Last month's news that scientists have discovered 715 new planets had us digging out our 15-year-old map of the solar system and re-watching those classic episodes of Star Trek that used to be on Channel 4 at tea time after school. Does this mean Virgin Galactic will now be bouncing from planet to planet, visiting glamorous aliens and taking us on long-haul trips to human colonies in the furthest reaches of the galaxy where no man has been before, etc, etc?
The short answer: yes. Or maybe. Hannah Wakeford is and Astrophysics Researcher at University of Exeter. She's part of a team that has been looking for the water in the atmospheres of recently discovered planets - essentially, she's been looking to see if these planets are habitable. She admits that this latest discovery has bought us closer than ever to making science fiction a reality. ‘ We’re used to hearing about four or five new planets at once, so 715 in one go is massive. Will one of those planets be habitable? Almost certainly.’
These new planets didn’t spring up from nowhere (which is sort of what I thought had happened) - new techniques and technology mean that we’re able to investigate more of the universe than ever before. ‘The Keppler satellite [which was used to discover the planets] can see fainter and smaller stars. But it’s also just looking at one selection of stars and staring at them for years. The 715 new planets have just come from the first two years of data from the Keppler mission.’ So chances are, we’re going to discover even more new planets in the next few years.
But let's rewind a moment - are some of these planets really going to be habitable? 'It’s taking us one step closer, it’s no longer science fiction anymore, explains Hannah. ‘We know these worlds are out there and the work we’re doing at the moment is looking at the atmospheres of these plants, to try and find out more about them.
‘Keppler’s aim was to find planets that are the same size and radius of Earth, with an orbit that’s very similar to our own - so about a year. We’ve already discovered that one of the planets is two-and-a-half times the size of the Earth and sits in a habitable zone - a place where liquid water can survive on the surface. But that’s all we know so far.’
But surely if these planets are habitable for us, they might already have residents? IS THE TRUTH OUT THERE? ‘I have no doubt that there is a planet out there that is also habitable - whether or not the life on that planet has evolved to be anything like what we’ve done here, or whether or not there’s still dinosaurs out there somewhere, I have no idea, but I have no doubt that there’s a planet out there that was I the right place at the right time for it to be habitable.’
Err wait…what? There’s a planet of dinosaurs out there - like this?
Hannah’s seems pretty convinced - ‘the lived on this planet for what 190 million years before an unfortunate event wiped them out - why not?’ Excellent, we'll be digging out our laser guns, purchasing that neoprene shift dress and booking ourselves on the next Virgin Galactic flight outta here.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.