Out There. . .
There’s a telescope out there that has a mission – find another Earth. As much trouble as we are having with this one, I am not sure why we are looking for another. Maybe that is the whole point – when this one becomes uninhabitable, we can move to the next one and wreck it as well.
According to Time OnLine – Kepler’s (that’s the name of the telescope) ultimate goal is to find a twin, in both size and in distance from its star, of Earth — an orbital sweet spot known as a star’s habitable zone. That’s because astronomers assume these are likeliest places for alien life to have taken hold. The telescope hasn’t quite done that yet, but the Kepler team has just announced a huge flock of candidate planets, pushing its total catch so far to more than 1,200. If they all indeed turn out to be planets, it will more than triple the number of known worlds orbiting distant stars — and that’s just in a tiny patch of sky, and relatively close to Earth.
The Scripture’s maintain- “The Heavens declare the glory of God,” though I am not sure we really understand that. Perhaps, if we were more in tune with God’s design for this planet and it’s inhabitants, we could get a better grip on what lies out there beyond our reach. If I don’t understand the “glory of God” in and for this small thing (relative to the Cosmos) I call my life, how then would I begin to perceive what lies beyond it?