Do you think that in a different galaxy there is a planet with the same substance as Planet Earth? Robertsbridge Home School Group

12/9/2015

Brad Gross

12/9/2015 10:39:31 am

"In short, yes. Good question. I have pondered this concept heavily, my young friend. Brian Green, the eminent physicist, describes it like this. Like Cards? Me too. If you take a pack of cards and lay them out on the floor, they make a pattern. Shuffle them up, lay them out again. Different. Do it again, and again, then again and again. Different. But eventually, not tomorrow but soon enough, after lots of different options, you will reach the same configuration of cards. Might take a long while, but it will happen. Probability. Yeah, so what.

Well, if all the matter in the universe was created at the same time. And is expanding. Then stars are forming, living and dying all over the place. Then each one is like a deck of cards. Stars are like a sun, giving off light and heat, and creating gravity and solar systems. Scientist refer to the earth, the one you are on... as being in a goldilocks’ zone. Remember her. Not too hot, not too cold...just right for an atmosphere, bacteria, and us. Other planets in our system, not so lucky.

As for the substance, all the stuff is made of the same stuff, atoms. But our planet is different than others in our system for sure. The latin name for earth is Terra Firma. Hard Ground? Not gas giant, red dwarf or distant moon. I think a lot of exoplanets, and they are finding more every day, are made of the same stuff. Its the temp that determines if it can sustain life or not. Or maybe not. Maybe there are organisms that can survive. Penguins like it cold. There are things that can survive in total cold, total darkness, little air, sand. If there is stuff to eat, and stuff to eat it, you have a ecosystem.

So if you took a trillion galaxys in a bazillion different configurations, eventually you will wind up with the same configuration, again. All you need is lots of galaxys, stars, and lots of time. And we have oodles of all three.

Go fish. "

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