MeiLi 1- The things we talk about in first block that blow my mind.

So, I’d like to start this first post out by saying hi!

I’ve been contemplating what I wanted to write about for this post for a decent amount of time, and I’ve been bouncing ideas back and forth in my head but none of them stood out to me with that “WOW” factor that you sometimes get. I know you know what I’m talking about. But this morning in astronomy class, we spent the majority of the class talking about hypotheticals that deal with our universe. Some of the things we get into and talk about leave me feeling so utterly small and unimportant I just want to go home and sleep for the rest of the day, but today’s topic of conversation had me so mind blown I had a thousand questions in 0.02 seconds. 

We were sitting around talking about Goldilocks planets. If you don’t know, Goldilocks planets are earth like planets that they hypothesize could sustain human life. I asked our teacher if there was actually one that they knew for sure that we could possibly live on and she replied with “I’m not quite sure actually.” So we did some research. 

The nearest Goldilocks planet is called Proxima b. 

It lives in a solar system roughly 4.2 light years away. It orbits around it's sun, Proxima Centauri b, in the zone astronomers call the “habitat zone,” meaning it is the perfect distance away from it’s sun to sustain life. They estimate it to have water on it’s surface and despite some complications they say it could sustain human life. Our class got to talking about how we as a species would get to said planet seeing as it would take over 137,000 years to travel there in the technology we currently have. So how would that work? Mrs. Krause said that we would have to send two astronauts in a spacecraft and they would need to reproduce so 137,000 years later there would be people to land on Proxima b. This is where my head started spinning…

1. The entire family tree would generally be in one straight line since everyone would be having children with their relatives in order to survive. 

2. Because of how DNA (apparently) works, it’s completely fathomable that by the time these people landed on Proxima b they would be a completely new species. 

3. Time works differently in space so these people would all age faster, so how many generations of humans would be born in outer space with no connection to Earth besides their great-great-great-great-great grandparents who are also their aunt and uncle?

4. Our species on Earth today hasn’t been around for the length of time it would take them to reach this new planet

All of this is extremely hypothetical and absolutely insane to think about. The more I research about our universe and all the different proposed theories that we talk about in astronomy the more I realize just how much we don’t know. To me, it means the possibilities of what is real to us vs. what could actually be possible are endless. How much goes on that we don’t know about? Just beginning the thought process on space travel to Proxima b has my head spinning in 100 different directions. And now I’m starting to scare myself thinking about the possibilities. Oops! I just thought I’d share what we talked about so your head could spin a little too :)

Here’s a link to a YouTube video that goes a little more into the actuality of travel to Proxima b if you’re interested!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sGI6UkXShQ