Comments by "Itinerant Patriot" (@itinerantpatriot1196) on "NASA Just Discovered A Planet That Defies All Logic!" video.

  1. As a kid who grew up during the age of Apollo, videos about exoplanets hold a certain amount of interest. But as we learn more about these alien worlds it seems Drake's Equation becomes more of a pipedream. Like that tidally locked planet they mention as a candidate for life. What life? Bacteria? Sorry, I'm not that jazzed about the prospect of finding microbial life on an alien world, even within our own solar system. What does it prove? That life can exist? All the proof we need that life can exist is found right here. Intelligent life, life that is conscious of itself and its surroundings, now that is an entirely different matter. When I was a kid, I was absolutely convinced the galaxy was teeming with civilizations and it would only be a matter of time before we met up with our interstellar cousins. I figured it was pure human arrogance to think it's just us. But the more I learned, the more skeptical I became. The balancing forces that allow intelligent life to exist on our planet are so precise that it is actually mind boggling. If our moon is just a bit smaller, or just a bit further away, our oceans behave entirely differently. If Jupiter isn't exactly where it needs to be the solar system itself becomes chaotic. If not for plate tectonics we end up with a big land mass that is mostly arid and inhospitable. And then there is the great life sustainer and guardian, our magnetic field. Take that away and you get a bigger version of Mars. There are so many other factors, too many to get into. Suffice it to say ET ain't phoning anytime soon. I still think stopping our manned exploration of the planets after the Moon landing was a mistake. We are explorers by nature and we need big dreams and goals to advance as a society. But as far as finding our cousins go, I am now regrettably in the camp that believes it will never happen. The cosmic speed limit is set and no matter how many movies about worm holes and such that we make, some limits just weren't made to be broken. And that, may be our greatest blessing. Some things, we just weren't meant to know in this lifetime.
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