Feburary 06 2012

THE SEARCH OF LIVABLE PLANETS OR SAVE OUR OWN PLANET?

The 4th planet outside our solar system that could support life just discovered

Have you watched the American film released in 1982 called the Extra-Terrestrial (E.T)? It is a famous science fiction directed by Steven Spielberg about a boy Elliott befriended with an E.T stranded on Earth and helped E.T. to return home behind his mother and the government. This is a plot of a movie but in real life, there are also astronomers and biologists searching for Earthlike planets suitable for human inhabitation. Up to date, there are four possible Earth-liked planets that may support life. Earth-like planet means humans can live comfortably without the need of unreasonable protections from the natural environment and the need to bring resources from another planet. For example, the atmosphere should contain enough oxygen it is one of the essentials for humans. The first planet was discovered in May 2011, just less than a year ago, by a group of French astronomers. They called the planet Gliese 581d. The second planet discovered in August 2011 by Swiss scientists is called HD85512d. The third one discovered near the end of last year by

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is called Kepler22b. In addition, just a few days ago, astronomers discovered the forth Earth-like planet outside our solar system that may support life. This planet is give a name of GJ 6677Cc and it orbits a star relatively fast, once every 28 days, compared to Earth orbits the Sun once every 365 days. It is about twenty-two light years away from Earth. Scientists measure the distance by light years, in which one light year is approximately ten trillion kilometers. Whether it has water and other features of landscape similar to Earth remain unknown and will need further research.
The Extra-Terrestrial 1982 Science Fiction Film Co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg

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REUSE REDUCE RECYCLE

The 3Rs

In search of alternative livable planets the government have started to take actions to save our planet. For or save the current one we are living example, the idea of reuse, reduce and in? recycle (3Rs) is actively being promoted. During Christmas season Why did scientists interested in searching for Earth-like planets in the last year just 2 months ago, there were first place? Of course it can be due to advertisements to educate and to remind everyone to adhere the 3Rs. their sole interest in knowing about Give useful presents and wrap the universe. However, it could also presents with newspapers or recycled be due to deterioration of our planet papers are two of many ways to apply Earth that some believe the need to 3Rs. search for other livable planets and hoping humans would not be subjected to extinction. Indeed, our planet Earth is decaying as population grows rapidly. Decrease in natural resources and environmental changes are subtle alerts to human beings. Recently, many citizens concern about global warming such as losing rainforests and melting of perennial in the arctic and permanent ice, as well as increasing carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. Recently many have realized the seriousness of these issues including Should we search for other livable planets so that humans can have a place to inhabit? Alternatively, we can put a greater effort in saving our beautiful planet Earth while still not too late. In the mean time, we can imagine that there might be E.T. living amongst us because the movie Men in Black will be released in a few months (in May).

Contributors
WING KI (VICKI) CHENG ms ininity committee member, e-mentor, The Fisheye Report columnist ANDREA LEONCHU

REFERENCES Cinemagora http://www.cinemagora.co.uk/images/ films/18/29718-b-et-the-extraterrestrial.jpg BBC Newsround Science & Environment http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/ 16860015 IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1409024/

Men in Black 3

Environment Canada http://www.ec.gc.ca The Guardian - Science http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/

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