OK maybe not my kids, but possibly my grandkids. It seemed to be weekly that I was seeing articles abouit finding other planets. First such as "planet found outside our solar system" which was a huge gas planet like jupiter. Then they found a bunch of those. Then they found one that was earth sized (but in the wrong orbit). Now this one....
TIMES.com
Call it one giant leap for mankind's search for life on other planets. Researchers now have the first conclusive evidence of water on a planet outside our solar system, according to a paper in today's issue of the journal Nature.
But Im confused. They keep jumping on the ice found on Mars, and the water found on another planet; and they mention it as a building block of life. Ok fine, it makes it more likely that life might exist beyond earth. I never really doubted that anyway.
The reason I think of it as a big deal is that water is a major problem for large scale colonization. You can make gases (oxygen and hydrogen from water), or you can compress gases. You can ship plants as seeds and grow them with no dirt in water (hydroponics). But shipping water is a pain. And its heavy! One of the more creative concepts I saw was the idea of building a spaceship out of water but it still involved getting it from earth to space.
Then they found water in comets. Cool. Mineable. Hopefully not all of it was earth derived.
NOW they find a planet only 64 light years away that has water! To me that is a great find. Way cool. Not for the possibility that it has its own life but for the possibility it holds for OUR life.
(yeah yeah, lets not jump on the ET thing or the "only" 64 light year thing)
my kids are going to space
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