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Are The Hycean Worlds Alive?
Scientists speculate about the possibility of life on truly alien planets
In many ways, the history of science is a history of our own arrogance and delusion. Centuries ago the wisest men — the scholars and priests — placed the Earth, and therefore mankind, at the centre of creation. We were a chosen species, occupying a special place in the universe.
Over time science has stripped that deceit away. Humanity gradually lost its self-important place in the universe; the Earth was demoted to nothing more than a small rock around an average star. But one last claim to glory remains: Earth is the only place in the known universe to support life and, by extension, civilization.
Scientists have long put that down to a magical combination of carbon, oxygen and water, the three ingredients considered essential for life. When we peer across the cosmos at distant planets it is those chemicals we look for; it is their absence that dooms a world to an eternal death.
That betrays a lack of imagination. The thousands of planets we have discovered come in staggering variety. Some, bigger than Jupiter, boil close to their stars. Others, smaller than Mercury, freeze in the depths of space, coming alive only briefly as they swing by their stars. Few are like Earth.
