Did dinosaurs evolve on other worlds? Could we discover a planet of glowing life? What are the nearby star systems used to track Earth's path in front of the Sun? These are just a few questions Lisa Kaldenecker Happily managed. As a company director Carl Sagan Company from Cornell University in New York, Astronomers are pioneers in interdisciplinary work on the origins of life on Earth and the search for signs or biosignals of life in the universe.
Kaldenecker's new book, Alien Earths: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos (Alien Earths: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos) recounts his reflections and adventures in his youth. Austria to his current office at Cornell, formerly owned by the astronomer Sagan.
– You are looking for real aliens in the observable universe. To what extent is the diversity of people's opinions and emotions about the search for extraterrestrial life at the forefront of your research? Or are sci-fi UFOs and aliens something you should let go of?
– For me, it's exciting to have so many interested people. The other side of the coin is that we are much closer, because now the James Webb Space Telescope can observe planets as small as Earth. We no longer have to rely on sources that are dubious or difficult to interpret. I wrote this book because I think many people are not aware of where we are now and that they are living at an important moment in history. We can all be a part of it.
How should people prepare for the possible detection of signals from something less satisfying, living in the atmosphere of a distant planet and unseen in the movies?
– If we see signs of life – any sign that we can't explain as anything other than life – it means we live in a universe, because we're only on the verge of discovering it. And it's very difficult, even with the best telescopes, and if we find something, it means there's a lot more out there. I will celebrate no matter what.
-The title Alien Earths refers to extraterrestrial worlds, but also past and future versions of Earth. What time on earth would you like to visit?
– At the time and place where life began. Because it is a mystery. An entire planet does not need to meet certain conditions for life to begin. It could be a niche somewhere. It could be an asteroid that hits with the right speed and energy and mixes Earth's chemicals in just the right way. It could have been on an ice floes or in a shallow pond.
– There is overlap between the precursors of the search for extraterrestrial civilizations and the development of nuclear weapons. Do you think this complex lineage has affected expectations about the longevity of intelligent civilizations?
-Of course. I think our search for life is rooted in the belief that if we find life everywhere, on planets older than ours, we can survive. By definition, technology that allows us to travel quickly through the stars, or technology that takes us far away, can destroy the world we live in and everyone in it. The question that always arises, and I think it's a simple question: Will we have the wisdom to use that power for good or evil? Will we have the wisdom to sustain this ability and this technology?
– There is a heated debate about whether we should actively try to contact extraterrestrial life or passively look for signs of it. What do you think about that?
– I was at the conference of the Vatican Observatory, and in fact, I spoke afterwards Stephen Hawkingg. God! Wonderful. But it is interesting that he was one of the people who warned the most about this. We are 2 billion years too late to worry about that. Anyone who has observed us for 2 billion years knows that there is life on this planet. Basically, it's not a secret anymore. But I think it's a very valid concern when it comes to social science or sociology, because we don't want to do anything that scares people. It's also worth asking ourselves: Are we all at the point where we really want to interact with other civilizations? And what do we want to hear?
What was your inspiration for creating the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell?
– I am an astronomer by training and worked on the design of a mission to detect signs of life in the universe. We were only looking for copies of modern Earth. But we know that Earth has changed, so if we only look at this small part of Earth's history, compared to its 4.6 billion years, we're going to miss young, future Earths. To answer the question of how our planet works, you need a network of different fields and different types of life. The more diverse the training, the more ideas can be obtained and the more complex problems can be solved.
-You have a laboratory where you grow microbes and contribute to the search for life. What was the weirdest thing you did growing up?
– A pink mushroom. You have to be careful with fungi because they spread like crazy. That's why I work with microbiologists. One of the microbiologists on my team says, “I'm not going to touch this and contaminate all of Cornell with pink fungus.” Just imagine.
-So he had to take special precautions to avoid alien invasion.
– I imagine a world covered in pink mushrooms.
published a study that simulated conditions similar to the era of the dinosaurs on other worlds. How can we specifically look for extraterrestrial dinosaurs? Because I want to find alien dinosaurs.
– During the time of the dinosaurs, there was more oxygen and more methane, which allowed the existence of these gigantic creatures. At least that's the idea, right? More oxygen makes organisms bigger, which is why there were big dinosaurs. The funny part was talking about this with my fellow geologist Rebecca Payne, actually finding a dinosaur planet would be much easier to find in “Jurassic World.” Now the question, of course: Should they be dinosaurs? They can be different types of creatures that don't look like dinosaurs.
The facts of probability tell me that dinosaurs may have existed once, but my heart doesn't want to believe it.
There are 200,000 million stars in our galaxy alone, and billions of galaxies. We have billions and billions of possibilities. If we are confident, we can say that life begins where it begins. That's a hypothesis. We don't know if that's true. But having dinosaurs twice is actually an option.
© New York Times. Trad.: Eliza Cornelly
