting that in Science Fiction Literature, most of the Extraterrestrial creatures manage to speak a bit of  English. Otherwise, how could we understand them? It is fascinating what some of these authors come up with. For instance, even if a creature has an orange hide, he can manage to look human, and then he can take over, and convince people that he is just one of the guys. Finally, someone really smart catches on and warns everyone, “This creature has a human form, but does not have human emotions!” Bummer! One more time, we have to save the Earth. We’ve done it before. We can do it again!

So, face it! In this vast Universe, right now, we are on our own, and we need to clean up our act. As far as a trip into space? Well, we can go up, but eventually we have to come back down, and face the future together.  And, what about Extraterrestrial Life?  Arthur C. Clarke said it best: “I’m sure the Universe is full of intelligent life. It just been too intelligent to come here.”

Esther Blumenfeld