# do you believe there is life on other planets



## nork123

Correct me if im wrong here and sound like I don't know what im on about because im not a very science minded person, but the way I see it with the big bang theory and evolution explanation for life on earth, with the infinite vastness of the universe I find it hard to believe that earth is the only planet that landed somewhere with the right conditions to produce life

What are your thoughts on this idea?, and what kind of theories/evidence are there on this subject?


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## low

What you said really, with the amount of stars and the amount of planets orbiting those stars it's possible.


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## alte

Taking into account the size of the universe and the number of stars in it, statistically speaking, it would be astounding to not have life on other planets.

Going a little deeper, I think simple life forms like microbes probably are common throughout space. On the other hand, life with human like intelligence probably doesn't exist or if it does it is very, very rare.

Couple reasons why I think so.
1. there have been millions (billions?) of species on earth but only one (or few if you consider human relatives like neanderthals) with human like intelligence. This says human like intelligence is almost an accident of evolution and not something inevitable.

2. if advanced alien civilizations exist then we would have seen signs of them by now. Earth has been around for 4.5 billion years with macroscopic life forms atleast 600 million years old, plenty of time for advanced civilizations to reach us and leave signs of their presence. If advanced alien civilizations exist why haven't they contacted us by now?

Also, other signs that we haven't seen like interstellar alien probes, dyson spheres surrounding stars, self replicating machines spreading through galaxies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft


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## sarafinanickelbocker

I think it is possible that there is life on other planets (even if it's not intelligent life...could be that too, who knows). I also think that it is possible that there is no life on other planets. We have discovered signs of possible past life on other planets within the solar system (and moons too, if I remember correctly, so...).


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## Jnmcda0

I don't think we have enough information about how life first formed on Earth to come up with an accurate probability of life on other planets. However, we can estimate the number of stars and, to a lesser degree of accuracy, the number of planets in the visible universe. A 2003 estimate put the number of stars in the observable universe at around 70 sextillion (that's 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000), with at least 10 trillion planets.

Because astronomers have only been able to detect planets for about the last 14 years, we don't have a large enough data collection to get a good estimate of what percentage of stars contain planets. Over 450 planets have been discovered since 1996, with at least one planet, known as Gleise 581 d, in the habitable zone of its star.

Of course, this is also presuming that life could only arise in the same conditions in which it arose on Earth. It may be possible that life could form in other conditions and form on planets that are outside of what would be the habitable zone for life on Earth.



alte said:


> 1. there have been millions (billions?) of species on earth but only one (or few if you consider human relatives like neanderthals) with human like intelligence. This says human like intelligence is almost an accident of evolution and not something inevitable.


I wouldn't conclude that. It could be that human-like intelligence (or even more intelligent species) will continue to develop on Earth and that such intelligence is likely to arise if life remains abundant for a sufficient period of time. I'm not saying that is the case, I'm just bringing it up as a possibility.



> 2. if advanced alien civilizations exist then we would have seen signs of them by now. Earth has been around for 4.5 billion years with macroscopic life forms atleast 600 million years old, plenty of time for advanced civilizations to reach us and leave signs of their presence. If advanced alien civilizations exist why haven't they contacted us by now?


Again, I'm not making a claim, but I'll throw out some possibilities:

1) Advanced alien life has tried to contact us, but we don't have the knowledge/technology to recognize and interpret their message. A related idea would be that they don't think us smart enough to be worth their time to have a conversation with.

2) Advanced alien life hasn't tried to contact us because they don't know we exist. We are so far away from them that the Earth appears lifeless (because they see it as it looked a couple billion of years ago).

3) Life exists, but it is not advanced enough to contact us.

4) It is physically impossible for them to have contacted us. The fundamental laws of physics prohibit them from crossing such enormous distances or sending a signal in time to have contacted us at this point.


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## Keith

I believe there must be conditions appropriate for life somewhere else in the universe whether or not its intelligent life is what i wonder...


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## coldsorehighlighter

There very likely is life on other planets. There could even be intelligent life. 
However, I don't believe there are exact conditions like we have here on earth, which means any life(especially intelligent life) would most likely be extremely odd and different, to us.

I actually believe "aliens" are out there. 
I mean, if the universe is nearly 14 billion years old, and Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago, there could be a planet, with intelligent life, that has been around twice as long as this planet. And if that's true, it's also possible they've become advanced enough to invent something that lets them travel great distances in a short amount of time through space.

