Science fiction can become a reality if we look to the stars.

This is how it happened: Scientists discovered a fault in a red dwarf star in April.  A red dwarf is a sun that is not as hot as ours. This red dwarf has five planets, four barren from being too close to the sun and a fifth that is a Goldilocks planet — not too hot, not too cold, just right. That planet is called Kepler-186f and is about 490 light years away.

So, yes, there is no way of reaching the planet in today’s world. According to scientists, Kepler’s surface is like San Francisco on a cool day, about 60 degrees with minor heat spikes. But these are just theories.

So how did astronomers find Kepler? If you ever look up into the stars, you’ll notice they blink. That blinking is a planet. The bigger and longer the blink, the bigger the planet is. The shorter and faster the blink, the smaller the planet is.

Astronomers look into a telescope and target star systems. Kepler is in the Cygnus (Greek for swan) constellation.

If all the lights went out in the world, we would be able to see our own galaxy. The Milky Way would be in front of our eyes, I have seen the Milky Way, and it is spectacular. Cygnus is a constellation above the visible Milky Way.

I am excited about this planet because it could answer the question we’ve all been asking since we evolved into humans. Are we alone?

I’d like to imagine we aren’t. As a matter of fact, I’ve been drawing pictures and imagining what these creatures could look like. But another sentient creature is highly unlikely.

Scientists look for the smallest things — cells, bacteria, viruses, plants, signs of chlorophyll, oxygen.  “If (Kepler-186f) is in the temperature zone, it could have liquid water on it,” Trinity science teacher Mr. Dave Case said.

There is reason to believe there are seas on Kepler-186f. The planet does not emit a blue hue as Earth does; it emits more of a dull brown, which would make the seas more of a grey color.

They’ve also discovered continents. So, not only is this planet possibly habitable, it could have resources like those we use. Even more perplexing is the possibility of more than just one planet capable of sustaining life. Heck, there could be thousands, and we aren’t looking closely enough!

The are more than 15,000 Earth-like planets. Kepler-186f is only 10 percent bigger than ours.  If we can figure out how to travel at the speed of light, we could probably get there in 600 years!

So what if there was life on this planet?

“Anything’s possible,” Trinity science teacher Mr. Eddie Rudolph said. “They’re talking about there being life on the planet, so maybe there could be.”

Here’s where it gets really strange.  A theory called the Great Filter tells us If there was another sentient species that existed thousands of years ago, it could be bad news for us.

According to arstechnica.com, the theory dictates that as a species we could be going through the Great Filter or approaching it. The filter could signify our destruction. If another race killed their planet or killed themselves by using technology, that means we could be doing the same.

Passing through the filter means we could kill ourselves in the next 10,000 years. But approaching the filter means we still have a window to fix what we have done, still build ships and go see the many planets we’ve discovered.

I want to leave you with a question I asked when I heard about the Kepler discovery.

If there is going to be, or has ever been, life on Kepler-186f or any other planet, couldn’t it be possible they have seen us in our own little constellation? Couldn’t they have been thinking, “Is there life on that planet?”

To find more info on the Great Filter theory and other possibilities, use these links:

http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/04/habitable-exoplanets-are-bad-news-for-humanity/#p3

http://www.nasa.gov/ames/kepler/kepler-186f-the-first-earth-size-planet-in-the-habitable-zone/#.U390I_ldV8E