Chris Dragan's Corner

For decades we’ve been wondering if there are other planets out there, let alone other life.

Finally there is some positive research which concludes that our solar system is not exceptional. In fact, other nearby systems may have better conditions for life than ours!

There are 8 planets in our system, 3 moons which can rival Mercury in size, plus several other sizable moons. You could say that our planetary system is rich in celestial bodies. At least three planets in our solar system could harbor life – Venus (if not the acid), Earth (well, there is life on it) and Mars (eventually we’re going to find out if there’s life on it or was in the past). Some moons of Jupiter and Saturn could also potentially host primitive microbial life. So many opportunities in one planetary system!

There’s nothing special about our star. Probably many if not most stars have rich planetary systems. For more than a decade we’ve been detecting new planets around other stars, there are already hundreds of planets known and most of them are even bigger than Jupiter. Big planets tend to have many moons – more opportunities for life even if the big planets are far from the star.

The article suggests that the habitable zone around many stars may be even bigger than around our star.

The conclusion – the Universe must be taming with life. Of course intelligent life is another story as it needs hundreds of millions of years to evolve from primordial soup.