Are we alone in the Universe

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Baked

Baked

Lifer
Dec 28, 2004
36,052
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People have no concept of what the word large means. You want proof? Look in the mirror.
 
So

So

Lifer
Jul 2, 2001
25,923
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Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
The odds would say we can't be
Click to expand...

Why? We don't have nearly enough data to speculate about the odds. How can you make a reasonable guess to the answer of an equation with six terms when you know zero of them with any reasonable certainty.

To me, it seems probable that there is life elsewhere. Do I pretend that this assertion has any basis in science or even a strong footing in mathematical probablity? No.
 
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Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
50,419
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If we aren't alone in this galaxy, it's obviously life forms less intelligent than we are. Not that such a finding would be any less significant....

We simply don't know really, but logic and common sense says that we are most likely not alone on the scale of the entire universe.

It's basically incomprehensible. We're a speck in our own galaxy, and there are what... do we really even have a plausible estimate? Trillions?... of other galaxies?

haha.
 
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EyeMWing

Banned
Jun 13, 2003
15,670
1
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Originally posted by: Eli
If we aren't alone in this galaxy, it's obviously life forms less intelligent than we are. Not that such a finding would be any less significant....

We simply don't know really, but logic and common sense says that we are most likely not alone ion the scale of the entire universe.

It's basically incomprehensible. We're a speck in our own galaxy, and there are what... do we really even have a plausible estimate? Trillions?... of other galaxies?

haha.
Click to expand...

Obviously less intelligent than we are? Obvious based on what? What's to say that they aren't responsible for at least one of the "UFOs"? Because we havn't spotted a radio signal from them in our "exhaustive" sweep of like 1% of the possible area on a very narrow frequency band? Because they havn't taken over yet? Because they aren't blowing us up? Because they havn't made active contact? What's to say there isn't some massive Star-Trek like Federation, and they're steering well clear of us until we're advanced enough to "get it"? What's to say that Gene Roddenberry wasn't one of them and was planted to get the idea of how they work into our heads so we don't freak out THAT badly if an accidental encounter occurs?
 
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MobiusPizza

Platinum Member
Apr 23, 2004
2,001
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If you meant life, sure
If you meant intelligient life, not sure

There are 125 billion galaxies round the universe. Each galaxy would have about 10^11 stars. Each stars on average would have 2-3 planets (not confirmed, but good approximate)
That comes out with a figure of 3*10^19 planets.

What's the probability of a planet being habitable?
We don't know. But we doubt that for simple lfeform like bateria, out of the 3000000000000000000 planets, not a single one can sustain bacterial life. It has been proven that bateria can survive on asteroids and harsh environment.
Again the "bateric" might not be similar to what they are on earth. They may not have cell like structure, they may be just a bunch of self-sustained chemical reaction. But life is just defined by that.

If you mean intelligient life, we don't know. There must be a planet stable enough suitable to habour life for billions of years and allow them to evolve.
However, with conditions we don't know, we are not sure whether Darwin's evolution idea applies or not.
For Astrobiology, we have to think differently. Any weird lifeform is a possibility
So whether a lifeform would come out to be intelligient, we are not sure.
We might never know, given the natural limit of speed of light.
 
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