When We Leave Earth – Can We Find Another Home?Essay Preview: When We Leave Earth – Can We Find Another Home?Report this essayWhen We Leave EarthTable of ContentsIntroduction: Can we find another home?Pg. 3Part 1: Ways in which life as we know it could endPg. 4AsteroidAt our own handsThe sun dies.Part 2: How to find a planetPg. 5Indirect MethodsTransit MethodDirect MethodsPart 3: Finding an Earth like PlanetPg. 6Habitable zones around starsExamining the atmospheres by spectroscopeFuture MethodsPart 4: Getting TherePg. 7Huge distancesInterstellar Space CraftTransplanting the seeds of lifeConclusion: Can we find another home and get there?Can we find Another Home?From my experience, Hollywood is great at finding ways to destroy the Earth. An asteroid the size of Texas could probably do the job, or maybe a pandemic or a good old fashioned exploding star. Whatever the method, the possible end result would not be as entertaining, the end of human life on this planet. Though science fiction movies portray these events, they are not based entirely on fiction, they could possibly happen. It seems to me that a basic animal instinct of man kind is survival. We want to live. So if the Earth was about to be destroyed in some fashion, can we find another home? Is there Another Earth like planet out there, somewhere, waiting to be found? If so, how do we find it and more importantly, how do we get there?
We have found other planets outside of our own solar system, over 6801. Creative methods over the past 15 years or so have found them. Some of these methods are indirect. In other words, we cant see the planet, but we know its there. Other methods are direct and we have actually observed the planets. In some cases, we can even analyze the atmosphere of these planets.
So there may be hope after all, but what about getting there. Finding another Earth like planet would be kind of a mute point if we have no way to get there. The problem is simple enough, huge distances. Light years separate us from these planets. So even if we traveled at the speed of light, which would be an impressive feat in itself, it would still take a very long time to get there. Even so, methods for interstellar travel are being explored. I think that mankinds will to survive will someday take us to the stars and to a new home.
Part 1: Ways in which life as we know it could endThe Earth is in essence a giant space ship with everything that is necessary to sustain human life in the vast vacuum of space. But what if someday we were forced to abandon ship and what kind of devastating event would force us to do so? An impending impact from an asteroid large enough to be considered a global killer is one scenario. What about us? Are we a danger to ourselves? A pandemic spread from person to person, could in theory, wipe out our entire existence. These are things that may or may not happen, but there is one scenario that will, though a very long time from now, destroy the Earth and all life on it. It is the sun, the very thing that allows for life to exist on Earth. It will someday, destroy our planet.
The sun will eventually balloon into a red giant, about 5 billion years from now2. As the hydrogen fuel source is used up, the expanding star will consume some of the inner planets, and scour the Earth. I would think that this would give us enough time to find a new Earth located just the right distance from a younger star where we will be able to continue our existence. But why wait? Scientist today are looking for and finding planets outside of our solar system orbiting other stars and we could find one that is just right for human life. I heard once, though I cant reference it as a fact, that there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on all of the beaches of the world. That to me makes the odes of finding another planet similar to Earth orbiting one of those stars pretty good. Along with finding these planets, scientists are also exploring ways that we might actually get there and ultimately save the human race.
Part 2: How to find a planetThere are a few ways to go about looking for a planet outside of our solar system. There are indirect methods by which we can infer their presence by the way in which they affect the light coming from the star it is orbiting. Among these are the astrometric method, the Doppler method, the radial velocity method, and gravitational microlensing3. Then there is the transit method, an indirect method which can also observe the light not just from the star, but also from the planet. Direct methods of observing a planet means that we have to observe the light and heat given off by the planet itself.
Indirect MethodsObserving a planet indirectly means that we are not actually seeing the planet but we know that it is there. The astrometric method is one way in which this can be accomplished. This method makes use of the gravitational affects of a planet or planets orbiting a star. A planet and its star rotate around each other upon a combined center of mass called a barycenter4. Where this center of mass lies is dependant upon the mass of the star and the mass of the planet. Using Jupiter as an example, the barycenter between it and the sun lies just outside the suns radius5. This produces an affect, as Jupiter orbits the sun, which is at the heart of this method. It makes the sun wobble. If we observe a distant star wobbling, we know there is a planet or planets orbiting it. This method works well for finding Jupiter size planets, but so well for finding small
References:
Tannenbaum, T.S. (1990) The Metric Formula: An Introduction to Euclidean Elements. University of California Press,
New York, Cambridge.
Tannenbaum, T.S., and T.D. Tannenbaum, eds., Metric Formula. Vol. 4. University of British Columbia Press, 2007 pp. 59–70.
[ref>
[p>Tannenbaum is the “metric formula” used to estimate the distance from the sun to the earth, and it applies to the Earth’s equatorial plane, which is the center of the universe. The actual distance to the earth is, according to Tannenbaum, 3.75 Earth radii, 4.2 Sun radii, 2.4 Planet Radii. This method has been used by other authorities to calculate the distance to Earth, but that has not been used as a base for a different metric method. The first metric of this method, called the “metric formula,” is derived from a measure of uncertainty (n = 0). When we look for the exact position in the sky of a system, we can detect objects who are near the center of gravitational power, and when not close enough, we consider them as such. This means that the positions of planets and other planets in these systems give a relative distance from the center of gravity, so there is much less chance that they are farther from the camera. In general, this principle assumes that there is no planet or planetoid within about 1000 feet of the observer. However, the planets that are nearest and farthest from the eye of the scientist can be seen to be far away from us. For more details, see: http://www.geocoded.com/~russkind/metric/
[Ref] Tannenbaum, G. N. (1990) The Metric Formula. University of California Press,
New York.
Tannenbaum, G.N., and J.W. Henshaw, eds., The Metric Formula, The Physical Sciences, 6th Edition. (New York, The Geophysical Society, 1995.) p. 1.
[ref>
[p>The gravitational forces are the forces of motion of the observer and the mass of the planet under review. It can also be used to calculate the total mass of the planet.]
References:
Tannenbaum, T.S., & T. D. Tannenbaum, eds., Metric Formula. Vol. 3. University of Texas Press,
Hearings, Houston.
Tannenbaum, C. E., and C. W. F. Tannenbaum, eds., The Metric Formula: A Practical Reference. Geological Society of America Annual Conference, Washington, DC, 2003. pp. 17–22.
[ref>
[p>The metric formula is also used for astronomical observations. It applies to the total solar activity that takes place on a moon or a comet, even if it was launched from Earth.)]
References: [ref> ]
Tannenbaum, G.N., J.M. Henshaw, R.L.