The story of Goldilocks and the three bears pales in comparison to the story of Goldilocks and the search for extraterrestrial life.
Last week a group of “planet hunters” headed by astronomers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, found a system, much like our own Milky Way, that may contain a habitable planet. It’s the perfect distance from the star it orbits around, hence why scientists are calling it the Goldilocks planet — it’s just right, for human life, that is.
The planet is over 120 trillion miles away from Earth, but scientists are now hoping to find if the planet’s conditions allow for liquid water and if it’s currently inhabited.
Keep in mind that “life” doesn’t mean aliens. Scientists would be thrilled to find bacteria, as that would bring to light new ideas about life on our own planet.
Alien-probe stories and conspiracy theories aside, this is an exciting discovery.
Getting to Goldilocks would take several generations of time, but if it can sustain life, it might help lessen the burden of our booming population on Earth.
There should be stipulations, however.
Based on the current energy crisis, as well as the threat of global warming, it’s fair to mandate that the same overuse of resources shouldn’t happen on Goldilocks. Earth’s resources have been abused too much for us to allow a new society to not learn from it.
The planet is significantly closer to its star than Earth is to the sun, so solar energy should be a large part of a green initiative for the planet. If we utilize what we’ve learned from trying to fix the damage we’ve inflicted on Earth, then Goldilocks could become a potential blank slate for Earth’s inhabitants to start over.
The first wave of residents should be a variety of scientists that can determine livable areas of the planet, find resources and map out the land. There needs to be a solid plan in place for resource and population control before civilians colonize the planet.
After the first wave of scientists, who would be next?
In the best case but potentially offensive scenario, people would be screened. The new planet doesn’t have the existing societal infrastructure that Earth does, so the right people would need to be there. Initially, not just anyone should be allowed to live there—a tough thing to hear, but the truth.
None of this may ever happen. There may be frozen or boiling water instead of liquid, and the atmosphere may make the planet inhabitable for humans. However, it’s important to consider the possibility of a planet relocation, and how that planet should be treated. Earth may not be habitable forever, and options need to be explored and determined.
If it is inhabitable, regulations should be established. There should be restrictions on who is absolutely not allowed to live on the Goldilocks planet — James Cameron, for example. No one really wants him making the move more dramatic than it needs to be.
Wake Abbey up from suspended animation at amurrell@asu.edu
