As some of you are aware, scientists have recently discovered the smallest extrasolar planet to date. The planet, which goes under the name of OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb is roughly 5 times the size of our Earth, and much colder, but given the nature of the technique used to find it (which measures gravitational pull on stars, thereby making it extremely unlikely to find a small planet like our Earth) it is an extrordinary find. It is far too large and cold to likely support life, but my question for you is this. Do you believe we will find proof of extra-terrestrial life within our lifetimes, and what do you think that life will be like?
I think there is extra terrestrial life. I dont think we'll find it in our lifetimes. I think it will be Carbon, simply because out of every 1000000 compounds 999999 are carbon based or some silly number like that, however the subtleties of their chemistry may be different. Although again oxygen if available is likely to be the energy source simply because if gives so much energy. Some processes like photosynthesis are not particularly efficient so maybe some distant world has it better.
I recently read a newpaper that claimed there should be over 60 more planets in our solar system if they continue to discover planetary bodies as they have been as of late--gravitational effects and all that. Imagine that! As for proof, I think that the nature of the universe has done a good job of confirming the existence of extraterrestrial life. Think of it--the universe is infinite, meaning that it has endless possibilites--anything and everything can and will happen. Honestly though, I'm not sure if you, or I, or our kids, or their kids, will ever see these extraterrestrials for themselves, simply because a.) humans as a species are so violent and primitive to any already space-faring races, and they'd never come down and make friends with us and b.) at the rate we're going, we might blow ourselves up first...but, hey, I'm not giving up hope!
The biggest argument against other life in the universe is that "they' are not already here. Know what I mean? There should have been enough time by now -- billions of years -- for some other civizilation to develop star travel and explore all corners of the universe. On the other hand, some argue "they" are here, as in UFO sightings, etc. www.ironghost.wordpress.com www.starcopywriter.com
Not if their space exploration is largely US government funded. Why do we assume that other cultures are going to be so different from our own that they won't have their scientific development crippled by budget restrictions?
Yeah, we had better not do some serious space exploration until the United States Government falls....Otherwise we will have to go to war with Rigel 7 to get rid of their WMDs......or free the Rigelian people......no?........whatabout because Rigelians and Osama are tight and have terrorist links?!
Hehe. Seriously though, part of the reason we're not already living on the moon (which would be at least a step in the right direction) is because the US pulled loads of funding from its space programme. Huge amounts of experience and knowledge was lost with the lay-offs, and now they're pretty much having to start again from scratch. The idea that there are no aliens simply because we haven't seen them yet is as stupid as the idea that there are no humans because the aliens haven't seen us yet.
The things that live on planet earth cannot be the only living things in our universe. Our universe goes on forever, there must be more people or living beings of some sort. I beleive that around other stars are more planets orbiting around them. And most likely on many of those planets are more living things. We haven't found the technology to find them and most likely they haven't found the technology to travel that far through space to find our planet.
