In the Cosmos that engulfs us, there are upwards of a billion, trillion, trillion stars with almost as many planets. Do you know how many that is? Here’s how many that is: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars and planets. And that’s just the part we have seen to date.
You would be hard pressed to find many knowledgeable people that now believe that among all those trillions of planets, earth alone harbors intelligent life forms. It is far more likely that there are hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of such planets scattered across the great reaches of the limitless Cosmos.
But so what? The “Cosmos” in reality means very little to us. We are never going into outer space no matter what you hear and no one from outer space is coming here no matter what you hear. Therefore, to speak of the “Cosmos” is to speak of something that we know is there but is of little consequence to us in our daily lives.
The problem is the distances of the Cosmos. They are simply too vast, too limitless, too colossal to overcome by any means. Yes I know NASA talks like we are going to be headed into outer space any year now but that’s nonsense. We aren’t going any such place. What they say is mainly to replenish their budget so they can continue with their super expensive space toys. (For more on this subject, see my article titled: Space Exploration – A Journey to Nowhere”, elsewhere on this blog.)
Because manned space travel will be limited to our solar system, let’s concentrate on that. Let’s talk about life in our solar system. If something dramatic changes at some future point, we can expand the subject matter at that time.
Life as we know it exists today on Planet Earth. Earth is the only planet in our system that is suitable for it. The reason is fairly easy to comprehend: Mercury is far too close to the Sun and therefore too hot. Venus while not as close and not as hot, is still too close and too hot. Earth as Goldilocks would say is “not too close and not too far but just right” and therefore we have life. Mars is too far away from the Sun to significantly benefit from its warmth and therefore it is too cold for life. That is why there is no life there. (At least not life as we know it.)
It is therefore obvious that life depends on two sets of circumstances: (1) how far you are from the Sun and (2) how powerful are the Sun’s rays that reach you. The two are obviously co-dependent.
There are four planets that we call The Inner Planets (because they are closest to the Sun). They are of course Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. These planets are (1) way too hot (2) too hot (3) just right and (4) way too cold for life. That’s because of (1) their distance from the Sun and (2) the strength of the Suns rays that reach them. Having made that point, I now begin this paper on life in the Solar system. What I am about to say is theory but I think it’s a theory makes a lot of sense.
In The Beginning:
Q. What is the sun? What fuel does it burn? Is the Sun’s fuel renewable? If not, how long will it last and what happens when it is gone?
A. The Sun is a star. A very small, out of the way star, one of billions of trillions and trillions of such Stars in the vast Cosmos.
A. The Sun is on fire. The substance that fuels the fire was created by a process known as nuclear fusion at the time the Sun was born (as a result of a Supernova).
A. The Sun’s fuel is finite, which means it is not renewable, which is to say one day it will run out. At the time the fire goes out, the heat and light that Earth receives from the Sun will come to an end and the Earth will die. Anyone living on the Earth will die with it but fear not, it is not likely that anyone will be here then anyway.
A. The Sun has an assumed lifetime of fifteen billion years. It was “born” about ten billion years ago; hence, we are two thirds of the way through the Sun’s life cycle. This means we are also two thirds of the way through the Sun’s fuel supply. Another way to say this is that the Sun is not what it used to be.
Stars like our Sun are all born and all die in the same way – as a gigantic, cataclysmic explosion in the heavens. They are born in a Supernova and when they exhaust their fuel, they die as a Supernova. That is their cycle of life and death.
Understanding all this is essential to understanding the theory I am about to present about the beginning of life on our Planet Earth.
Many of you reading this paper have a home with a fireplace. I wish to talk to you about that fireplace. But first, let me set the scene. You have a vacation home. Your vacation home is a hunting lodge in the Great northwoods of Canada. It’s cold night in the middle of December and you are there with guests. The night is bitter with a howling wind outside the cabin.
The cabin itself is large and comfortable with a big family room that has a big fireplace. As the night comes on, one of your guests suggests you all go into the family room and sit around a cozy fire. You agree so you retreat to the family room and go about the business of starting a fire in the fireplace. You take the logs that are stacked beside the fireplace, put them in, and in minutes you have a roaring fire going. The room quickly heats up.
Unfortunately, in your haste to get the fire going, you put on way too many logs and as a result, the room quickly becomes much too hot for comfort. It is obvious that you have given the fire too much fuel.
Rule 1: A fire is hottest when it has the most fuel available to burn.
Rule 2: A fire’s heat diminishes as its fuel is consumed if it is not replaced.
Rule 3. A fire goes out when the fuel is used up.
In your family room, your guests have quickly become uncomfortable. The room is just too hot and the closer they are to the fireplace, the hotter it is. If the fire is not banked or they don’t move back, they will all die of heat stroke. Since the fire cannot be banked, and you are not about to extinguish it, you suggest they all move to the far corner of the room as far from the fire as they can get. The follow your advice and move back and after relocating, they are quite comfortable.
But as the night progresses, three things happen: (1) the logs in the fireplace begin to burn down (2) the warmth from the fire starts to recede and (3) the back of the room that was formerly warm and cozy now begins to get downright chilly. Something will have to be done if they are to stay warm.
