And recently, new news came that another planet was detected by scientists. The newly discovered planet contains more than 30% water, but does this mean that humans have found a new home to live in? It is not easy to draw conclusions.
How about new planets? Is it suitable for human migration?
The planet, called TOI-1452b, is nearly 5 times heavier than Earth, about 1.7 times larger than Earth, and about 100 light-years away from Earth. Such a huge planet, scientists call it a super-Earth.
This planet not only has a volume and mass that far exceeds that of the earth, but also has abundant water resources. According to the analysis and calculation of various parameters of the planet by scientists, its water content may account for 30% of the mass of the entire planet.
The discovery of this planet has instantly aroused heated discussions in the scientific community since it was announced. Why did the discovery of this planet set off an upsurge in the scientific community?
TOI-1452b has high water content and close proximity to the ground
One reason is concentrated on the “water content of 30%”. As we all know, our earth is a planet with a very high water content, and the area covered by water resources reaches 70% of the total area of the earth. However, even so, if calculated according to the ratio of the total mass of water to the earth, water actually only accounts for about 1% of the mass.
Human life originated from water, and the most dependent substance for survival so far is water. It can be seen that this planet with a water content of nearly 30% is very attractive to take a closer look.
Another reason is concentrated on “only 100 light-years from the earth”, yes, the adjective used here is only, although 100 light-years is also a very long distance, but this is already the detected planet with higher water content the nearest planet.
In addition, scientists have unearthed more possibilities for human settlement by constantly comparing the similarities between this planet and Earth. For example, it’s a rocky planet orbiting a red dwarf star in the star’s habitable zone.
The stable centripetal flight is enough to prove that TOI-1452b has a large mass and can provide gravity, thereby further condensing the gas to form the atmosphere, which is the basis of the air on which human beings live.
Perhaps these discoveries will lay the foundation for humans to find more livable habitats and become monuments in human history.
However, is it really so easy for humans to move to another planet? In fact, there are many difficulties at this time.
The difficulty of moving to a new planet
First of all, there are many factors for livability, not only water content, atmospheric content, but also environmental organic matter content, gravity, temperature and other factors. So even if the planet has a very high water content, other factors may not necessarily be habitable for humans.
The first is the gravity of this planet. According to the existing mass and density data, and through the calculation of universal gravitation, it was found that the gravity on the surface of TOI-1452b is very large, several times that of the earth’s gravity.
This means that people will be subjected to a huge gravitational force. To put it more informally, if they stand on the surface of this planet, they will have several times their own weight on their body, and they will be crushed to death by themselves in a short time.
The second is that the planet has no data to prove that its oxygen content is sufficient. Although he has atmospheric conditions, it does not mean that there is sufficient oxygen.
Although our earth has only 1% of water, it is all distributed on the surface of the earth, accounting for 70% of the surface area, and there are many green vegetation in the remaining 30% of the surface area, which continuously produce and produce for us through photosynthesis. oxygen. However, although TOI-1452b has a high water content, it may not have green plants to survive, let alone sufficient oxygen.
The third is that people cannot currently detect the surface temperature and rhythm changes of this planet, and cannot judge whether TOI-1452b is really habitable. Humans are accustomed to the alternation of day, spring, summer, autumn and winter on the earth, and have formed a set of physiological mechanisms to adapt to the environment.
For now, we have only discovered this planet and got some data, but it takes time to understand the natural rhythms on a planet. If you go there rashly, you are very likely to be unable to survive because of the harsh environment.
Migration process or challenges
Second, taking a step back, even if all conditions on this planet are really suitable for habitability, the process of migration is a huge challenge.
First, this planet is 100 light-years away from the earth, which is about 946073047258080 kilometers. If you use the fastest speed of human beings, for example, the speed of the New Horizons spacecraft: 21 kilometers per second, it will take at least 521 million. year! Compared with the average human life span of about 70 years, it is far less than the time required for the voyage.
The second is that even if human beings really make up their minds to emigrate, during this 500 million-year long space flight, the possible dangers to spacecraft are unpredictable. After all, human beings have not had such a long space flight experience before.
In addition, the flight energy required by the spacecraft is also a huge problem. How to store the fuel for 500 million years of flight time is currently difficult to implement.
Finally, and most importantly, the survival of mankind is that there are too many unknowns in aliens.
Dangers in the Unknown Universe
The first is that there are many dangerous substances in the universe, such as light rays with strong radiation, such as various debris floating in the universe from planetary explosions, etc., which may pose serious threats to human life and safety.
Secondly, Hawking once warned human beings not to touch alien civilization at will, which may lead to the destruction of human beings. Although humans are the dominant species on the earth, the earth is just a small planet in the vast universe, and there may be creatures stronger than us outside this. Once a conflict is triggered, the consequences are unimaginable.
Unknown environment, unknown civilization, there are too many dangers beyond our knowledge, and human beings are unprepared to face these dilemmas that may be faced.
Therefore, many scientists are more inclined to the conservative choice, living and working in peace and contentment on their own planet. Don’t talk about migrating to aliens, and even accept alien signals with caution.
In fact, in recent years, because of the deteriorating ecological environment of the earth and the continuous occurrence of extreme natural conditions, scientists have devoted themselves to finding new habitats for human beings. We always see news about space exploration on various social media.
But human beings originate from the earth after all. The origin of any life and species is based on adapting to the environment of this planet. Therefore, on the one hand, we need to find more possibilities for future migration, and on the other hand, it is also the most important thing to protect and restore the current home.
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