Snowolf said:
Like you said, Paolo, the more you learn how truly special this little planet is, the more you should want to fight to protect if from people who do not see how precious it is.
PaoloSmythe said:
good planets are hard to find!
From the information I've read the HUDF (Hubble Ultra Deep Field) portrait contains an estimated 10,000 galaxies.
The patch of sky where those galaxies reside is largely empty to the naked eye.
The size of that patch of sky is about 1/10th the diameter of the moon.
NASA said:
The FOV of the HST is about the size of a grain of salt held at arms length.
^^ Gives you an idea of how big that “patch of sky” really is.
They ("Earth" like exoplanets) mite not be so hard to find in the universe.
Disclaimer:
DO NOT CONSIDER THIS TO BE ACCURATE!
Rough estimation:
-Number of galaxies in the universe 100 Billion
-Number of stars per galaxy 100 Billion
So the number of stars in the universe is 100 billion x 100 billion.
-Number of stars in the universe is 10 sextillion
Cosmologists believe that planetary formations around a star are quite common.
For the sake of easy math let’s say only 1 in a million & 1 per system.
-Number of exoplanets in the universe 10 quadrillion.
Now let’s say that only 1 in a million can support life.
-Number of exoplanets that can support life 10 billion.
Given the odds how could extraterrestrial life not exist.
It would only take 1 other [exo]planet out of an unknown number of others.
I’ll concede & agree that we must take care of Earth as it is all we have (right now).
But saying Earth is the only one isn’t statistically likely, as universe is a big place.
It is highly plausible that other “good planets” do exist… we just haven’t found ‘em yet. 212 exoplanets are known around nearby stars!
How many stars are there in our Galaxy (Milky Way)?
Exoplanets
30 Billion Earths? New Estimate of Exoplnets in our Galaxy
What Fraction of Sun-like Stars Have Planets?
Is there any other life in the universe?
Hubble Space Telescope
Kepler Mission
The Milky Way Galaxy
Hunting planets along the Milky Way
Study Predicts Trillions Of Planets
How Many Habitable Planets Could Be Out There?
ETA: This post made me think of this:
"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." -Bill Watterson