Advanced Alien Civilization Discovers Uninhabitable Planet
I ran across this in Space News. I think Dr. Xanarth must have miscalculated (Terxus is not known for their scientific prowess, after they broke away from the United Planets and their legislature got through working over their school system), because what "advanced life form" would allow the destruction of the very planet they depend on? I bet they are just single-celled creatures, unable to evolve for their own survival.
CONSTELLATION HYDRA—Dashing the hopes of those among them who believed the faraway world would surely prove habitable, astronomers from the Terxus II star system announced Thursday that a recently discovered planet remarkably like their own is in fact completely hostile to life.
“Theoretically, this place ought to be perfect,” leading Terxus astrobiologist Dr. Srin Xanarth said of the reportedly blighted planet located at the edge of a spiral arm in the Milky Way galaxy. “When our long-range satellites first picked it up, we honestly thought we’d hit the jackpot. We just assumed it would be a lush, green world filled with abundant natural resources. But unfortunately, its damaged biosphere makes it wholly unsuitable for living creatures of any kind.”
“It’s basically a dead planet,” she added. “We give it another 200 years, tops.”
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Alien scientists acknowledged that for all practical purposes, RP-26 is now little more than a giant ball of dirt emitting noxious fumes. But they also shared an artist’s rendering that depicts how the planet might have appeared in its recent past, when it reportedly contained flourishing ecosystems able to sustain an impressive diversity of species, and an atmosphere that was actually hospitable to organisms that breathe oxygen.
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http://www.theonion.com/articles/advanced-alien-civilization-discovers-uninhabitabl,32808/
H/T to The Big Picture
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