Many of you probably have had the opportunity of listening to a truly spectacular symphony orchestra: when each instrument is in tone, the high notes of the flutes dancing on the top, the vibrations of each strings coming off of the violins, the low humming of the low brass—everything is in perfect harmony. Who would have thought that such an orchestra is currently playing on stage just a 100 light years away? A mere neighboring distance in astronomical terms, this grand show orchestrated by the universe has never been observed before—indeed, only about 1% of planetary systems could have performed this amazing ode to nature, embodying all ideals which humans continue to strive for, a culmination of perfection.
The discovery was first made in 2020 through the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Two planets, each about two to three times the size of Earth, were found to orbit an orange star cataloged as HD 110067 in resonance. Although an interesting phenomena in itself, it was nothing unprecedented. Scientists have found seven earth-like planets orbiting in “near” resonance before, HD 110067 had only proven itself to be a more precise group of musicians, with the innermost planet making three orbits in the time that its neighbor would make two. There was no time for further investigation as the target soon disappeared after a month of the initial discovery, and it wasn’t until when another Satellite—Characterising Exoplanet Satellite (Cheops)–came into play that the scientist realized they were onto something special.
A third planet was soon found, and amazingly—it falls into the same 3:2 orbit ratios as the first two planets. The astronomers did not stop there. A quest of unveiling the universe was at hand, and with it, the first chance to prove the ingenuity of design—a proof of perfection that was lacking for centuries. A theory was called for, and without further ado, predictions and calculations were made. With a stroke of luck, when leading scientist on the project Rafael Luque requested the data from Cheops, they found it was a perfect match. Not just two, or three, but in fact all six planets are in resonance with an orbiting ratio of 3/2—3/2—3/2—4/3—4/3. Although the planets themselves do not reside in the habitable zone, with an orbiting period ranging from 9 to 55 days—they are too hot for life to form—it is reasonable to expect a seventh planet on the way which may be in the right condition to support life.
One could not help but draw an analogy: the human effort to achieve perfection, and the universe’s ease at producing six planets in resonance. The former must seem quite futile, minute, even ridiculous compared to the latter. What are we but mere stardust? Mere particles, quarks and electrons in this infinitely large universe? Yet we strive for perfection. We have been striving for perfection since the start of time—as far as anyone can remember, and that almost stubborn pursuit and passion has not dwindled if not increased. We know perfection to be impossible, we know perfection among the stars—imagine all six planets in resonance—to be close to impossible, yet we continue to believe, to hope that maybe, just maybe, the universe would prove us right: perfection cannot be achieved, but can be observed.
HD 110067 is in a sense more “perfect” than our world, yet none of the planets are in habitable zone—no life is found and no evidence to support there will be any in the near future. This perhaps suggests that the foundation of life is not perfection, but rather the lack of it—the imperfection. Life itself is messy, disorganized and unable to be contained within the rigid frame of expectations. Life itself could be said as another name for imperfection, and the search for perfection is really but a search of something outside ourselves—something larger than ourselves. Maybe the lesson of all this was that learning to know the universe is not so different from learning to know our own existence and multitudes, the more we know of the former, the more we know the latter.
Gottfried Leibniz believed that we lived in the “best of all possible world;” Arthur Schopenhauer believed that we lived in the “worst of all possible world.” Clearly, our world is not in perfect resonance: there is war, sickness, and poverty. But I would argue it is also not the worst: the proof being that we are given the intelligence to wonder, the technology to explore and a free ticket to listen to the best orchestra performance in the neighborhood.
