“If we were visited some day, I wouldn’t be surprised,” Bill Clinton told Jimmy Kimmel last night. “I just hope it’s not like ‘Independence Day’ … It may be the only way to unite this aggressively divided world of ours … Think of how all the differences among people on earth would seem small if we were threatened by a space invader. That’s the whole theory of ‘Independence Day.’ “
Watch the whole clip. As usual, Clinton also mixes in some plainspoken erudition. He’s probably excited about news released today that planetary scientists have confirmed that Saturn’s fourth largest moon, Enceladus, is home to a sea the size of Lake Superior. That might make Enceladus the most promising place to find extraterrestrial life in our solar system. From the New York Times:
The discussion on the possibility of extraterrestrial life in the solar system centers on four bodies: Mars, Enceladus, Jupiter’s moon Europa, and Titan, another moon of Saturn.
Dr. McKay, who was not involved with gravity measurements, noted that only Enceladus was known to possess the four essential ingredients for life, at least as it exists on Earth: liquid water, energy, carbon and nitrogen.