And yes, I think God has a reason for this...just thought I'd throw that out there. :b


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## nothing to fear

This is a good video on the subject if you're curious :
Carl Sagan goes through the steps of the Drake equation to determine the probability of other intelligent life forms in the Milky Way galaxy.


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## VagueResemblance

Take the number of planets in the universe, itself rather an educated guess. Then take the number of those that're capable of supporting life. Then take the number of those where the life will be intelligent... and this is the problem with the Drake Equation, it involves entirely too much guesswork, and pulling numbers out of one's arse makes the whole thing rather useless. We do not have enough information to accurately estimate either the likelihood of life nor the likelihood of intelligence.

That said, it's a really big universe and I believe life's started somewhere beside the Earth. Beyond that I don't know anything, can't guess how common it is, whether anything might've arisen in the time between the beginning and now, and if it has why we haven't seen its presence. 

We already might have. Those absurdly-high-energy cosmic rays and the Wow! signal come to mind. Then again, when pulsars were first discovered people thought they were alien manufactured..


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## alte

Jnmcda0 said:


> I wouldn't conclude that. It could be that human-like intelligence (or even more intelligent species) will continue to develop on Earth and that such intelligence is likely to arise if life remains abundant for a sufficient period of time. I'm not saying that is the case, I'm just bringing it up as a possibility.
> 
> *Intelligence could develop in future but going by the past which is more reliable because it involves less guesswork, only one species out of millions has become intelligent enough to think about interstellar travel. *
> 
> Again, I'm not making a claim, but I'll throw out some possibilities:
> 
> 1) Advanced alien life has tried to contact us, but we don't have the knowledge/technology to recognize and interpret their message. A related idea would be that they don't think us smart enough to be worth their time to have a conversation with.
> 
> 2) Advanced alien life hasn't tried to contact us because they don't know we exist. We are so far away from them that the Earth appears lifeless (because they see it as it looked a couple billion of years ago).
> 
> 3) Life exists, but it is not advanced enough to contact us.
> 
> 4) It is physically impossible for them to have contacted us. The fundamental laws of physics prohibit them from crossing such enormous distances or sending a signal in time to have contacted us at this point.


Ultimately, all discussion here is based on guesswork, any solution to the drake's equation is based on guesswork (for now). With a sample size of 1 that is life on earth, we can't do much more.


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## nork123

alte said:


> Ultimately, all discussion here is based on guesswork, any solution to the drake's equation is based on guesswork (for now). With a sample size of 1 that is life on earth, we can't do much more.


Yeah I guess so, its a pretty cool thing to fantasize about though lol


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## BoostedSol

Keith said:


> I believe there must be conditions appropriate for life somewhere else in the universe whether or not its intelligent life is what i wonder...


Exactly what I was thinking. I find it very plausible that live exists in other places in the universe but I have doubts that it is intelligent life. The conditions for intelligent life to develop is enormously thin, our solar system really is an anomaly. Has anyone seen the documentary "the privileged planet"? It is a study of all the conditions that have to be just right for advanced life to exist, and my goodness there are a lot of them.


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## Jnmcda0

max4225 said:


> Yes. I think we've been visited, petroglyphs.


Maybe the people that drew those pictures were trying to draw people, but just weren't very good at drawing. I'd need more evidence than some cave drawings to conclude that aliens have visited our planet.


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## AussiePea

I think the probability of the conditions being perfect to house life are infinitely small, however the amount of planets out there is infinitely large.

So I would certainly think it would be likely, however I don't believe we will ever get proof of it before we wipe ourselves out/get wiped out.


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## nork123

http://www.elakiri.lk/forum/showthread.php?t=202809

this thread is quite an interesting read


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## Xeros

I don't know how you could even say that the probability is small. I think it's a pretty big probability that life exists, I'd even go as far to say that multiple intelligent life-forms exist.

We've only begun to search through space, and really only in our own galaxy. There are something like 10^24 stars out there, many with their own planetary systems. 

Of course there is life out there, and intelligent life. I doubt any of it is close enough to contact us, but maybe eventually we'll have the technology to do so.


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## Belshazzar

(Sorry, just wanted an excuse to post this awesome book cover. As others have posted, speculation about alien life is just that.)


