Proxima Or Bust!

A couple of days ago, the universe changed once again, with the announcement of the discovery of a Earth-like planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest sun to our own, just over four light-years away. I don't think I need to say how astonishing this is. Not only does this suggest that planets like are own are commonplace, but it also means that we have one close enough to seriously study. I will be astonished if this doesn't lead to some sort of orbital research in the near future, a telescope designed with this function in mind.

More than that, a lot more than that. This world, at least theoretically, could support life. As we know it. Life based on liquid water. Now all that we have at the moment are the bare facts that the world exists, and a rough idea of its orbital path, but if this discovery plays out, we're going to know a lot more about it in the near future. I can't think of a more attractive subject for study, and while I wouldn't pretend that a probe to Proxima is likely for a while, I certainly think that space-based instrumentation will have a major part to play.

The big question must be whether there is the possibility of life. Whether an astronaut could set foot on the surface, crack his faceplate and breathe the air. If that is the case, then someone from Earth – the continued survival of civilization permitting – will set foot on that planet in this century. I'm quite confident of that. I am fully aware of the vast challenge such a mission would pose, and that at present there are many suggesting starflight is impossible. I'll answer that by pointing at human history. We've always managed to find a way to do the impossible before, and given that NASA is working on Warp Drive right now, well...

Find us an inhabitable planet, one that at least theoretically could be colonized, and all of a sudden all of the science-fiction promises become real. The strange new worlds are there, waiting for us to reach them, and I would never bet against mankind pulling it off. The existence of one, so close, presents the probability of others around nearby stars, and the day may well come when humans walk the worlds of Tau Ceti, Epsilon Eridani, Barnard's Star.

Could it be inhabitable? There's no real reason why not. A red dwarf star has a habitable zone, albeit far smaller than a star like our Sun, and while the world we're talking about would be tidally-locked, recent studies suggest that this doesn't mean anything like the wild contrast of surface conditions we had once expected. No 'Twilight Zone' between a burning 'Dayside' and a frozen 'Nightside.' Difficult conditions, yes, but livable. And if life can exist, there's a good chance it does – and that opens up amazing new wonders. More than that. Red dwarf stars life a long time. Where a star like the Sun lives for billions of years, a red dwarf could live for trillions. The day could come where mankind seeks a new home out among the stars, and Proxima Centauri would be an excellent place to start.

Unless, of course, someone has already. Just as there is no reason to rule out the existence of life on Proxima Centauri, there's no reason to rule out the existence of intelligent life, and that really would bring the house down. A hundred years? Twenty years. Manhattan-Project scale research programs in a dozen nations, working to find a way to get their first – or defend us against 'evil aliens', depending on the government involved, of course. Because the odds that these aliens would be our technological equals is remote at best. Either they will be cavemen, in which case our morality will receive the greatest test it has ever faced, or they will be angels – or gone, faded in the remnants of their past wonders, a treasure-trove of knowledge waiting to be explored, some latter day Howard Carter to discover the secrets of Proximan lore...