Life on OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb?

Scientists announced this week the discovery of an Earth-like planet 25,000 light years away. The BBC News article is here. Known by the less than eloquent name OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, the discovery proves (if nothing else) that poets, not scientists, should name space objects and other big discoveries. The planet's temperature is an estimated -364F, making life unlikely and life as we know it impossible.

Yet Professor Michael Bode from Liverpool John Moores University, one of the main researchers on the find is quick to note, "This is the most Earth-like planet we have discovered to date, in terms of its mass and the distance from its parent star."

I am agnostic when it comes to the issue of life on other planets. But as a teen I was very much interested in UFOs, aliens and the like. I found the song "UFO" by Larry Norman to be helpful. The Christian rocker wrote of Jesus,

If there's life on other planets,
I'm sure that he must know,
and he's been there once already,
and has died to save their souls.

An earlier post God in Outer Space is probably relevent here as well. As it quoted C.S. Lewis who said in part, "Space travel has nothing to do with the matter. To some, God is discoverable everywhere; to others nowhere."

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor + King of Peace Episcopal Church