Kepler 22b

The distance of Kepler 22b from its sun places it in what is called an ‘inhabitable’ band

Earth crossed the seven billionth population mark recently, but it’s just not enough to beat our loneliness. How else does one explain the excitement over Kepler 22b, a planet 600 light years away? Other than the fact that it resembles the earth in many ways. The planet was discovered by Nasa’s Kepler telescope (hence the name) and is in that zone where there is a possibility that life may exist.

Kepler 22b has a radius 2.4 times that of the earth. It revolves around a sun much like our own, and a year there is 290 days. The distance of Kepler 22b from its sun places it in what is called an ‘inhabitable’ band. Which means it is neither too hot nor too cold for life to survive. As of now, we don’t know whether Kepler 22b is solid, liquid or full of gas.

Why is the world going gaga over it? Well, it shouldn’t. Six hundred light years is a pretty long way. It is a journey no one now or anytime in the imaginable future is going to make. And even if life existed on Kepler 22b, there is no reason to believe conscious beings like humans exist, because consciousness happened through a series of fortunate accidents. For instance, if an asteroid had not crashed into earth 65 million years ago, dinosaurs would still be around and the human race’s ability to survive or thrive, competing with dinosaurs, would have been in grave doubt.

Or there is the other question—all the conditions Kepler 22b meets are of life as we know it, but why should life follow one pattern? In effect, there could be life in the next solar system, but because we cannot imagine it, we will never be able to anticipate it.

Kepler 22b is life in a mirage, the wishful thinking of a lonely planet.

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Madhavankutty Pillai

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