I have heard that the sun is apparently expanding and will eventually burn all life on earth. In that context, should govts seek to colonise and find other planets that can support human life?
2007-10-31 11:43:46 · 11 answers · asked by Paranormal I 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Sure! We should not limit our pettiness and politics to this insignificant part of the solar system.
2007-10-31 12:08:09 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes we should colonize other planets. It is part of our species need to explore and expand.While it is true the Sun will eventually burn out and extinquish the Earth, our Sun is a middle aged star and this will not happen for another 4-5 billion years. Hopefully by then we have not destroyed ourselves and planet and I would hope all of mankind will have learned how to worked to together for the common good and have reached such technological advances that we will not only have colonized other planets in our system but other systems beyond ours.
2007-10-31 19:54:17 · answer #2 · answered by stargrazer 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hello Para...
Your worries and fears are "at this time" a bit over reactive.
The Sun will expand and burn up the Earth in about 4 1/2 to
5 Billion Years. None of us, or our children will be alive at that time.
While it is rather simplistic to suggest we begin colonies on some other planet, there is not one readily available which might be used for such a purpose... at least we have not discovered it yet.
Studies of the Universe are currently going on in search of an earthlike planet. You may keep track of the results of those studies by visiting the Web Site
http://www.exoplanets.org
If I am not mistaken, the present count of planets found outside of our solar system so far is around 234. None of
those planets appear to be totaly earthlike. One or more
have certain characteristics which are desireable to have on
an earthlike planet, but the majority of those discovered so far are gas giants whose immense size (like that of Jupiter) make their movement around distant stars easiest to detect. Smaller earthlike planets will be much harder to find and identify.
Lastly, while the concept of colonizing other planets sounds
like a really swell thing to do, it is important to recognize and fully understand that the "nearest" star to Earth is 4 1/2 Light Years away. Other stars being studied for possible earthlike planets are between 5 and 100 Light Years away. Therefore, travel to those places is probably not ever going to happen.
If you have difficulty understanding why...visualize the distance of one light year...in rough terms it is six trillion miles. And the closest star in the nearest galaxy (Andromeda) is 27 trillion miles away - a voyage of possibly 1500 years length using our most super fastest space ship.
Regards,
Zah
2007-10-31 19:20:28 · answer #3 · answered by zahbudar 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
firstof all, do not worry about that. I have also "heard" that the sun will expand , and burn everything like u say, in some 4 bilion years. Imagine humans exist on earth for lets say 120k years... in the last 8000 years progress has been evident, in the last 300 years progress has been dramatic.. in 1000 years we'll probably have colonies.
Also it's not a problem of "should".
1 thing is that we'll run out of space to grow food for the exponentially growing populace.
the 2-nd thing is... money( and by money i also mean power), actually money to be made, by certain... individuals or companies or governments or whatever... those who will actually offer the "commodity" of living "off world".
2007-10-31 19:01:38 · answer #4 · answered by Matei Stefan 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think we might come to the point when it is necessary to colonize other planets, namely Mars. The issue of the Sun burning out and engulfing Earth is correct, but this isn't expected to happen for several billion years. By then, humans will either be an extinct species, or we will have moved on to another planet.
2007-10-31 18:52:52 · answer #5 · answered by Alex H 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes the sun will explode, some day. Probably thousands of not millions of years from now. And yes we should eventually colonize other planets. We should start with a moon colony so we can work the bug out. Then move outward to Mars, the moons of Jupiter & the other gas giants.
2007-11-01 07:15:10 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
When the sun eventually gets to the point of burning the earth, humans (if they still exist) will have already have found another planet to live on. Humans will have undoubtably already ruined the earth way before any danger would be immanent to its destruction from the sun.
2007-10-31 18:56:44 · answer #7 · answered by ammostlyamused 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes, humans should colonize every planet eventually. But you wouldn't need to worry about the sun blowing up because thats not going to happen in a billion years or so. It is the ultimate goal of humans to take over the universe, but we're not quite at that stage yet. Our governments have tons of other matter on their hands on Earth.
2007-10-31 18:49:34 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
We don't deserve to colonise other planets until we stop killing each other off.
Then we should. But remember that the Earth is the most beautiful place we know.
2007-10-31 20:52:07 · answer #9 · answered by little_elven 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
we are talking about millions of years
but you are correct, the sun life will end at some point..
the stepping stone to other planets is to colonize the moon, and nasa is already getting ready to start he project, they dont plan to help with the IIS for much longer...which is a good policy considering we built the whole damn thing..
lol besides the arm that canda built, and it doesnt work!
2007-10-31 18:48:25 · answer #10 · answered by SwiftKill 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