Life in the Universe, Yes or no, maybe?

[AbysmalNature]

I know I know this is not my usual silly crazy cooky topic, but occasionally, very occasionally, I do post some type of serious topic, and this is mine for the week.

Now I do not know how many people are interested in the topic, but do you believe life is out there, intelligent or not, is it possible, do you think it is real, and please state your reasons why, trying of course to keep the spam, comming, or slurring to a minimum, because our dear poor moderator Mr. Sleep is getting rather down about the lack of content in the threads.

In any case this is my attempt to bring some degree of seriousness to the boundaries of SYM.

Life is a very adaptable organism, it has existed for millions of years, gone through several major extinctions, it has been found in the Earth's mantle, in hot acid beds, and even some believe it or not in the core of a nuclear reactor. Most recently some scientists at NASA had even believed that they had discovered it from a meteorite on mars, though the jury is still out there on that topic. There are several different spots where some people think life might be possible in our Solar System, be it on Mars, say in underground springs, or under the icy shell of Europa out around Jupiter, heated by deep sea vents, yes there is a ocean of water under Europa. Some scientists, admittably it is just speculation, have even suggested that out by the moon Titan, where our omnipotent SS lives, that life might have evolved or at least will evolve in its icy depths when our sun evolves into a red giant melting the ice and jumpstarting evolution.

Some other information, There are more planets outside our solar system then have been discovered inside, something like over a hundred I think.

But in any case do not be intimidated by the science stuff just participate in however way you see fit, hopefully this should be a sufficiently interesting topic for even the living dead of SYM to move toward the sound of smarts, brains brains brains, you know, by smarts I mean conversation of course.

If anyone can post threads, links, and/or information this thread is always open for it or even speculation, learn something new maybe. So anyway post away, please post, I put the poll up because I thought it would be interesting to know.

You know I hope you all aren't just lurking, speak speak don't be shy.

AN pulls out his antilurking trap, it's cavernous belly dripping with acid, hah any lurkers caught in there will definitely die horrible agonizing deaths unless of course if they don't post here.

[dragon wench]

I don't see how there could not be life elsewhere in the universe. Astronomers and physicists have only mapped a very small segment of the universe; for anyone to claim that this planet is the only place in the cosmos to foster life is both arrogent and ignorant.

I also believe that "intelligent" life exists beyond Earth, why wouldn't this be the case?

[Aegis]

Definatly. Just because "intelligant" (Alienbob doesn't count ) hasnt been here yet, that doesn't mean it's not out there. All we have to do really is hunker down, and wait for someone to come to us, or for us to become capable to go find them.

[Nightmare]

I actually read in a magazine that there is a "ring" in the galaxy; its the only place were planets will be habitable for life. Its basicly a ring around the center, inbetween the center of the galaxy and the fringes. So only about 1/10th of the galaxy can have habitable planets (or so we believe). But thats still millions and millions of stars, with many, many planets. So why not?

[AbysmalNature]

Anybody familiar with something called the Drake equation, it essentially is a equation which attempts to define how many intelligent civilizations are in the galaxy, basing it on what type of stars form, whether planets form, whether Earth like planets form, whether or not life forms formed, how long the life form existed, whether or not the planet developed intelligence, whether or not that intelligence developed technology(i.e. say for example dolphinic intelligences), and how long that civilization lasted, whether or nor it was wiped out by natural disasters or by their own stupidity, anyway I found it interesting.

Gax I read about that article, pretty fascinating article, though I can't place where I read it could you throw me a hint where you found it.

[Mr Sleep]

Why is it that everyone presumes that a life form from outer space would be any more advanced than ourselves. Surely it is more likely that they are just as poor in outer space as the human race is.

As for life in the universe...it is possible.

[Nightmare]

@AN, it was either a Scientific American or an Astronomy magazine.

[Aegis]

Quote:

Originally posted by Gaxx_Firkraag I actually read in a magazine that there is a "ring" in the galaxy; its the only place were planets will be habitable for life. Its basicly a ring around the center, inbetween the center of the galaxy and the fringes. So only about 1/10th of the galaxy can have habitable planets (or so we believe). But thats still millions and millions of stars, with many, many planets. So why not?

Yes, but how do we define the centre of the universe?

