Brand-new view of the world
Tokyo Institute of Technology Earth & Planetary Sci., prof.
planetary physics
“Look, that star has a habitable planet where other forms of life live!”
Imagine a world where you can look up and point to the sky in such a way. It is our aim at the Global COE program “Earth to Earths” to establish the scientific foundations that pave the way for such a new world and to raise individuals who can take on this new aspect of sciences and world.
Humanity once thought that the Earth was at the center of the Universe and that it had a unique existence. However, astronomy has made it clear that the Earth is not the only planet around the sun and that the sun is just one of many stars in the Universe. As new discoveries are made in astronomy, the Earth is relativized from something unique to something that is just one of many, which has forced us to revaluate our way of viewing the world. In recent years, due to a spate of discoveries of exoplanets, we now understand that the existence of planets around stars is nothing unique. In the near future, planets that are similar to the Earth will also most probably be discovered. We might also discover evidence for extraterrestrial life, after which the diversity of planets and life in the Universe will become clear. We are living in this kind of age.
In order to understand the diversity of planets and life in the universe,
which from now will be a major proposition for the natural sciences to grapple with, it is absolutely necessary for there to be multidisciplinary integration between Earth and planetary sciences, biological sciences, and astronomy. We could call this an extension of our understanding of the “Earth” to the many “Earths” that exist in the Universe. As a result, we believe that this will lead to a “relativization” of life in this universe and will result in new changes in the humanity’s perception of the world.
The Global COE program “from the Earth to ‘Earths’” will focus on an environment of “Earths” in which the evolution of life is made possible, striving to build a fundamental theory of life on “Earths” throughout the universe, based on the deep understanding of our “Earth.” Also, it will strengthen cooperation between multidisciplinary sciences. This will promote education that develops human resources with broad horizons with the aim of creating a next generation of researchers who pioneer interdisciplinary and complex sciences to solve society’s problems of a global magnitude in various fields.