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## CeilingStarer

Jnmcda0 said:


> Maybe the people that drew those pictures were trying to draw people, but just weren't very good at drawing. I'd need more evidence than some cave drawings to conclude that aliens have visited our planet.


Check out the documentary "Ancient Aliens" that recently came out. There is a lot more to it than just cave drawings.

I personally think that we were visited many years ago. The work of a researcher "Lloyd Pye" has convinced me that humans were probably genetically engineered by aliens in the first place. It sounds absurd, but he presents some interesting insights.

But yes, I believe that there is intelligent life out there... probably some basic carbon-based life in our own solar system: moon of Europa for example.


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## Belshazzar

CeilingStarer said:


> The work of a researcher "Lloyd Pye"


Isn't that the guy who dug up some Native American body and claimed it was a "starchild" or some crazy crap like that?


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## CeilingStarer

Belshazzar said:


> Isn't that the guy who dug up some Native American body and claimed it was a "starchild" or some crazy crap like that?


Yeah, that's the guy, but it's far from crazy crap. It is only the mitachondrial DNA which shows up as human... this is basically the DNA of the casing from the Mother's egg. The rest has no human match. Add to this, the fact that the skull has a different chemical composition, is half the thickness of a human, but 3 times as strong (due to unknown microscopic fibres), no sinuses, different neck join.

I mean the DNA test is the smoking gun in itself. I just get annoyed when the mainstream science community try and pass these "fringe" scientists off as whack-jobs, when there's hard evidence backing them up. I mean, if it was pure speculation, sure... but we've got a skull here that fails to pass as "human" on THE mainstream science test.


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## quietgal

It's hard to say since we haven't confirmed any other examples of life arising independently of our own tree. I don't think the large number of planets and the right stew of chemicals necessarily will result in life. You can have all the ingredients together but that don't mean you're going to get a pie. It's not really clear what it is that set off the evolutionary process and turned that stew into life as we know it. If we confirm even just one instance of life arising independently of our own strand, however, that changes things enormously.

Though I personally have a hard time imagining that life is a totally unique phenomenon in this universe.


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## Belshazzar

CeilingStarer said:


> Yeah, that's the guy, but it's far from crazy crap. It is only the mitachondrial DNA which shows up as human... this is basically the DNA of the casing from the Mother's egg. The rest has no human match. Add to this, the fact that the skull has a different chemical composition, is half the thickness of a human, but 3 times as strong (due to unknown microscopic fibres), no sinuses, different neck join.
> 
> I mean the DNA test is the smoking gun in itself. I just get annoyed when the mainstream science community try and pass these "fringe" scientists off as whack-jobs, when there's hard evidence backing them up. I mean, if it was pure speculation, sure... but we've got a skull here that fails to pass as "human" on THE mainstream science test.


Interested in seeing "smoking gun" evidence for myself, I searched around for some material about the starchild and Mr. Pye. Steve Novella seems to have already gotten to this one:



> What about their confident prediction that DNA testing will prove the child was alien? Well, a DNA sample was taken from the skull, and was subjected to DNA probes designed to detect sequences of DNA that are unique to humans (performed by Dr. David Sweet, Director of the Bureau of Legal Dentistry at the University of British Columbia)5. The Starchild skull DNA was found to contain both an X and a Y chromosome. This is conclusive evidence that the child was not only human (and male), but both of his parents must have been human as well, for each must have contributed one of the human sex chromosomes.
> 
> In view of such evidence, Pye and Bean can reasonably be expected to abandon their alien hypothesis, if they were genuine scientists. However, their website continues to support an alien interpretation of the Starchild, and this is what they have to say about the DNA evidence:
> 
> "Another 'far out' concept that must be considered is the reasonable assumption that an alien-human hybrid could have both human DNA and alien 'genetic' instructions melded in its/his/her makeup, with both sets of instructions being active and complimentary and cooperative. In addition, both might be constructed in entirely different ways, with DNA being the basis of human genetic structure and ??? (silicone base, nanotechnology, etc.) being the basis of alien structure. Taking that a step further, both DNA and ??? could be present as full sets-the entirety of human DNA and the entirety of the alien 'genetic' code, whatever it would be- to have both sets available for reference and/or repair."
> 
> Pye and Bean have performed the classic pseudoscientific maneuver of retreating in the face of disconfirming evidence to a more bizarre and untestable version of their desired hypothesis. If a full compliment of human DNA is present, then all tests for humanity will be positive. The unknown alien component may likewise never be detectable. Pye and Bean have now insulated themselves from ever having to abandon their desired hypothesis.
> 
> Regarding analysis of the mitochondrial DNA from mother and child Pye and Bean have this to offer:
> 
> "When the bone was treated like stone rather than bone, it was analyzed and its mitochondrial DNA was recovered. This is the DNA that resides outside the nucleus and passes down from females exclusively. The Starchild's mtDNA was that of a typical Amerindian female, which fits well with our theory that the Starchild was one of the legendary "Starchildren" created by impregnating native women with the seed of Star Beings, however that improbable seeding might have been arranged (naturally or by external, in vitro means) (Pye 2003)."
> 
> There are gaping logical problems with their hypothesis. First, Amerindian female mtDNA might be "compatible" with an alien-human hybrid, but it is also compatible with every normal Amerindian human in existence. Further, if the Starchild's mother was an Amerindian female, as the mtDNA shows (and therefore possessed two X chromosomes), and the father of an alleged hybrid would therefore have to be alien, then were did the human Y (male) chromosome come from? Also, as Carl Sagan once pointed out, alien genetic instructions - the product of a completely different evolutionary past, would be incompatible with human DNA. We would have more luck breeding a human with a petunia than an alien.
> 
> http://www.theness.com/the-starchild-project/


