A “Goldilocks” planet is so-called because it is “just right.” That is, it is not too hot or not too cold. Not too far from its sun and not too close. Scientists have discovered roughly 500 exo-planets (planets outside of Earth’s Solar system) but apparently a planet orbiting a star known as “Gliese 581” is the closest thing yet to a Goldilocks planet.
Now this does not mean that the planet (the sixth one determined to be in orbit around Gliese 581 – so far) is actually fully Earth-like and habitable; it just means that it is within the range of what science considers might be acceptable. So it’s not as if humans will be rushing out to the spaceships in a land rush to develop the planet complete with two car garages and automatic garage door openers. First of all, humans don’t yet have the spaceship technology to travel to a world twenty light years away. And once that hurdle is crossed, it is still not certain that this particular planet will be an actual “Goldilocks” planet and able to sustain life as humans know it on Earth.
But it is a start to finally find an exo-planet that appears to be within the tolerable range for human life. It means that space exploration should be considered feasible enough to be supported. Of course, there may well and probably will be other problems with this planet making it not possible for sustaining human life. Any atmosphere may turn out to be poisonous, there may be poisonous microbes growing in the soil there (which would also be of interest though since something growing in the soil of another planet would be life on another planet), or it could turn out that the extremes of hot and cold are in fact beyond human endurance.
Science fiction writers have written for years about discovering habitable planets outside of Earth. There was always an inherent optimism in this writing, that humans would be able to somehow get beyond the differences on Earth and be able to reach out together to other worlds. The work of the scientists is making this at least a little more possible and a little less of a fantasy. As stated earlier, it won’t be a development with two car garages and automatic garage door openers and a garage door repairman just a phone call away. Or at least not right off.
However, it does have the possibility of allowing the new home with two car garage and automatic garage door opener on other worlds become a reality, even if it is decades or even centuries away.
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