Are we ready for new worlds?

The discovery of planets that might support life and circle a sun relatively close to our Earth is a truly awe-inspiring event. But it’s probably in everyone’s best interest that, for the time being at least, we have no way of getting there.

For centuries, we humans have wondered if there were living creatures near one of those sparkling stars we see on a clear night. And for just as long, we have wondered if instead we are alone, if our planet is a cosmic aberration where life arose in a way never to be replicated in the rest of a dead, or at best non-living, universe.

But like a bolt of lightening that blasts complacency, there came last week’s tantalizing news that a team of international astronomers had discovered a dim, red dwarf star being orbited by seven Earth-sized planets, three of which may hold life.

That this solar system - named TRAPPIST-1 - lies in the constellation Aquarius a mere 39 million light years away made the discovery even more breathtaking.

To be sure, the distance is formidable and out of reach for any spaceship being built today. Yet considering the immensity of our universe, going to TRAPPIST-1 would be like a trip to the corner store.

There was a time centuries ago when European explorers discovered continents that had previously been unknown to them.

Of course, we are far more aware today that the indigenous inhabitants of these seemingly new realms already knew and appreciated what was there. And how they were soon to suffer at the newcomers’ hands.

Looking at the artists’ concepts of what the surface of one of these planets might look like, craggy, partly water-covered and dimly lit by the rosy glow of that small star, it is easy to experience the same humbling sense of amazement felt by those long-ago European explorers.

At the same time, it is hard not to feel relieved that we will not soon have the technological capability to travel to TRAPPIST-1.

If there ever were an expedition to distant stars, under whose leadership would it occur? Would the flag of one of Earth’s nations be planted on the surface of one of those planets as a claim of ownership? Or could it be a co-operative, international venture?

If we found life there, what would we do with it? Would we hunt it as rich, foreign, big-game hunters do the marvellous creatures of Africa? Would we eat it?

Would we drive it to extinction as humans did to the dodo bird, passenger pigeon, great auk, Tasmanian tiger and countless others? Would we colonize such a world and subject its inhabitants to our laws? Would we exploit its natural resources without care for its environment?

In other words, would we behave better on such a brave new world than we do on this one?

Let us hope that as our technological reach expands, our maturity and compassion grow with it.