So Pye himself admits the DNA tests showed the skull was human. Hardly a smoking gun.

I also took a look at Pye's website. He's also a promoter of other scientifically credible phenomena such as big foot and yetis. And he's got an entire section of his site that uses long-debunked creationist canards to try to disprove evolution in an attempt to push his Interventionist ideas. This makes much more sense in light of the fact that he is not a doctor of biology nor anthropology. Nope, the guy's not a "fringe" scientist at all. He's just not a scientist, period.


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## OrbitalResonance

Id be nuts not to. 400 billion stars in 1 Galaxy, trillions of other galaixes. Planets in most systems.


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## leonardess

I keep reading this as "life on other pants"


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## Neptunus

Seeing as it's one big-*** universe, I'd be surprised if there wasn't.


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## leonardess

I agree. lots of room for plenty of pants.


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## OrbitalResonance

max4225 said:


> *Odds of Life on Newfound Earth-Size Planet '100 Percent,' Astronomer Says *


That was a very erroneous statement on his part.


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## Amelia

nork123 said:


> I find it hard to believe that earth is the only planet that landed somewhere with the right conditions to produce life


I find it hard to believe that elephants only come in grey. There must be orange and green ones out there too. And I don't believe that there was only ever one Elvis. There are more of them out there.

What I'm saying is that if certain things are unique, the entire planet could be unique.


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## Hello22

Nope i don't buy into it.


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## huh

I'd say the chances are quite high that there is.


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## JimmyDeansRetartedCousin

nothing to fear said:


> This is a good video on the subject if you're curious :
> Carl Sagan goes through the steps of the Drake equation to determine the probability of other intelligent life forms in the Milky Way galaxy.


What Carl Sagan said.

Entirely possible, chances are we won't get to see anything but it's nice just to think about regardless.


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## wjc75225

Yeah. I think it's quite possible that there is intelligent life on some planet far away. However, it would take many light years to get there, so I doubt we'll ever know for sure. At least, I don't think we will know in this life time.


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## honeybear1990

I'll believe it when I see it, but I do think it would be really cool if there was!


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## Same Difference

Alien life is not only probable, but mathematically certain.


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## LatchKeyKid

Not that we have much evidence to go on, but extraterrestrial life seems _extremely_ likely. I'm more interested in the following questions:

*How common is life in the universe?* If life requires _very_ specific, _very_ earth-like conditions to emerge, then it's probably quite rare. In such a case, humanity might _never_ encounter alien life. However, I suspect that life can emerge under a wide gradient of different conditions. I think there's even a significant chance that life has emerged independently elsewhere in our solar system. If that's the case, there's a small chance we'll discover alien life in this century! (Don't hold you breath, obviously, but it's really neat to imagine.)

