As of now, earth is the only planet we know sustains life. And things are getting a bit worrying, as climate change is threating to destroy our homes and food sources. There’s also the risk of nuclear war, which can lead to millions of deaths. It makes us wonder if there are other earth-like planets that can sustain life. Scientists and researchers have been scanning the skies for the same purpose for several decades. And early signs are encouraging, as there do exist earth-like planets in our Milky Way. To understand the possibilities, here’s a look at earth-like planets that humans can colonize.
However, the upper atmosphere of Venus has much more Earthlike conditions and has been suggested as a plausible colonization location since at least 1971 by Soviet scientists
Gliese 667 Cc – This exoplanet is around 4.5 larger than our planet earth. Being close to its host star and with fast rotation speed, Gliese 667 Cc just takes 28 days to orbit its host star. The host star is a red dwarf, which is significantly cooler than our sun. This planet is located around 22 light years from our solar system.
Kepler-22b – This exoplanet orbits a G-class star that is similar to our sun. However, the host star is smaller and not as hot as our sun. Kepler-22b takes 290 days to orbit the host star, which is not very different from 365 days of planet earth. Kepler-22b is quite far away at 600 light years.
Proxima Centauri b – This exoplanet is located 4.22 light years away. It orbits the host star in the habitable zone. While this is the closest planet that looks promising, it is not certain if it has an atmosphere. Humans will have to rely on specialized equipment to survive on this planet. Surface temperature of the planet is around -39°C, which will be another challenge.
Gliese 180 b – This exoplanet is located within the habitable zone of its host star Gliese 180. It will take around 38 light years to reach this planet. Surface temperature is 39° C, which is livable but quite hot. The host star is a red dwarf.
Luyten b – This is one of the most promising exoplanets, in terms of supporting human life. It is rocky just like earth and is located within the habitable zone of its host star. The host star is a red dwarf named Luyten’s Star. It will take around 12 light years to reach this planet. Luyten b is around three times the size of earth. Surface temperature of -14 °C seems manageable if not entirely comfortable.
While these planets look promising, one of the biggest challenges is to reach these planets. With current technology, it will take thousands of years to reach these planets. Hopefully, scientists will one day find a way to travel faster than speed of light. Till that happens, it’s imperative that we all take steps to save our planet earth. As of now, there’s no plan B.
When Humans Begin Colonizing Other Planets, Who Should Be in Charge?
The biggest threat humans pose to other worlds is what we don’t know—or what we think we know, but don’t...
Every summer for the past 20 years, Pascal Lee has traveled to the remote Canadian Arctic to pretend he’s on Mars. This cold, dry, pockmarked and essentially lifeless environment is one of the closest to the red planet that you can find on Earth—making it a great practice ground for driving Mars rovers.
Lee, a planetary scientist at the SETI Institute in California, is the director of the NASA Haughton Mars Project, where he uses this analog Mars environment to investigate scientific questions concerning how humans might threaten life on other planets we colonize.
For example, if humans travel to Mars, would microbes transferred from our bodies thrive on Martian soil—threatening native Martian microbes and disrupting native ecosystems? Recent results from Lee’s research suggest the answer to that is no, at least not on the surface of Martian soil: Mars’ harsh climate and high UV radiation would kill off many of the microbes we may accidentally bring from Earth.
But the Haughton Mars Project—along with other Mars analog study sites in Antarctica and the Atacama Desert in Chile—also inadvertently bring to light numerous ethical questions of how we should behave as interplanetary colonists. As humans accelerate their space travel capacity and aim to colonize Mars in the next several decades, these questions are becoming less lofty and more immediately urgent.
Here's another scenario: If humans were to land on Mars and were somehow lethally threatened by Martians, should humans attack the Martians? In his personal opinion, Lee says the answer would be yes. “If at some point it came down to either me or the microbe on Mars that’s going to survive, I’m probably not going to hesitate,” he says.
Yet these are not simple questions to address, and are not within the realm of the Haughton Mars Project to answer. The International Council for Science, consisting of 142 countries, has organized a Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) to help answer some of these questions and a United Nations Outer Space Treaty, in place since 1967, also helps streamline some of the ethical and legal implications that this issue raises.
But the treaty is meant to protect the safety of humans and scientific evidence of life on other planets, not to protect the environments or ecosystems of those planets. Moreover, the contents of the treaty are just guidelines: They are not laws, and the legal implications of not following them remain unclear, says Catharine Conley, head officer at NASA’s Planetary Protection Office.
“The peer pressure approach has, up until now, worked,” she says, explaining that it’s in space agencies’ best interest to work together since they often rely on each other for collaboration and advancement. But now, as more private companies like SpaceX enter the field to visit Mars, the playing field has changed.
“When you have other entities included that don’t have those same long term science objectives, it gets more complicated,” says Conley.
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