Priorities

AN AMATEUR ASTRONOMER gazes into his telescope at the giant planet jupiter, enjoying the colored cloud bands, and the dancing of the four large moons on either side. Suddenly he sees a bright flash on the planet, which is gone in a flash. He communicates with other astronomers, who confirm what he witnessed. At least one other amateur astronomer actuallly got lucky, and photographed the event, a large object, comet or asteroid, crashing into the gas giant.

This happens all the time. Jupiter is so huge, about ninety thousand miles in diameter, that its immense gravity attracts objects of all sorts, which regularly crash into it. A big one happened in 1994, when comet Shoemaker-Levy left a long lingering black mark on the surface, or cloud layers.

Jupiter doesn't really have a surface. its outer atmospohere, largely ammonia and methane, gradually, steadily thickens as it goes deeper toward the center of the planet, seemlessly becoming liquid, then solid matter, down deep. We who are accustomed to a clear delineation between atmosphere and surface of planet have difficulty grasping this.

Without jupiter, say some scientists, sweeping up most of the debris careening around the solar system, it is likely that some large object would have by now struck earth, wiping us all out, or preventing us from ever evolving into existence in the first place.

It turns out that jupiter is critical for our existence, in all liklihood. Just as the moon is, with its tidal influence which stirred organic compounds to life on earth. without jupiter, and "our" moon, who knows? maybe some other form of life would have emerged here. Life seems to find a way, no mattter where.

It may be that there is intelligent life in the soupy dense atmosphere of jupiter. And it may be that intelligent life strives to come into existence throughout the universe, and succeeds, as it has here.

Its worth investing resources  to find out. Its wroth it to divert resources form all manner of frivolous human activities, and to redirect them towards the search for life beyond earth.

Bb

Thanky You for reading THE TRUTHLESS RECONCILER.