*What form might it take elsewhere, and would we even recognize it?* Maybe life can only develop from nucleic acid polymers (RNA or DNA), like it has on earth. Perhaps they're the only molecules that can (a) spontaneously emerge, (b) encode information and (c) replicate with high fidelity. If that's the case, then all life in the universe would have to have arisen from RNA/DNA, so life elsewhere would be broadly similar to what we have on earth. But maybe there's another way for life to exist. It could be so radically different that we can't even imagine it. Maybe we wouldn't even recognize it as life!

*How common is intelligent life?* Even if life itself is common, intelligence probably isn't. Out of all the millions of species that have existed on earth, there's only _one_ that has a fleeting chance of communicating with extra-terrestrials. The evolution of that species wasn't inevitable. I think there probably is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, but that intelligent species would be so few and far between that they wouldn't have a hope in hell of ever coming into contact with one another.


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## Polymorphism

Same Difference said:


> Alien life is not only probable, but mathematically certain.


Please explain how it can be certain. While the universe may be infinite, the number of galaxies is surely finite.


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## crayzyMed

Yes, it would be ignorant not to.


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## Classified

Yes, I would bet my life on it. 

Now, intelligent life is another question. And how intelligent....

I still like the quote from the movie Contact. "If there isn't life on other worlds, it seems like an awful waste of space.


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## scriabin221

alte said:


> if advanced alien civilizations exist then we would have seen signs of them by now. Earth has been around for 4.5 billion years with macroscopic life forms atleast 600 million years old, plenty of time for advanced civilizations to reach us and leave signs of their presence. If advanced alien civilizations exist why haven't they contacted us by now?


Hypothetically, say that there is something intelligent out there. What are the chances of them finding us, on fairly small star, in the outer area of the milky way? And maybe they're not advanced enough to travel far distances yet.


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## JFmtl

The universe is so huge, there is gotta be at least another planet where some kind of life has evolved.



fissionesque said:


> Hypothetically, say that there is something intelligent out there. What are the chances of them finding us, on fairly small star, in the outer area of the milky way? And maybe they're not advanced enough to travel far distances yet.


Yeah. There is life on earth, yet we have never visited any star system outside our own and never set foot on anything else aside from the moon.


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## Emptyheart

Yea sure...but I'm staying here..I don't feel like moving all my sh** to another planet.


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## Classified

fissionesque said:


> Hypothetically, say that there is something intelligent out there. What are the chances of them finding us, on fairly small star, in the outer area of the milky way? And maybe they're not advanced enough to travel far distances yet.


Not very good. Even us humans have only putting out signals for 80 so years in the entire lifespan of the Earth...


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## slyfox

I think considering the size of the universe there must be life. I'm not sure if we'll ever find anything though. And if we do it would probably be simple life forms


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## brianwarming

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/nov/HQ_M10-167_Astrobiology.html

"_NASA will hold a news conference at *2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2*, to *discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life*. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe_"
.
.
"_It will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's website at http://www.nasa.gov_"


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## CeilingStarer

brianwarming said:


> http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/nov/HQ_M10-167_Astrobiology.html
> 
> "_NASA will hold a news conference at *2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2*, to *discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life*. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe_"
> .
> .
> "_It will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's website at http://www.nasa.gov_"


ya, this sounds interesting. Some are saying that they've found proof that life doesn't have to be carbon-based. I'm always pretty underwhelmed by NASA news conferences though.


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## turtle19

CeilingStarer said:


> ya, this sounds interesting. Some are saying that they've found proof that life doesn't have to be carbon-based. I'm always pretty underwhelmed by NASA news conferences though.


yea i remember i read from somewhere saying Silicon is a possible base for lifeforms. interesting huh? life coming out of sands. haha


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## Amocholes

turtle19 said:


> yea i remember i read from somewhere saying Silicon is a possible base for lifeforms. interesting huh? life coming out of sands. haha


That was an episode of Star Trek :b


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## turtle19

amocholes said:


> that was an episode of star trek :b


lol!


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## sacred

im not sure but if there is hopefully they are like the borg or strogg..something that will make those googly eyed astronauts **** themselves when they make first contact.


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## amene

Yes, I do. Not sure what thye look like or whatever..but there had to be something. why would there only be one planet with life and the billions, trillions of others not. there are also so many galaxies..there has to be something out there..


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## Arisa1536

My main query on this is
"If there are other life forms out there, why would they want to visit this crappy hate filled planet?" LOL a bit morbid but hey it makes sense


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## Kon

I think if a life form was far more intelligent than us we would probably never know they exist or were all around us. They would be able to fool us, I think. In the same way we could fool many other animals, if we wanted to.


