Extraterrestrial Life
Christiaan Huygens believed in the existence of extraterrestrial life. Shortly before his death in 1695, he completed a book entitled Cosmotheoros in which he discussed his notions of life on other planets, which he imagined was similar to that on Earth. He thought that availability of water in liquid form was essential for life and that the properties of water must vary from planet to planet to suit the temperature range. He took his observations of dark and bright spots on the surfaces of Mars and Jupiter to be evidence of water and ice on those planets.
Though Huygens felt very strong about his opinion, he made sure that he addressed the issues that would arise with his proposition. Knowing that his ideas might be accused of conflicting with the Bible, Huygens argued that extraterrestrial life is neither confirmed nor denied in the Bible, and questioned why God would create the other planets if they were not to serve a greater purpose than that of being admired from Earth. Huygens postulated that the great distance between the planets signified that God had not intended for beings on one to know about the beings on the others, and had not foreseen how much humans would advance in scientific knowledge.
Huygens feared that Cosmotheoros would lead to his prosecution or even death, so it was published posthumously in 1698.
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