There are three choices. (1) You can all depart the family room and go to another part of the house (2) You can add more logs on the fire or (3) You all can move closer to the fire which should be warmer.
Since there are no more logs inside and it is way too cold to go outside, and your guests prefer to remain in the family room, you decide on Option #3 and ask your guests to move closer to the fire which they do. As a result, they are all comfortable again.
But the evening is long and the night is bitterly cold and as the logs continue to burn down which they must do, the problem resurfaces. The room is getting cold again.
Once again the guests have to make a choice and once again they chose to move closer to the fire.
Certainly moving closer to the fire again will work for a while but it isn’t a permanent solution because it’s only a matter of time until all the fuel is gone. At that time, the room will become too cold to occupy.
This is the dynamic upon which I have constructed my theory - The Theory of “The Progression of Life throughout Our Solar System”.
The Solar System
Our solar system consists of nine planets rotating in place as they circle the Sun. These planets are broken into two groups known as (1) the four inner planets and (2) the five outer planets. The outer planets are generally large concentrations of gas, and they don’t concern us. The inner planets however are rocky planets with a core like our own and it those that do concern us. They are (1) Mercury (2) Venus (3) Earth and (4) Mars.
At the present time, the planet Mercury, nearest the Sun, is the hottest of all the inner planets. Because of its proximity to the Sun, it is far too hot to shelter any living life form that is familiar to us.
Next in line from the Sun is the planet Venus. Venus, second from the Sun while not nearly as hot as Mercury, is still too hot to harbor familiar life forms.
The third planet from the Sun is Earth. Earth is far enough away from the Sun so that the Sun’s heat, while sufficient to warm us, is not excessive. Therefore life can and does exist on Planet Earth.
Mars, the fourth and last of the rocky planets is far beyond Earth. By the time the Sun’s ray’s reach Mars, there is little of heat left in them and so Mars is bitterly cold. Too cold for life as we know it.
So we see that life on a planet is dependent on the amount of heat and light that planet receives from the Sun. The amount of heat and light that a planet receives from the Sun is dependent on its distance from the Sun along with the power of the Sun’s rays. And the power of the Sun’s rays is dependent on the amount of fuel the Sun has left to burn.
Fact: (1) The strength of the Sun’s rays was greatest when the Sun was new and (2) the Sun is much less powerful today than it once was because a good portion of its fuel has been consumed.
As a result of this dynamic, all the inner planets are cooler than they once were. Mercury though still very hot is far less hot than it once was, Venus while still hot is cooler, Earth is cooler and now habitable and Mars is now too cold for life.
Here is a table demonstrating how the temperatures of the planets might have been affected by the amount of fuel remaining in the core of the Sun at any one time.
Planet When the Sun Today Tomorrow
_____________Was New __________________________(300 years)______
Mercury 1,300 degrees 900 degrees 500 degrees
Venus 900 degrees 500 degrees 100 degrees
Earth 500 degrees 100 degrees (-) 300 degrees
Mars 100 degrees (-) 300 degrees (-) 700 degrees
Note. These are not real temperatures. I am using them to demonstrate a theory.
You can see what I am driving at. Look at Mars. Back when the Sun was new (Column #1) and its core very hot, it’s heat radiated very far and the temperature on Mars was therefore much warmer than today. Mars was 100 degrees, perfect for life to have developed. The other three planets, however, were too hot.
Today (Column #2), when the Sun’s strength has diminished because of a reduction of available fuel, temperatures have gotten cooler on all the planets. Mars, which previously had temperatures of 100 degrees, has fallen now to minus a 300 degrees and is therefore far too cold for life. So, there is no longer life on Mars.
Mercury and Venus have also cooled down but they remain too hot for life, as we know it. But look now at Planet Earth.
Earth that was far too hot for life at the beginning (500 degrees) has cooled down to 100 degrees and is now life-friendly and so life had developed on Earth. And that is my theory: that life establishes itself wherever and whenever conditions are right.
Look again at Column #3. Tomorrow the Sun’s rays will be even weaker as more and more of the Sun’s fuel is gone. As a result of the diminishing fuel supply, each Planet will have cooled down even more, for example:
Mars, cold Today at minus 300, will be colder Tomorrow at minus 700.
Earth, moderate today at 100, will become life-unfriendly Tomorrow at minus 300. Venus, hot Today at 500, will become life-friendly Tomorrow at 100.
Mercury, hot Today at 900 degrees will remain hot Tomorrow at 500.
So this is my theory: I believe that life may jump from inner planet to inner planet as the surface temperature allows. That at one time (in the Beginning), life as we know it existed on Mars. And that one day in the future, when Earth becomes too cold to sustain our life form, life will disappear from Earth and reappear on Venus and later, even on Mercury is one can exist that close to a dying Sun. During the interval, all signs of life are removed from the previous planet
But sadly, in time the Sun’s fuel will all be gone and all life will disappear forever from the Solar system. But it won’t matter, because shortly after that, the Solar System itself will disappear as the Sun explodes in a cataclysmic Supernova. And thus it will all end.
Think about it.
Joey