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## Haydsmom2007

yes I think there is most likely life on other planets out there. Intelligent life.


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## imt

It just doesn't make sense to me for there not be life on other planets. Just as everyone has said, the universe is too vast.


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## ValiantThor

look at us, we happened.


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## OrbitalResonance

The vastness of the univerese and life existing elsewhere is a common theme cept in the most hard pessimists.


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## ValiantThor

messages? i think the likelihood of them ever finding our planet is incredibly small, maybe im underestimating their technology, but i think space is just so vast that the chances of us meeting are so little. its an awe inspiring thing to think about though


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## DarkHeartKid

max4225 said:


> Do you think they ever post coded messages on our internet without us knowing?


yea u could be alien in disguise yourself ukno!

anywayz rly interesting thread ppl, i see u very scientifical about whole thing

personally ive allways believed in aliens n lot of other stuff too, that i now facepalm at myself for :roll buut yep i guess im more, how to say..choosey about info now, and not as gullible as used to, so i deff prefer the more scientifical approach on things now, even tho i like magical/wonder way of thinking better :<

anywayz, wut im trying to say, since all that^ ive come to point where im no longer sure about anything n can only be wondering about this or that and since alien topic rly buggs me thats y i wanna ask your opinion on this ppl:

*so liek i saw an ufo, but wut do u think it was? \/*

it was rly silent and dark night, no wind, no nothing, no sound, silence. around 3 am. europe, more at north, country side, near to sea. not too developed country or anything.

so i sat there n gazed at stars n examining sky n basically waiting for aliens lol n ofc i saw bunch of those kinda fast flying dots too, like once there was even 2 of them very close to each other. satellites rly? :/

so yea..n then all of a sudden object flies pretty damn close to where i was (distance approx kilometer high and from me like idk..less than 100 meters probably, well its kinda hard to figure now, since its been like year n it was in sky etc, n idk those measurments, but yea pretty damn close.

it had 4 lights, which is all i could see in darkness. they were flickering, i dont remember in what pattern but i think it was 2 at a time, n seemed as if object was square. well sounds like plane right?

but it was soo silent, no engine sounds or anything, well im not too knowledgable for aircraft development these days, so i hope somebody will finally explain me, can there be plane that gives out absolutely no sound? :/

so yea it was moving at direction where i was, very smoothly, medium fast (idk how to describe) and then just changed direction to left and disappeared in clouds (so it was pretty low in height that it was flying right?)

^ so wut do u think, ppl, was it plane or what lol?


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## ValiantThor

fast flying dots are satellites


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## KennethJones

If you don't believe there are planets with life much more advanced than us then you have a poor grasp on reality. There are planets with beings who are millions of years ahead of us in terms of technology, knowledge, and spirituality. Where is my proof you ask? I have none and don't need any. 

If you understand reality then you will know it to be true. 

We aren't the only ones in this universe. And despite what we've been told, we aren't special either. When compared the various life forms out there i'd say wer'e pretty low on the totem pole.


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## DarkHeartKid

^^ k dots r satellites, whatever u say man but plz read further someone, what is that thing i saw next? is it plane or what? i need to knooow :/


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## ValiantThor

Sorry i shoulda read further, anyway, im not sure anyone here can give you the answer. I feel though that space is so vast, the chances of us acually being visted by aliens in just so small. No living thing can travel to earth from even our nearest star, what would they be doing all the way out here, their home planet would be so far away we cant imagine. If aliens are around here, id bet they need a new home and need resources to continue to live. Meaning, they will take earth. You see what i mean, they would be so far away from their planet if they were here at earth, and that makes me think they need a new home.


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## ValiantThor

So personally i hope we never an encounter intelligent alien life, it could be the end of our race. Maybe I underestimate their ability to travel deep into space, and then return home in little time, maye they do infact use some type of wormhole that would make this possible.


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## Visionary

well, we are not the only galaxy either, there are a few billion out there with their own planets, etc. SO, I do strongly believe that there might be other planets with life forms on them. However, we are not at the point where we have the technology to travel outside of our own galaxy.


