Westmont professor fascinated by new discovery

Westmont College physics professor Ken Kihlstrom has been reading up on a new discovery reported in Nature magazine.

During an interview near the campus planetarium, Kihlstrom said he was exited to hear about a planet discovered 40 light years away that may be inhabitable.

He said there are dwarf planets around a dwarf star that could have liquid water.

“We have all been fascinated. Is it possible that there is life on other planets? And one of the things, if we could determine there is oxygen in the atmosphere, see it is not that oxygen makes life possible, it is that life makes oxygen possible. Cyanobacteria will convert carbon dioxide into oxygen so when an atmosphere is oxygen rich it really strongly suggests there is life on that planet,” said Kihlstrom.

Kilhstrom expects books to be written and movies to be made about moving the human race to this dwarf star.