Opinion: Yes, we do keep looking for life on other planets

To the editor: It is very rare, if ever, that an editorial is of such unearthly beauty such as to make one weep, but such was my reaction to the above. The poetry and thought of it is of the most elevated nature. If indeed there is intelligent life on Proxima b, I’m sure their reaction will mirror mine.

(“Another Earth? Close enough,” Editorial, Aug. 26

Philip Springer, Pacific Palisades

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To the editor: There are a multitude of wild assumptions in the editorial. The first is that Proxima Centauri b is a habitable planet.

Being in the zone also has to be at the relevant time in history. The Earth did not support any serious life forms for billions of years. And it may soon be over that period and ready to join Venus in the microwave oven phase.

Finally, why would we want to export the cancer that is humankind anyway? With all the knowledge we have gathered about our home planet, we continue to poison the air and water and everything else about the environment. We do nothing to even slow this down.

Warren Larson, Sunland

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