No longer ‘Just Right’: The Implications of the ‘Goldilocks’ Planet Shift

Astrophysicist Guillermo Gonzalez presented the case for Earth’s uniqueness in the galaxy in his book The Privileged Planet. There he notes the concept of the Earth being in the “Goldilocks Zone,” a perfect measure of distance from the sun that made it possible for life to exist without freezing or burning up.

Well, recent studies have said that the Goldilocks Zone just shifted:

The updated model nearly boots the Earth’s orbit out of the new “Goldilocks zone,”….the Goldilocks zone is a narrow belt around a star where an orbiting planet would be warm enough to support life. Of course, the Earth doesn’t have to be in the center of the habitable zone to support life, that location is simply where the best conditions for sustaining life can be found….

…According to the New Scientist, while Earth used to be right in the middle of our Sun’s habitable zone, it is now approximately a million kilometers away from the warm edge.

What does this mean? Well, a lot of people liked using the Goldilocks Zone argument to support Gonzalez’s concept, but now it’s shifted. Does this affect our idea of God?

Not really. It more affects our model of science. It’s worth noting that science never stands still and can always shift and change, causing older theories to suddenly be out-of-date and rendered useless.

So, before you start pulling out all of your science textbooks to prove to your friend that God made the planet, check the facts. Some of the supporting evidence may not be as obvious or fixed as one wants them to be.