Warning! Science Content!

[AuntShecky]

Earlier in the week I saw a show on the History Channel which reported that among the billions and billions of planets estimated to exist in the Universe, so far earthlings have only discovered approximately 200 planets
from solar systems other than our own. These discoveries
have only been made within the last decade or so.

Some interesting facts from that show:
--those discovered planets which are not completely gaseous have been found to be rocky OR totally covered with water. So far no planet has been found to be exactly
like earth.

--Most if not all of the orbits of these planets are elliptical;
that means at one point during the planetary year, the planet either comes extremely close to its
home star and thus is extremely hot or gets so far away
that it is extremely cold. Evidently, our more or less spherical orbit is the Goldilocks ideal -- not too close, not
too far, not too hot, not too cold -- just right. A startling
conclusion (so far) is that the spherical orbit, such as our planetary system has, is relatively rare.

--Needless to say, none of the 200 planets found so far is
similar to our earth and none seem to feature the conditions necessary to sustain life ("life as we know it.")
However, the scientists interviewed on the show hasten to
add that given the nearly infinite number of planets, it is
only a matter of time before we do in fact discover planets
similar to earth or those which can sustain life.

Just like saying "I read it on the Internet, so it must be true," remember, folks, I saw this ON TV!

SO-- my question to you, is what do YOU think about this?

Which scenario is more frightening --
the possibility that we earthlings are utterly ALONE in
the Universe

OR

the possibility that we are NOT unique, that we share the
Universe with others on different worlds?




--

[B-Mental]

I'm writing a story on this premise AuntShecky. I post entries on my blog under the sci-fi category...they are sequential. I'm pretty sure that everything you wrote is correct. The odds are that life is out there, but so distant and most likely that they are into a different stage of evloution. Feel free to PM me if you want to privately chat about it, but I've been researching it for my story.

[SleepyWitch]

greetings carbon based bipeds! :alien:

I believe there must be life on other plantes, but as B-Mental said, they'd probably very different from us or in a different stage of evolution.
what's more, they've probably got better things to do than be interested in us.

it would be funny if aliens visited earth, though. I like to think that if aliens visited us I'd love to meet them, but I guess if that really happened I'd freak like every one else, grap a gun and show them the way back home :(

[bazarov]

Maybe they don't need water and oxygen...I would be very sad knowing that humans are the smartest beings in universe. And universe is too big for exploration, so I guess we will never know.

[Lily Adams]

Science?! *ears perk up*

Astronomy?! *eyes widen*


YESSSSS!

Okay, this is how I go by the debate whether there is life out there or not: "If there wasn't, it would be an awful waste of space."

Unfortunately, I think Baz is right, the universe is far too big for us to physically meet these beings. But I think it would be so cool if we only communicated with them via radio waves or such. The Encyclopedia Galactica would be an ideal book to read, indeed.

But the idea of little green men just tickles me. Tickle, tickle, tickle.

There is an equation on how to estimate the probability of other life in the universe based on planet conditions, whether or not the other beings have survived themselves, (one thing we have yet to figure out ourselves) and whether or not they are advanced enough to communicate with us.

I say that even though there is life out there, (I am absolutely positive) life is still so precious, and we are precious because life doesn't just pop up all the time. Things need to be perfect, hence the "Goldilocks ideal". We need to realize that ourselves. We are precious.

I shall have to check out that story of yours, B-Mental. :D

[manolia]

I would be very sad knowing that humans are the smartest beings in universe.

:lol: Me too.
Taking in account the vastness of the universe it is higly unlikely that earth is the only inhabited planet.
Whether extraterrestrials have visited earth...this is another story. I believe No ;)

[B-Mental]

It would almost be magical to me to think that we are the only lifeform that is out there. Baz, you got it right! WoW there must be a smarter lifeform out there. What if there are only, lets say, 30 planets out there that could sustain life...I think it would be mandatory to take life out there and see if it could be sustained. Shoot, even if you just get a germ to thrive, you got something special, mutation will occur and the beautiful thing of life will continue, but I digress.

[crazefest456]

oh my god!! I watched the history channel special on blackholes, wormholes, and whiteholes a few days ago (is it the same one? I was tired from school so I missed some parts..). Anyway, I do believe that there is life in the great beyond, and as others said earlier, I think their intelligence will be completely different from what we categorize humans under-- I don't think they'll be two legged almond eyed creatures with no nose...They might be really small in size, in a different evolutionary stage than us.
That was a cool documentary!

[applepie]

This is why I want the bigger cable package:) I love shows like this. Regardless, I think it is somewhat unrealistic to assume we are the only life in the universe. I do think that we are unique, and I don't belive we'll find other intelligent life exactly like us. Just as not two human beings (barring identical twins) are alike, I don't think any form of life would be exactly like another. I actually find the idea of being the only living things in the Universe frightening. Life is a wonderful thing, whether you are a plant, ameoba, or a sentient being. I would see it as tragic that there is only a single planet that has such miracles upon it.

[Virgil]

You know I used to think along the lines of what others have written here. But over the recent years I've begun to have my doubts. We send out radio signals into the universe and rockets and satilites and all sorts of forms of contact. But we have never detected anything from somewhere else or as that TV show pointed out found a planet that has a similar environment. Now I know the universe is large and there are probably billions of planets, so you would think that one would have life. Perhaps some day we'll find life, but it doesn't look promising to me so far.

I, therefore, am proud to stand as the most intelligent life in the universe!:p :D

On a separate but related note. The odds of complex life like a humans are in the order of gazillions to one, so if life were found elsewhere, that means these odds had to occur at least twice. Such odds are incredible to imagine happening once, but twice? If it did happen more than once, I would think that this would go a long way to believing in God's existence. After all how can these odds happen more than once radomly?

[NikolaiI]

You know I used to think along the lines of what others have written here. But over the recent years I've begun to have my doubts. We send out radio signals into the universe and rockets and satilites and all sorts of forms of contact. But we have never detected anything from somewhere else or as that TV show pointed out found a planet that has a similar environment. Now I know the universe is large and there are probably billions of planets, so you would think that one would have life. Perhaps some day we'll find life, but it doesn't look promising to me so far.

You're still thinking too small. There are billions and billions of stars in our galaxy, and billions and billions of galaxies outside of our galaxy. None of our signals have reached beyond one or two stars by now.

I don't know if I have the size right- that was just how it was explained to me by a buddy who's a little smarter than me.



-----

anyway

i believe there are humans elsewhere. just my belief. i believe there's enough stars, galaxies and planets that not only are there enough earth-like planets to have life, there's enough to have lots of them with humans on them, and the situations that happen here on earth occur elsewhere (if not right now, then along the length of time)-- everything, every person, combination of events, all of that. just my belief.

[AuntShecky]

I liked all of the replies "so far" but the one I most agree with so far is Virgil. I think that it would be indeed more
frightening to realize that we earthlings were the only
"intelligent" (more or less) living beings in the Universe,

but also quite flattering to find that we are UNIQUE!
(which would confirm the belief of those who believe in
God, especially those who subscribed to the order of the
universe in pre-Galileo days.)

but again -- frightening and daunting to think that IF this is the only inhabitable world among the billions and billions of planets that possibly/probably exist , then we'd better get off our um, launching pads, and start cleaning up the place -- eliminating fossil fuels, staving off global warming, etc. If we don't clean house, we're in big trouble
cause there is nowhere else to go --
there's no place like home. Indeed.