Poul Anderson, AUTHOR'S NOTE IN Anderson, Virgin Planet (New York, London, 1966), pp. 150-156 AT p. 152.
In the early 1960s, I was surprised and disappointed to read in a book by Patrick Moore that we did not then know whether any other star had planets. Such planets, if they existed, were not self-luminous and were too small and far away to be seen from Earth. (Maybe Moore's book had been published pre-1959 etc.) A lot of sf was maybe invalid.
Further - Moore did not, I think, make this point but I read it elsewhere -, there was a theory of planetary formation, used by EE Smith in his Lensman series, that would have made planets not the norm but vanishingly rare.
Fortunately, as we now know, none of this is the case. I hope that the Webb telescope will soon detect nearby extra-solar civilizations. If so, we will have to learn what we can about how to make a civilization work.
7 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
What puzzles me is why so many astronomers, at least before 1959, doubted other stars had their own planets. Even allowing for the fact that they then had only one solar system, ours, KNOWN to have planets, it seems very odd for them to doubt, or even disbelieve, that planets existed elsewhere. To me, the mere existence of planets existing in the Solar System makes it more likely, not less, for other stars to have planets.
I too believe intelligent non-human life is more likely than not to exist on the planets of other stars. But your last sentence puzzles me. Are you hinting at hoping benevolent Elder Races exist who would teach the barbarian savages of Earth "...how to make a civilization work."
I'm inclined to be very skeptical of such dreams! I would not in the least be surprised if many other races exist as prone to violence and conflict as human beings. Some might well be as aggressive as Niven's Kzinti or Anderson's Merseians.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
It is wrong to generalize from a single instance.
Of course there is not necessarily an Elder Race - although there will be at least something to be learned from any race that has had industry and technology for a long time and has not destroyed itself yet. Of course some races might be as bad as kzinti or worse. But we will have to see what we can learn - either what to emulate or what to avoid.
Paul.
There were two fairly plausible models for the origin of planets.
One is that the planetary system forms from the same gas/dust cloud that the star forms from.
The other is that stars usually form without planets & a close pass with another star pulls out material from the star that forms into planets.
The latter hypothesis implies planets are rare since interstellar close passes are rare. We now know that the 1st model is the correct one.
Jim,
EE Smith has two galaxies passing through each other, thus generating plenty of planets for the Eddorians to conquer.
Paul.
Kaor, Jim!
I should have remembered that now rejected second model of planetary formation you summarized!
Ad astra! Sean
Galaxies passing through or near each other trigger clouds of gas/dust to collapse, thus making a lot of stars with planets in a short (by astronomical standards) time. Not quite like EE Smiths picture, but kind of related.
Kaor, Jim!
And very intriguing! I have read that in the far distant future the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies will interpenetrate like that.
Ad astra! Sean
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