Why Look for ExoPlanets?

This is a rant about looking for planets outside our solar system (exoplanets).

Listening to a science podcast, an annoyingly happy scientist was talking about the new TESS satelite and the search for more planets in our galaxy and how they might detect life on remote planets. Yeah, I get it. You are paid well to pursue your dream job. Of course you sound chipper and like you are on drugs that I clearly don’t have access to. Do you ever think about the rest of us who, generally speaking, do not glow when describing their jobs?

There are 2 reasons I’m not thrilled with this kind of research.

First.

Usually a science experiment goes something like this. You have an idea of achieving some kind of result. This is meaningful to you. You set up conditions and either get the result you expect, or if not, you have the chance to learn something new that might lead you toward your goal.

When I first heard about using space telescopes to detect planets, by seeing the slight dimming as a remote planet passed in front of its sun, I kind of wondered why this was a big deal. Anyone who knows much about our solar system and our galaxy is certainly not surprised that there are other planets. It was expected. So yes, kind of nice to get some proof, but why the big excitement as more and more are detected?

Well, maybe the scientist who made those first detections knew that they would be trying to detect life in the future. I think it’s a long shot, not like our telescopes can zoom in on a planet ala Google Earth and see how many houses have swimming pools in the backyard. No, these are planets way, way, way out there. But after listening to numerous podcasts, I get that they might detect the presence of some chemicals, like oxygen, in the atmosphere of some planet. Maybe.

There are 3 possible outcomes of looking for life on those far away planets. There is no other life, which means looking is a waste of time and resources. There is non-intelligent life, which they find hints of, such as oxygen in the atmosphere and maybe signs of water. This would just be a guess, cannot prove that planetary chemical actions aren’t responsible for an atmosphere. In which case it’s interesting, but what do we do next? And finally that we see signs of an advanced civilisation, and what do we do next, how do we know for sure?

I don’t hear anyone talking about what we would do next. The closest planet detected is more than 4 light years away. The first earth sized planet not too close or too far from its sun that was detected is more than 500 light years away. So let’s go way optimistic and say that some life is suspected about 5 light years away. So we send a probe to confirm? No known technology would get it there faster than 500 years. What if there is a possible civilization 500 light years away – yeah, takes 500 years for a message we send to get there, another 500 years for them to respond. And don’t get me started on the discussion about how other intelligent life will either be friendly or want to destroy us. Because if they think like us, they may worry we will want to destroy them, so safest to attack first. Therefore we should never broadcast where we are. Lot’s of people actually talk about these things.

So basically all of the hype about finding planets and possibility of life are a big tease. None of us will be around should anything come of it. There do not seem to be any next actions based upon the outcome of this current experiment. What about faster than light travel? All of the very, very, very smart scientists who study such things, say that won’t ever happen. Well, they don’t want people to hate them so they say there is always a chance. But no. It will never happen. We’ll see flying pigs spewing marshmallows from their butts before faster than light travel happens.

Second.

Why search now? Why search for life when we can’t really know if we have found it? This is typical of our frustratingly short term thinking. In 200 years we might have humans exploring and staying extended times out in our solar system. Rather than building more and more expensive telescopes launched from Earth, people might be able to build a telescope elsewhere that is far larger than scientists would dare think of today. And then look for life. Not that we’d be able to prove much, but a better chance if we are already in space. In the time span of humanity, why can’t we wait a few hundred or more years to stare at far away planets?

I think the answer to why now is a simple case of catching the public’s interest and hence funding and hence fun jobs for those lucky enough to land them. Waste of money. Manipulative of the public. Bad science.

Finally, I don’t care if experts say they are safe, I’m not eating those marshmallows.