Last week NASA announced it was stepping up its game on the search for other life in the universe. SETI has also recently received a windfall of funding and is also partnering with various agencies who share a keen, if not heightened interest in finding life out there in the cosmos.
With improved telescopes we have discovered thousands of exo-planets circling suns all around us. Most agree that the discovery of life elsewhere is a game-changer for humanity. Finding intelligent life would be even more profound. The last step might be communication with said life form, but for now, we’re just trying to find the right place to look with so many options.
What if the Urantia Book could provide some clues as to where we might look? Clearly, the Urantia Book gives an entire narrative of the various kinds of life forms there are in existence, and while is doesn’t violate its “prime directive” of giving us the answers as to where they are, it does give us clues that they probably anticipated would help in our search for life in our universe (remember, the book was written in 1934 when idea of ET life seemed more science fiction that science reality).
They give us an overview of the different kinds of life forms that evolve on worlds’ because of the differing environmental factors each planet possesses, heat, gravity, size of the world, proximity to its solar parent, size of the sun, kinds of suns, kinds of atmospheres, etc.
The point is the search is on for ET life, and the Urantia Book could help us.
Here is one statement the UB makes that could provide clues:
41:3.1 There are upward of two thousand brilliant suns pouring forth light and energy in your region of space (our local system) , and your own sun is an average blazing orb. Of the thirty suns nearest yours, only three are brighter.
Here are list of those suns.. We should start here, since it is likely the Urantia Book authors would only have mentioned our starry neighbors since it was in the context of life-bearing worlds.
These are our closest neighbors:
(Note that this list is continually changing as astronomers discover nearby stars with ever more sensitive detectors in a variety of spectral ranges, especially the infrared, where numerous small stars emit their energy. Recall that the brightest magnitudes are the largest negative numbers.)
|
Common Name |
Scientific Name |
Distance (light years) |
Apparent Magnitude |
Absolute Magnitude |
Spectral Type |
|
Sun |
– |
-26.72 |
4.8 |
G2V |
|
|
Proxima Centauri |
V645 Cen |
4.2 |
11.05 (var.) |
15.5 |
M5.5Vc |
|
Alpha Cen A |
4.3 |
-0.01 |
4.4 |
G2V |
|
|
Alpha Cen B |
4.3 |
1.33 |
5.7 |
K1V |
|
|
Barnard’s Star |
6.0 |
9.54 |
13.2 |
M3.8V |
|
|
Wolf 359 |
CN Leo |
7.7 |
13.53 (var.) |
16.7 |
M5.8Vc |
|
BD +36 2147 |
8.2 |
7.50 |
10.5 |
M2.1Vc |
|
|
Luyten 726-8A |
UV Cet A |
8.4 |
12.52 (var.) |
15.5 |
M5.6Vc |
|
Luyten 726-8B |
UV Cet B |
8.4 |
13.02 (var.) |
16.0 |
M5.6Vc |
|
Sirius A |
Alpha CMa A |
8.6 |
-1.46 |
1.4 |
A1Vm |
|
Sirius B |
Alpha CMa B |
8.6 |
8.3 |
11.2 |
DA |
|
Ross 154 |
9.4 |
10.45 |
13.1 |
M3.6Vc |
|
|
Ross 248 |
10.4 |
12.29 |
14.8 |
M4.9Vc |
|
|
Epsilon Eri |
10.8 |
3.73 |
6.1 |
K2Vc |
|
|
Ross 128 |
10.9 |
11.10 |
13.5 |
M4.1V |
|
|
11.1 |
5.2 (var.) |
7.6 |
K3.5Vc |
||
|
61 Cyg B |
11.1 |
6.03 |
8.4 |
K4.7Vc |
|
|
Epsilon Ind |
11.2 |
4.68 |
7.0 |
K3Vc |
|
|
BD +43 44 A |
11.2 |
8.08 |
10.4 |
M1.3Vc |
|
|
BD +43 44 B |
11.2 |
11.06 |
13.4 |
M3.8Vc |
|
|
Luyten 789-6 |
11.2 |
12.18 |
14.5 |
||
|
Procyon A |
Alpha CMi A |
11.4 |
0.38 |
2.6 |
F5IV-V |
|
Procyon B |
Alpha CMi B |
11.4 |
10.7 |
13.0 |
DF |
|
BD +59 1915 A |
11.6 |
8.90 |
11.2 |
M3.0V |
|
|
BD +59 1915 B |
11.6 |
9.69 |
11.9 |
M3.5V |
|
|
CoD -36 15693 |
11.7 |
7.35 |
9.6 |
M1.3Vc |
If directions to these stars were included, you could make a map and see that they are distributed around us more or less randomly.
What can we learn from this information? Quite a lot.
- We live very close (500 lightseconds) to a star. This is probably a necessary condition for the origination and maintenance of life.
- Stars are very far apart (average about 8 light years for the closest dozen), compared to their size (about 2 light seconds for the Sun); by a factor of 250 million or so.
- Many stars occur in multiple systems, shown here by the suffixes A, B and C from brightest to dimmest. In fact, about 55% of stars in this list are in multiple systems. The nearest star is a triple. And we may be missing many dim stars.
- Most of the nearby stars are dimmer (higher numbers for absolute magnitude) than our Sun, by factors of 100 to 10,000.
