To Infinity and Beyond

A long long time ago in a galaxy not far away at all, a cosmic bang occurred and created the solar system that we all know and love today. It created planets, and moons, and stars, and also helped spark life into some of these places. Because of the Big Bang, humans have evolved, lived, and adapted to all the environments the Earth has to offer us. So, what happens when we have overstayed our visit on this wondrous planet?

This is exactly what Russian scientists are trying to figure out. Recently, a group of Russian scientists ventured down to Antarctica to try and drill through the ice into the subarctic Lake Vostok. This part of the world has been left untouched since it was created-- mostly because we didn’t have proper drilling utensils until now-- so we haven’t been able to contaminate it yet. This lake has been hidden under 2 miles worth of solid ice, in the very place that the Earth’s coldest temperature was taken in ‘83, and has been sealed off from light and air for somewhere between 15 and 34 million years. So why the fascination with Lake Vostok? Well, these are, in fact, the most extreme conditions that are on this planet, and mirror the conditions on some of Jupiter’s moons.

The reasoning behind the escapade is to find out if there are any living microorganisms in the lake. If there is life in freezing water 2 miles under the frozen Earth, then scientists believe they can move the human population to one of Jupiter’s moons when we have destroyed Earth. They would send us all over to Jupiter’s moons, because recent experiments have concluded that there is breathable air on them, and that we would be able to adapt to the conditions of the moons.

The curious part of all this, is how would they get us all to Jupiter? It’s not like we have 4,900,894 Millennium Falcons just sitting around, waiting to take us into space. Besides, Jupiter is about 391,463,851 miles away from earth, so it would take 2.5 years at the very least to get there by regular space shuttle, or 2,104.64436 seconds at the speed of light. It seems like too much of a hassle to even try and get us all off the Earth and into space. Mankind should just give up on trying to save themselves, and just let nature wipe us all out and start fresh with newer, better versions of us in a different, alternate universe. It seems easier than trying to take the world into space and stick them on freezing cold moons.