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>Obviously there’s nothing on Proxima, just like there’s nothing on the Moon. Not necessarily obviously. The moons of the gas giants was thought to be inert an
by tokai 2y ago
>Obviously there’s nothing on Proxima, just like there’s nothing on the Moon.
Not necessarily obviously. The moons of the gas giants was thought to be inert and boring, until we went there and realized they are varied and brimming with interesting features.
- dylan604 2y ago> they are varied and brimming with interesting features. one of those features being lifeless
- zardo 2y agoFor all we know Europa and Enceledous could support millions of tons of biomass.
- idlewords 2y agoRight now Enceladus is the most likely target for extant life in the solar system, and is one of four moons with a subsurface water ocean. We know almost nothing about them.
- greggsy 2y agoIn order to make any of these interstellar dreams at all useful, we’d need to master the ability to explore the full gamut of what a solar system can offer. It’s just not sexy enough to make headlines.
- wongarsu 2y agoMost proposed interstellar missions (including the article) are just flybys. We won't learn much more about how to do flybys by observing our own solar system. The data from such a flyby might build the support necessary to develop propulsion technologies that allow us to slow down at interstellar targets. But they'd be decades into the future, by that time we will have done a lot more exploration in our solar system as well
- cortesoft 2y agoLife isn't the only interesting thing
- phkahler 2y agoWe could send tardigrades ;-)
- euroderf 2y agoAssuming bombardment by radiation, they might quickly evolve into our superiors.
- Teever 2y agoSuch confidence, such hubris. Where does it come from?
- samplatt 2y agoMany humans spend their formative years learning that they can overcome most obstacles with enough effort and willpower. This optimism carries over to their adult life, despite the newer obstacles being infinitely more difficult and complex so as to be incomparable.
- oasisaimlessly 2y agoThat's not relevant to assuming that the rest of the solar system is lifeless; I'm assuming you didn't see what GP was replying to. Anyway, in general, over-optimism is much better than the opposite, because over-optimism runs into contradictions and gets corrected much more quickly than pessimism does, if it ever does.