First Planet

The first time I saw a planet and understood what it was I was profoundly intrigued. The planet was Jupiter and it was 1977 - the year both Voyager missions were launched.  Subsequently we have been spoilt with unbelievably beautiful and high resolution pictures of the planets in our solar system. We are also fortunate to reside in a planetary system of such incredible beauty. 

Things could have been worse like it was for the inhabitants of Krikkit, where (if you haven't already read Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams, you can see excerpts here):  "Due to the dust cloud, the sky above Krikkit was completely black, and thus the people of Krikkit led insular lives and never realised the existence of the Universe."  Once they broke through the cloud and "Upon first witnessing the glory and splendor of the Universe, they casually, whimsically, decided to destroy it, remarking, 'It'll have to go.'"

So much of what we rely on and what we believe is based on what we can see. 'Seeing is believing' the adage goes, but having stumbled onto the concept of baryonic, and non-baryonic matter recently and then seeing references to Stephen Baxter's Xeelee, who are described as "The Baryonic Lords" it has made me wonder what non-Baryonic life may look like and whether we would even know about it if it lived right under our noses.