[Waverly]

This question is addressed by the Drake Equation, which you may be familiar with. Essentially, the equation is weighted by the exceedingly large number of stars in the galaxy, and despite the remoteness of the other terms in the equation, normally results in an affirmative (non-zero) answer. Read about it and try it out here: http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious..._equation.html

[Weasel]

Quote:

Originally posted by Mr Sleep Why is it that everyone presumes that a life form from outer space would be any more advanced than ourselves. Surely it is more likely that they are just as poor in outer space as the human race is.

Why? So we can feel there is so hope, someone who can show us a better way.


Take early America, A new hope, a new land. Something some could look forward too. Nowadays there is no much to look forward to. So the super advanced Aliens come and with them comes new hope, something to look forward to. With them would come possible faster ( what ever you want to call it) travel, meaning Planets could be colonized.

[Aegis]

Quote:

Originally posted by Weasel Why? So we can feel there is so hope, someone who can show us a better way. Take early America, A new hope, a new land. Something some could look forward too. Nowadays there is no much to look forward to. So the super advanced Aliens come and with them comes new hope, something to look forward to. With them would come possible faster ( what ever you want to call it) travel, meaning Planets could be colonized.

It's the ever increasing expectations of human nature. We want to find someone out there because it will be new and exciting, but after a time, it will become passe, and old, thus making us expand our expectations even further.

[AbysmalNature]

Not the center of the universe, but the center of the galaxy, somewhat similar to the habitable zone for a planet, but instead applied on the galactic scale. The center of the galaxy would be that point right in the middle, which would be almost right at the massive black hole which is presently sucking in the entire galaxy right now.

There have been some other thoughts made about habitability of planets, for example among most scientists, the general assumption is that life can only exist around what are called G class stars(stars like our own Sun but in a varying range), or in the very low margins of error K class stars. That would put the closest star or stars with the necessary requirements for life at alpha Centauri, which has two G class stars, and one M class or red dwarf, and that is only at about 4.5 light years away. The next star after that is epsilon eridani, which is a K class star at about 10.7 lightyears away, and after that the next G class star is Tau Ceti at 11.9 lightyears away. This is of course not to say that there is not life in other stars, just that for our type of life these systems represent the best chances so far for life.

Each one of these stars might hold life, of at least some primitive sort, and might even in the future be sights for a eventual human colonization of those systems. Sorry if this is to much information, I usually talk about this stuff at space.com, but I thought it might be interesting to know.

As to the center of the universe, believe it or not, there is no center of the universe according to modern day physics anways. For my explanation I will use a demonstration, for simplicity's sake I will use a balloon, picture a balloon, think of the universe as that balloon, and ever point in the universe is a part of that balloon, as a I blow on it, it begins to expand outwards, each point in the universe extending outwards away from each other, I blow further into the balloon until it is completely inflated, now where is the center of the universe, answer there is no center, never will be, until of course the big crunch brings the whole mess flying back into one incredibly hot singularity, or maybe not there is some evidence to indicate that the universe is open(which means it will expand forever), this means that in time it will cool and cool, energy becoming more and more spread out until the universe dies of what is called heat death, eventually the protons would decay into nothingness, and eventually perhaps a quantum vacuum fluctuation would restart another cycle.

In a way it brings to mind that poem by Frost I think it was, if not correct me, something like this Some like the cold, some like fire, of the two by far I like the fire, please would somebody try and get the poem before I mangle it any further.

Sorry for going of on a tangent, it appears its the way my hayseed mind works.

[Aragorn Returns]

you know, if the universe is as big as they say it is (i don't see why it wouldn't be) then i'd say there's a pretty good chance that there is life on other planets. intelligent life is less likely, but there's still a chance.

[Mr Flibble]

There has to be life out there somewhere. The universe is just too big to for us to be an anomaly. As DW said it would very ignorant and arrogant of us to think we are the only life in the universe.

Has anyone considered this though: There is plenty of intelligent life out there, they're just avoiding us?

[Weasel]

Quote:

Originally posted by Mr Flibble Has anyone considered this though: There is plenty of intelligent life out there, they're just avoiding us?

If (as most claim) their so smart, that is exactly what they are doing.


Would you (if your an alien) want to come down here and get involved in the mess we have?


The smart choose, take a right at the moon and keep going.