Seven Earth-sized planets invite questions about humanity’s place in the universe. The February 22, 2017 NASA and ESO announcements offered something more specific than an answer to those questions: a planetary system with three members in the habitable zone. The reports concern one study, not two independent demonstrations that another world supports life. [nasa-telescope-reveals-largest-batch-of-earth-size-habitable-zone-planets-around-single-star][eso1706]

ESO identified those three planets as e, f and g and described surface oceans as a possibility. NASA explained that atmospheric conditions matter to whether liquid water could exist. Neither organization reported an ocean detected on a planet’s surface. Preserving that distinction lets readers encounter an extraordinary finding without being asked to accept a stronger claim. [nasa-telescope-reveals-largest-batch-of-earth-size-habitable-zone-planets-around-single-star][eso1706]

There were also limits to how well the planets themselves were characterized. NASA reported no mass estimate for the outermost planet, h; ESO said its orbital distance was unconfirmed. Even suggestions that it might be too cold for liquid water depended on assumptions about heating. Uncertainty here belongs in the account of the discovery, not in a footnote after an inhabited-world headline. [nasa-telescope-reveals-largest-batch-of-earth-size-habitable-zone-planets-around-single-star][eso1706]

For interfaith conversation, our ethical proposal is to make room for wonder without speaking for every tradition. Religious and nonreligious readers can bring different interpretations to these questions; the measurements cannot supply a shared creed. A practical form of stewardship is to repeat what the evidence actually offers: candidates for further study, with important physical conditions still to be established. [nasa-telescope-reveals-largest-batch-of-earth-size-habitable-zone-planets-around-single-star][eso1706]

Source documents

  1. NASA Telescope Reveals Largest Batch of Earth-Size, Habitable-Zone Planets Around Single Starhttps://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasa-telescope-reveals-largest-batch-of-earth-size-habitable-zone-planets-around-single-star/
  2. Ultracool Dwarf and the Seven Planetshttps://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1706/