Spanish science takes the “lead” in the search for other habitable planets

Astrophysicist David Gallady Enriquez, who is considered the most important publisher of this issue in Spanish, claimed this Saturday in Daimille the contribution of Spain to exobiology, that is, to the search for other habitable planets and, accordingly, the possibility of finding life beyond Earth.

He did so in the speech he gave at the astronomy conference VI ‘Ciudad de Daimiel’, adopted by the Daimielian Astronomy Association (ADA), after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic.

Galadi, an astronomer in residence at the Calar Alto Observatory in Almería, stressed that both this and the Canary Islands observatory are “at the forefront of discovering these planets,” which equates to “being at the forefront of astrophysics.”

In the conference room of the Water Center, the CSIC astrophysicist asserted that the search for these habitable worlds or planets had opened a historical stage in the knowledge of the universe, and this, he emphasized, had philosophical and human significance, as well as scientific.

My country believes that the next step, finding inhabited planets, will be the task of “our children and grandchildren”, while seeing the possibility of extraterrestrial life “far away”. In fact, he exploits this question in lamenting that we are “close to not being able to live on Earth,” and for that reason, he insists, “we’d better take care of it because, for the time being and for a long time, there is no Planet B.”

Comparison with Carl Sagan

In regards to being a reference publisher, he has indicated that he has colleagues who are as good or better than him and that the comparison with Carl Sagan overwhelms him. “I’m wearing 41 boots, Carl Sagan is too big for me,” he commented. What he makes clear is that unveiling is “one of the three legs” where science is based. “We have the production of academic science that reaches educational stages and social communication that is easy to spread, and if one fails, everything fails.”

Environmental advisor Javier Vesac, co-presenting the conference, thanked the ADA for its dedication and interest in restoring “these much-needed sessions” after the worst of the pandemic has passed. Vesak congratulated its president, Miguel Angel Martin Serrano, for obtaining a guest of Pallady’s status and for collecting the Florentino Caballero Astronomy Exhibition at the Water Center.

There are a total of 28 images in which this multidisciplinary artist, thanks to a work of patience and endless style, helps us to see amazing images such as that of “Nebolusa del Calamar”, one of the last images he created that required and explained more than 10 hours of exposure to mastering intuition