The Universe

[Porsche]

On the topic of this whole evolution-Aliens thing, don't yuo guys and gals think that we as humans are very insignificant in this universe?

I mean we're one planet, in a solar system of which there are an infinite amount of. There has to be other life that's not that far away. For all we kow, every planet past pluto could be inhabited. This isn't that likely, but we have no proof.

I hope in my time, we'll at least be able to have a manned mission or colony on Mars. I think that all the pictures of possible colonies are the coolest thing. I don't know, I just like the thought of travelling to very far off places.

[JD@af]

Yes I do. We have been able to lots of bad stuff to the earth. We have been able to gauge approximately how large the Universe is, and we continue to revise this estimate. We have sent people as far as the moon. We have sent a telescope through the solar system and beyond to take pictures of what lies beyond our horizons.

Now we can pat ourselves on the backs all we want for what we've achieved, but on a universal scale, I think it is undeniably, undebatably negligible. We've got a lot of work to do before we get the USS Enterprise out there and into service.

[enzo@af]

Just for clarification, our solar system consists of only 9 planets and the sun (and of course, the accompanying moons and other random satellites). But, I really don't know about if there is other life. There is obviously a chance that among the millions of planets in our galaxy, or in the millions of other galaxies, there might be anothere planet similar to ours (or dissimilar, perhaps).

[JD@af]

Astronomers keep finding evidence of the Universe being bigger than was previously calculated, and with their revised size estimates, they keep revising their conservative estimates of the probability of life existing on other planets. Indeed, the chances of no other life existing in the universe are ASTRONOMICALLY small.

...And, in other news...

Wow, look at all these crazy Alien smileys!! Cool!!!

:alien2: :frog: :alien:

I think igor believes in intelligent life on other planets.

[igor@af]

YES I DO :smoka:

[Bean Bandit]

Well as I can think of other forms of life we don't even need similar planet to ours and if not in our galaxy maybe in another there is intelligent life hopefuly intelligent enough to reach us before I die:smoker2:

[Spinner]

I agree, I mean we can't really totally believe that we're the only ones in God knows how much frickin' space. There's just too many unanswered questions to be sure.

[enzo@af]

Yes, I do believe that there is life elsewhere. I was simply correcting the original post which said that we are in a solar system with infinite planets.

I once watched a TV show on TLC with this guy who came up with an equation to see how many earth-like planets there are in the universe. I don't remember the exact number, but it was huge!

[ichthus]

It all depends, really. What most people fail to recognize is that simply finding in the perfect environment, even with all the possible ingredients for life included, does not inherently mean that life will exist there. I've seen the figures you talk about...those that try to estimate the number of inhabitable planets, but I've also seen calculations that make obvious how impossibly rare our environment is.

Really now, do you suspect that every star out there would have even one planet in orbit? Only one out of nine planets in orbit around our sun is capable of supporting intelligent life. Add all the moons and such that movies like Star Wars and Star Trek seems to think could be inhabitable and you'll find that we're one out of how many dozens in this solar system? Now, you'd have to find a planet in exactly the right orbit (nearly a perfect circle, too ovoid and it would be too close or too distant to provide the right temps for the entire year), with a stable atmosphere and all the correct "ingredients" for life, include water, oxygen, carbon, etc. Next we'd have to overcome the impossibility that is spontaneous generation...or life evolving out of dirt.

Given I'm a Christian that holds to Creation as being true, but I see no reason why God could not have created life on millions of additional planets. We are, of course, talking about an omnipotent God.

For anyone that enjoys reading I recommend a trilogy of science fiction books written by C.S. Lewis back in the 1940's. That's the same guy that wrote the Narnia books (The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, etc.). Really interesting books and they're all quite short. They kinda go into a theory that God created life on Mars and Venus. They're not overly religious, so anyone with an open mind could enjoy them.

[Porsche]

Okay, I know there might be osme right conditions but no life. The thing is, we may only know what th conditions are like on the surface. One the bottom of the pacific, there are special types of plants that enjoy living in extreme environments. There are many examples of this all of the world. Now the world's extreme conditions may be more hospitable than some planet's surfaces but we don't know yet what mars' core contains.

[JD@af]

Taking all the points that you mention into account, as I did before, ther chances of us being alone in the universe are still astronomically small. There are so many billions of stars out there with the same age and size and luminence as our sun, that serve as likely candidates for supporting life. What's much more unlikely is civilizations being advanced enough to have the technology to find and contact us. But hey we can hope and dream!!

[Porsche]

I'd rather feel reality but, you're right.

[TheMan5952]

Anyone else heard of the Big Crunch theroy?

[texan]

I assume you are speaking of the collapsing universe theory, which requires that enough mass be in the universe to not only stop it's expansion, but cause it to contract in on itself (which eventually leads to complete universal destruction). At present though, there isn't enough known mass in the universe to cause the collapse, or even the stopping of universal expansion. Of course that's all just theory, but solid based on our current grasp of cosmological theory. Throw enough theories on top of theories and a whole lot of interesting "ifs" pop up .

[Bean Bandit]

The future will show what exist and afterward we're always smarter:bandit: