As space agencies like NASA are busy formulating plans for human colonization in Mars, Didier Queloz, a Swizz astronomer who shared the 2019 Nobel Prize for Physics for discovering planets orbiting distant suns has revealed that the missions to colonize distant planets are far-fetched and unrealistic. The Nobel laureate also added that humans should now concentrate on fixing climate change so that the earth can be saved.
Humans cannot escape from earth
A few weeks ago, Queloz had predicted that alien life will be discovered within the next 30 years. He also added that earth might not be the only planet in the solar system that might be hosting life. Queloz revealed that many people in modern times are not bothered much about climate change, as they believe human beings will colonize other planets in the future.
"I think this is just irresponsible because the stars are so far away, I think we should not really have any hope, serious hope, to escape the Earth. So we better spend our time and energy trying to fix it than trying to imagine that we will destroy it and leave it," said Queloz, on the sidelines of Nobel Prize distribution ceremony in Stockholm. The Nobel Lectures in Physics will be held on Sunday 8 December 2019, at the Aula Magna, Stockholm University. Watch the live-streaming here:
Briton Stanley Whittingham, who was honored with the 2019 Nobel Prize for chemistry, during the same event revealed that a pragmatic approach is needed to combat the climate crisis. He also added that lithium batteries will help electrify transport systems, which will play a crucial role in reducing atmospheric pollution.
Humans to go extinct?
A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford had suggested that humans have a higher risk of going extinct next year. In the research report, scientists noted that humans have a 1 in 14,000 chance of going extinct in all the coming years, and this possibility is much higher than an individual being attacked by a shark (1 in 650,000) or struct by a bolt of lightning (1 in 700,000).
Researchers who took part in this study revealed that the possibility of extinction in the future might be due to natural causes. As per the study team, the possibility of extinction risk will be elevated if man-made threats like nuclear weapons and climate changes are added to the calculation.
