we have ice
You could arguably say that ever since mankind looked up to the heavens, they must have wondered who else was out there. All those dots in the sky signified more than constellations, more than gods, more than just snow against a blanket of black.
When I was younger I remember standing outside and gazing at the full moon somewhere in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The sky was alive with points of light drenching nearly every inch of what I thought was inky blackness. My childhood in Chicago was full of good things, but looking up in the night sky, the haze of city lights obscured most of the stars.
No so in the Black Hills.
There were so many dots of light. My young mind was just beginning to understand that each point meant there was a star somewhere out there that could be another rock. And if there was lots of other rocks out there, why couldn’t there be other kids on them, staring up at their own night sky and wondering if anyone else was looking up?
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The Phoenix lander on Mars found ice yesterday. I don’t think there is a child standing on Mars and looking up, but where there is water, there is the potential for life. Finding organics on another planet is something I’d like to see in my lifetime.
Here’s hoping.