They've recalculated the demise of the dinosaurs, it says here, and are still figuring out how many earth-like planets may be out there. Not that we're going to any of them any time soon, or ever.
If there's one of them 13 light-years away, that's still further than anything we've got could possibly make it in one piece in a time frame longer than anyone could possibly survive. So it's a purely hypothetical situation.
And if small, cool red dwarfs are the most common stars in our galaxy, as reported, then our galaxy must be in either its middle age or perhaps its old age, because a red dwarf is usually one of the final stages of a star's life.
This is ort of like, what came first the chicken or the egg.
ReplyDeleteDoes it really matter?
"Does it really matter?"
ReplyDeleteNot really, except that popular media, notably TV, tends to encourage the impressionable to think that even if we trash this planet there are millions more out there somewhere waiting for us - and that's simply not true, because those have been conveniently located safely beyond our reach, and for very good reasons.
Beyond our reach... Very good point!
ReplyDelete