On Wednesday, NASA scientists announced the discovery of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a star 40 light years away. Like Earth, these planets seem to have a rocky core, and several of them are the right distance away from their sun that they could be awash with liquid water. In short, these planets offer the first realistic possibility of discovering life outside our solar system.
And while we shouldn’t yet start baking cookies to welcome our alien cousins to Earth -- still, how wondrous to think that 200 trillion miles away there might be another planet even remotely like our own: with oceans and shores, with oxygen and carbon-dioxide. How would such a discovery change our beliefs -- not only about science and the universe, but about the human family?
Our prayer Ma’ariv Aravim praises the Creator of the universe for arranging the stars in the sky -- and this week, we might add, for arranging the planets around them.
Baruch atah Adonai, ha-Ma’ariv aravim.