Jane Munn, age 11, of Boiestown, N H ,
Can there be life on any other planets?
In the past few weeks Andy's readers were given a peek at conditions on Mercury and Jupiter, Life as we know it cannot exist on these planets, but there are more planets in our Solar System, And way out in the Galaxy there are billions of other suns, many of them with planet families of their own Beyond our Galaxy, there are billions of other galaxies, each with billions of suns, many of them with Soar Systems like our own
When we wonder about life on other planets, we have to stretch the old imagination dust as far as it will go and even this is not far enough This stretching exercise, says Andy, is very good for the mind A good way to begin it is by comparing something very big with something small enough for our minds to grasp Lents imagine that the sun is the size of a two foot beach ball
On this scale, our sister planet Venus would be pea‑sized arid about 47 yards from the beach‑ball sun The earth too would be pea‑sized and about 72 yards, or 72 giant strides from the model sun, Giant Jupiter would be the size of an orange and a quarter mile from the sun Pluto, on the outside rim of the whirling Solar System, would be the size of a small pea and about one and a half miles from our make‑believe sun On this pea‑sized scale, we would have to travel about 2500 miles to reach the next star in our Galaxy
Astronomers measure vast distances of space by the speed of light, which whips along at about 1$6,000 miles a second A light second is 186,000 miles A light minute 3s more than 11 million miles The earth is about eight light minutes from the sun ‑ a sunbeam takes about eight minutes to travel from the sun to the freckle on your nose, A light year is about six million, million miles and the nearest stars are about four light years away
All the stars we see are part of the great p3 nvdieal system called our Galaxy, or Milky Way This Big Wheel is about 100 light years from side to aide and contains about 100 stars, more or less like our sun Beyond our Galaxy are other galaxies, separated by thousands and millions of light years Our 200‑inoh telescope can probe about 2,000 million light years into the vast oceans of space ‑ and everywhere the picture is the same, The Universe around us swarms with starry galaxies
Living things develop and exist wherever conditions are right for them Conditions on our luxury planet are right for the rich plant and animal life we see around us These conditions do not exist on Mercury, Jupiter or on the frigid outer planets of our system. Mars so far does not seem to have any evidence of life. Our sister planet Venus shrouded in dense clouds, is a mystery, But out in space there are billions of stars like our sun and without doubt there are countless planetary systems It is almost certain that there are planets like our it, own where conditions are dust right for life as we know! Here there may be living things even more advanced than earthlings