Your thoughts about other habitable planets and alien life

[scuffer]

Deep subject ....... best talked over with a beer in hand

[sologuitarist61]

Very true, but does that really matter? Regardless of the distances involved we may well pick up random messages with our radio telescopes that prove there are others out there, and that will be a great driving force to get us back into space in a big way and to begin colonising - after all we cannot get many more people on this poor old globe of ours.

[kuro]

Would love to see an event like happened in the film Contact happen in my lifetime, we can but hope. (only recently discovered that film, very very good watch).

To quote from that movie,

"If it is just us then it seems like an awfull waste of space"

[wella]

Just about the biggest question there is...

If you look at the figures for estimated stars in an average galaxy and estimated galaxy's then you get something like 10000000000000000000000 stars. If just 1 in 100000 of these had a planet in the goldilocks zone then that is 100000000000000000 planets with a potential to go through the same strange steps we have to create life. So for me we cannot be alone. I don't know what it looks like but it mathematically has to be. The same reason I don't win the lottery is that same reason I don't think I'm special.

What does it look like? Well that depends on the local environment. The reason your the height you are is because thats the right height to be for the materials we are built with in the atmosphere and G-force you live under. The scale of any alien life will be governed by the same laws. Could be ant sized more intelligent than you and me very easily.

The elements that make up us and everything will react the same anywhere in the universe (multiverse?)so the assumption that carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulphur are important is probably true. However some of these maybe omitted and some replaced to a greater or lesser extent.

When I was at school 25 years ago we was taught that ALL life relied directly on the sun. Now with the discover of extremophiles and the like it has become that some things can survive in a different environment

Paul

[Capricorn]

They reckon that the milky way has 200,000,000,000 stars in it. Suggest that thoughts of other galaxies are dumped, interstellar distances are one thing intergalactic distances are another.

Our sun is peculuar in that it is very stable, if we add in that life needs a similar type star, G, then the number of suitable stars gets reduced.

Then comes the small bits like the elements the comprise the planet, temperature of the planet, size of the planet.

Mars lost it's atmosphere when the core cooled, lost it's magnetic field and so the solar wind stripped off a lot of its atmosphere. Mars is further from the sun then we are so that magnetic field is vitally important.

There are probably many stars with planets that at initial view have potential for life, but the various small and to us insignificant things that just supply that bit extra to aid life could be missing.

Consider Mars: a planet bit smaller then ours, no crushing gravity, in the zone for liquid water, is around a stable star, even still has an atmosphere. Anyone see abundant life on it?

We know Mars is a planet pretty close to the earth in many respects and actually matches and surpasses every criteria we have for an earth like planet capable of supporting life. At present we still hope to find signs of life, but haven't actually managed to.

[topdude]

Good point about Mars, you couldn't wish for a better candidate for life.

Right type of star, right size, right habitable zone, had water and an atmosphere but had the wrong sequence of random events to allow intelligent life.

There will be countless worlds out there with a similar story.

Face it, we are unique and most likely alone !!

[sologuitarist61]

Good point about Mars, you couldn't wish for a better candidate for life.

Right type of star, right size, right habitable zone, had water and an atmosphere but had the wrong sequence of random events to allow intelligent life.

There will be countless worlds out there with a similar story.

Face it, we are unique and most likely alone !!

Seeing that it is impossible to prove either way - I do like people with an open mind by the way - the arguement is academic anyway. Still, you can't help wondering, can you??

[nckjsmitj]

Limiting thoughts to life based on a carbon compounds and things looking and felling like we do assumes that those formats are the dominant strain throughout the cosmos. If it isn't then life could exist, but to quote a famous Doctor on the telly; "its life Jim, but not as we know it!".

So if that is the case then we may not even know them if we saw them! See where I'm going with this?

[wella]

Right type of star, right size, right habitable zone, had water and an atmosphere but had the wrong sequence of random events to allow intelligent life.

There will be countless worlds out there with a similar story.

If you extrapolate the argument that mars is almost perfect for life but doesnt have any therefore life everywhere else is less likely then just look at earth..... Right type of star, right size, right habitable zone, had water and an atmosphere but had the right sequence of random events to allow intelligent life.

There will be countless worlds out there with a similar story.

[Islander]

If you extrapolate the argument that mars is almost perfect for life but doesnt have any therefore life everywhere else is less likely then just look at earth..... Right type of star, right size, right habitable zone, had water and an atmosphere but had the right sequence of random events to allow intelligent life.

There will be countless worlds out there with a similar story.

And given the infinite nature of the universe, countless worlds with a similar story to Earth's

[ChrisThePuma]

My thoughts on this....

Lots of stars in our galaxy with planets round them.

Lots of other galaxies

There just has to be other life forms out there - whether we will ever get to know about them is another matter completely.

[symesie04]

Well despite the fact that the universe is not in fact actually infinite I still believe life elsewhere in the wondrous cosmological soup is highly likely. Yes yes i know all the arguments about star type requirements, Goldie locks zones, chemical make ups and mars factors but none the less given the huge number of stars in the galaxy alone and what we are now learning about the likely hood of stars hosting planets, it still presents us with many many thousands of planets that likely exist and are capable of supporting life. And thats in our galaxy alone, to that add billions of other galaxies and well the numbers speak for themselves. I actually am utterly convinced we will discover life forms within our own solar system within my lifetime (and consider me as a comparable stage of life to that of the sun). In fact there has been a recent discovery of several bacteria that live in a lake that is saturated with arsenic (a habitat previously thought to be devoid of life). Of the various forms of bacteria that has been discovered in this lake one in particular is causing a bit of a stir. During experiments whereby the levels of arsenic are increased it was found to be so resistant to the arsenic that it has been considered that it may be from a totally different strain of life to all that we thus far know on this planet. If correct this would mean that life has evolved not just once but at least twice on our own world. Just consider the implications this would have for life elsewhere in our universe.