Extraterrestrial Life
WASP-39B, also known as Bocaprins, is a hot-Jupiter class planet discovered in 2011. It was the first reported exoplanet with a signature of CO2 in the atmosphere. It is said to have a substantial amount of water vapor in the air. Can you imagine a gas giant with Earth like skies and an inner light, leaking through the lower, denser clouds? Can you imagine life living in the upper clouds, as was speculatively possible on Venus just a heartbeat ago? Not only may we be looking at life, not as we know it, but the realization you don’t have to have a rocky planet in the goldilocks zone for there to be life.
I have long imaged a Jupiter class planet with a breathable, earth like atmosphere. I am not the only one. The Integral Tress, by Larry Niven, imagines a place with people living in perpetual free-fall.
This planet of my dream was home to life. You might think it would be impossible for life to exist in the air, never touching the ground, but consider the life’s of whales and dolphins. Imagine bladders full of hydrogen, and creature smart enough to move away from thunderstorms! Imagine the only continuity is change. A tree branch floating by with a squirrel on it would be the rarest of oddities to a dolphin, and that story delivered to other dolphins might be met with skepticism.
