Now scientists have redefined the boundaries of the habitable zone for alien planets, potentially kicking out some exoplanaets that were thought to fall within it, and maybe allowing a few that had been excluded to squeeze in.
via New Alien Planet ‘Habitable Zone’ Rules | Extraterrestrial Life | Space.com.
According to the idea of a habitable zone, the earth (our planet) may be pretty close to just about making it. It looks like we have more reasons to celebrate the uniqueness of our planet and again question, through the anthropic principle, why are we here.
Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
Connect
I think another equally puzzling question is, “Why are all those uninhabitable planets here?”
Seriously. Hundreds of billions of planets (in our galaxy alone), and we’re (as far as we know) the only habitable planet supporting advanced life forms? What role do those planets play in the broad scheme of Creation, aside from the anthropocentric notion of “wonder”?