Astronomers just discovered a fuzzy, tiny image of a planet that has many of the same features found on Earth. Oceans, atmosphere, gravity, moderate temperatures, a nearby sun-star could all make the yet-unnamed world a virtual twin to ours. It is the first planet ever discovered outside our Solar System with such surprisingly Earth-like features.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that our sister planet is more than 20 1/2 light years … 120 trillion miles … away. Science on Earth is far from developing any kind of communications between the worlds, or recognizable close photography, if ever. Sending a probe space ship out to investigate, if ever possible, would take several thousand years before it could send back any kind of images.
However this new discovery revitalizes the old logic that, given the fact that the Universe contains billions of galaxies, stars and planets, it is likely there are at least dozens of Earth-like planets out there somewhere with life forms similar to ours. Maybe even exact duplicates. That I can’t believe. The Universe could never create twin Rosie O’Donnells or Donald Trumps.
Do you believe all the speculation about this new Earth-like world? And if you do, what kind of creatures do you think live there? Are they just like us, or some horrible duplicates of Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump? If so, would any Earthling ever really want to find out?
