Interesting TLS, two pages, 8.5 x 11, New Mexico State University letterhead, February 20, 1981. Tombaugh provides detailed answers to questions posed by Jerry Granat. In part: “The consensus of opinion now is that there is no life (as we know it) on any of the planets in our solar system…. However, there are speculations that there may exist one-celled life organisms floating in the lower levels of Jupiter’s (and perhaps Saturn’s) atmosphere, where conditions may be favorable for such forms of life. But among the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy … there may exist hundreds of millions of planets that have conditions suitable for higher forms of live, even intelligent beings…. The human race is very egotistical, thinking that man is the center of things, and man’s own vanity makes him unwilling to accept the universe as we find it…. There is always the danger of collision with other bodies in space [adding by hand, ‘as evidenced by impact craters’]. As to the danger of hostile alien civilizations elsewhere, we have unwittingly given ourselves away by our radio and TV programs, whose radio waves are spreading outward in space, having reached distances of some sixty light years by now, and may already have been intercepted by some alien planet with powerful enough receivers.” Also included is a brief ANS to Granat on a photocopied review of Tombaugh’s book Out of the Darkness. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope that bears Tombaugh’s handwritten name. In fine, clean condition. R&R COA. From the Jerry Granat collection.
