Distant Planet Terrified It Might Be Able To Someday Support Human Life

[GliderGuider]

Distant Planet Terrified It Might Be Able To Someday Support Human Life



CONSTELLATION VELA—Claiming that the mere thought is an “absolute nightmare,” WR 67c, a terrestrial planet from the distant Gamma Velorum star system, expressed its profound terror Wednesday at the possibility of one day gaining the capacity to sustain human life.

The 5.2-billion-year-old celestial body, which is located roughly 1,100 light years from Earth, said that for both its own sake and that of its entire solar system, it can only hope to never possess the necessary planetary characteristics and chemical elements needed to support either a deep-space human outpost or, more gravely, an entire human colony.

“Luckily, with my high levels of atmospheric sulfur dioxide, methane, and radon, there’s no way any human could survive on my surface for more than a few seconds,” said WR 67c, adding that it is “incredibly lucky” to have developed extremely violent and widespread volcanism in addition to its poisonous atmosphere. “But I don’t know, what if I produce a magnetic field that blocks out stellar wind and cosmic radiation? What if I develop an axial tilt that fosters a mild global climate? It’s terrifying to admit, but my surface temperature already sometimes drops to 120 degrees Fahrenheit at night, and their species can technically survive in that.”

“Stuff like that really freaks me out,” the extrasolar planet continued. “The real doomsday scenario would be someday acquiring a breathable atmosphere rich with oxygen and ultraviolet-absorbing ozone. At that point, I might as well just hurl myself at the nearest black hole and be done with it.”

The Onion nails it again...

[rafeh1]

1. Earth is really amazing

Earh is really amazing. Everything is exactly the right distance and the right temperature. Just the right combination which allows us to live safely. I dont believe Christian cosmology but I do believe in an Intelligent Design model.

[cprise]

3. Welcome to DU

Enjoy your stay

[rafeh1]

4. Onion

Onion makes the point as satire for an exo planet. It stands in contra distinction to the precariousness of life on our planet. So many things have to be exactly right for life that the random probability of life boggles the mind. The same was expressed by Fred Hoyle Intelligent Universe

[cprise]

5. But there are many trillions of chances

...among what appears to be mostly barren space. So I think you are referring to a Designer who is either very limited or at most represents a "God of the Gaps".

As such, I think the Anthropic Principle does the best job of explaining the emergence of beings that can reason about their own existence.

[GliderGuider]

6. The probability is only boggling if you look at it backwards.

Life evolves within the niche that is available, not the other way around. As a result life perfectly fits the conditions it arises in - with a probability of 100%. The idea that the physical constants were miraculously "set" in order to support life puts the cart before the horse. Ecologically speaking, life always fits the niche it lives in, the niche doesn't set itself up to be a good host to a life - especially a form of life that won't exist for a few billion years. We wouldn't be having this discussion, for example, if we were examining Earth during the time it had a reducing atmosphere.

Imagine flipping a long series of coin tosses (say a million flips) and recording them. The probability of exactly that same series of heads and tails arising by chance is indistinguishable from 0. But that comes from looking at the experiment after it is completed. the flipping of coins is quite analogous to the evolution of successive forms of life over a long period of time. It's just about as mundane as cone flipping, though the mechanisms are much more more complex.

[rafeh1]

8. Fred Hoyle wasnt looking at it backwards

There is a probabilistic argument requiring all sorts of physical constants to be a certain value such that carbon chains are stable. this is not my contention it is Sir Hoyle's well expressed and detailed calculation in his book. Of course if you prefer to apply a retro view of it just happening that is your right. But many scientists and cosmologists are unsatisfied with the random chance explanation.

Hoyle said it best It is possible that a series of coin tosses lead to the spontaneous occurrence of a 747 in my backyard. However it is not probable. Other cosmologists have postulated a multi verse theory as an answer to Sir Hoyle's probability calculations. At this point we can say with very good confidence that the Earth is not 6000 years old but the chance argument is still being thought about.

In other words it is certainly possible as you say a series of umpteen billion coin tosses in a certain sequence led to our existence. What Sir Hoyle was saying that it is possible but not probable. Hoyle himself was an atheist but his probability calculations have been taken and grossly abused by creationists in their forlorn search for credibility.

Anyway i dont wish to belabor the point and get into debates game.

[GliderGuider]

9. Whatever you wish to believe is fine by me. nt

[marginlized]

7. Except for most of the planet's history it wasn't ...

condusive to life. For example, for billions of years there was no oxygen in the atmosphere. Not until cyanobacteria began producing it through photosynthesis 2.5 billion years ago. But then free oxygen is toxic to the obligate anaerobic organisms that were "life" at the time. So the oxygen killed off the life that had existed before it was produced.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxygenation_Event

[GliderGuider]

10. +1. Our ancient reducing atmosphere conclusively negates intelligent design and anthropic arguments

Life didn't appear and develop by random chance - evolutionary mechanisms are far too subtle and teleomatic/teleonomic to be dismissed that way. But neither is there some quasi-intelligence running the show.

http://evolutionlist.blogspot.ca/2006/04/teleological-and-teleonomic-newer.html

[Gothmog]

2. I love the Onion

The Onion has some good satire