FORSGREN: Possible New Planet Should Get You Stoked To Explore The Universe
Published at | Updated at
\
”Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to space.” – Douglas Adams
Scientists blew out the brains of space enthusiasts this week when they announced that evidence points to the existence of a massive mystery planet orbiting our sun far beyond the orbit of Pluto. This new celestial body is thought to have a mass about ten times that of the Earth and may take as long as 20,000 years to orbit the Sun.
Conspiracy nuts are already proclaiming that this planet is the fabled Nibiru, a mysterious body that will cause a cataclysm when it gets way too close to Earth. Scientists are cautioning that nothing has been discovered for sure, and the next step in their mission will be to find visual confirmation. All this means to me is that space is so big and so shrouded in unknown that we don’t even know everything about our own cosmic neighborhood.
And exploring the cosmos should be a priority for us as humans.
Space exploration is at a bit of a precipice. NASA is underfunded to do what it needs to do and private space exploration is still in its infancy. And yet, it is essential to our long-term survival as a species. If we want to ensure our existence for billions of years, we will have to leave this planet sooner or later.
Beyond mere survival, space exploration is the ultimate indulgence of our need to know. Humans hunger for knowledge and have proven to be willing to lay down their lives in the pursuit to know everything. There are plenty of mysteries to solve in space, including the ultimate mystery: how did the universe come to be?
The only way for us to know the answer to this and other existential queries is for us to go out looking for them. Even if you believe the universe was created by a supreme being, there’s still the question of how he brought it to pass. That’s a question I believe is within our capability to understand. And I surely would like to know the answer to that question.
On top of that, think of all the technological advances that came out of the space race back in the 1960s. Satellite navigation, joysticks, carbon monoxide detectors and a whole host of technological marvels that we use everyday resulted from our push to put a man on the Moon. And it hasn’t stopped there. Every facet of life, from medical care to the way we entertain ourselves, has been touched by our efforts in space exploration.
If all that doesn’t sway you, then consider this. The Earth may have been blessed with a bounty of natural resources, but those won’t last forever. But who knows what resources are held inside asteroids or in the atmospheres of other planets and moons?
Who knows how much money can be made mining an asteroid belt by itself? Money seems to be the only reason some people do anything, so let the promises of riches motivate them to explore the universe and let the rest of us reap the resulting rewards.
As far as I’m concerned, we need to be doing all we can to explore the cosmos. We can’t stay on Earth forever, at least not if we want to avoid extinction. We can’t quench our thirst for knowledge by just making money and ignoring the vast unexplored expanses of space. It’s been said that life here began out there. The answers to so many questions lie there.
The only way for us to find those answers is to get our butts out there and look for them.