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## MelysCariad

KennethJones said:


> If you don't believe there are planets with life much more advanced than us then you have a poor grasp on reality. There are planets with beings who are millions of years ahead of us in terms of technology, knowledge, and spirituality. Where is my proof you ask? I have none and don't need any.
> 
> If you understand reality then you will know it to be true.
> 
> We aren't the only ones in this universe. And despite what we've been told, we aren't special either. When compared the various life forms out there i'd say wer'e pretty low on the totem pole.


Totally agree with you 100% here.

There are too many variables, too many planets, too many galaxies to ever know. But the fact of the matter is, with possibly an endless amount of all these things, what are the chances of there being other creatures on a planet where life can be sustained? Pretty high, even if it is far away. Scientist are even pretty close to possibly detecting evidence of life that once might have been on mars. AND there are many moons throughout our own solar system, (such as Enceladus, Titan, ect) where they think organisms (even microscopic) could be living.

Oh, and hey, what about the theories on alternate/multi universes?

I'd say it's HIGHLY highly likely.


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## astrophysics

due to the vastness of our universe, due to sheer mathematical odds, their is certainly other life out there.


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## farfegnugen

I don't think we have a clue what life is. I am sure we are just a collection of mobile chemical reactions to some genius slime mold looking for true signs of life in the universe.


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## nycdude

yes of course, we can't be the only ones in this Universe.


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## Milco

There is definitely life out there, and maybe we'll find evidence of possible life in our lifetimes, but I'm quite skeptic humankind will ever encounter any non-microscopic life before we are extinct ^^;


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## astrophysics

you never know, though. there are rapid advancements in technology. the things we have today are exponentially advanced to even the stuff we had 10 years ago.


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## That guy over there

I think there is life out there somewhere probably a planet with similar conditions to earth where bacteria can live and small bug like organisms breed.


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## crimsoncora

Hell yes!


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## atticusfinch

YES ... and anyone who says no is just an egocentric!


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## avoidobot3000

> In the past 30 years, however, our knowledge of life in extreme environments has exploded. Scientists have found microbes in nuclear reactors, microbes that love acid, microbes that swim in boiling-hot water. Whole ecosystems have been discovered around deep sea vents where sunlight never reaches and the emerging vent-water is hot enough to melt lead.


I think it is very plausible for life to exist on other planets


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## love is like a dream

According to Giovanni Schiaparelli's map of Mars yes


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## Donnie in the Dark

No. never believe in more than is strictly necessary.


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## Fortune

Yes there may be life out there but we'll never know. not in our lifetime anyway..
My theory is that we are aliens.. we as a species are far more advanced than any other on earth..


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## CeilingStarer

Freezing said:


> According to Giovanni Schiaparelli's map of Mars yes
> I love Science Fiction


AFAIK, Schiaparelli's map never inferred anything about life on Mars. It was a translation error. People just lost the plot and assumed he was sketching artificially made structures.


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## love is like a dream

CeilingStarer said:


> AFAIK, Schiaparelli's map never inferred anything about life on Mars. It was a translation error. People just lost the plot and assumed he was sketching artificially made structures.


Thanks man , yes you are right the word "canali " which means grooves was translated as " canals " , i need to read more about this .. Thanks again ..


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## NikitaMEO

I really believe there is life on other planets. The universe is far too large (even infinate) for there not to be. Maybe the life wouldn't be like our own, maybe just microscopic bacteria, but there has to life out there. I'd be extremely surprised if there wasn't.


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## LeftyFretz

If there was that'd be pretty rad.


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## heroin

I think statistically, it is a distinct possibility. I wouldn't be surprised if extra-terrestrial life was found.

Intelligent extra-terrestrial life though, not sure.


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## Selbbin

Yes. What it is I have no idea. But certainly not the humanoid two armed, two legged, two eyed creatures that everyone loves to believe in.


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## cgj93

Yes, absolutely.


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## TheoBobTing

The size of the Universe is huge. My opinion is that there are probably many Earth-like planets out there, albeit sparsely spread out. Thus, I think it's likely that not just aliens, but intelligent aliens exist. However, I also think it's likely that the intelligent ones are a very long way away from us, making it very difficult or perhaps practically impossible for them to visit us and vice versa.

Hell, there could be aliens capable of reaching us that have decided that they have more pressing things to spend their resources on. Or there could be aliens voyaging towards us on a vast journey right now.


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## ValiantThor

We happened. So im sure other exists far out there somwhere, i wish we could contact it.


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## Spindrift

Yes, likely in the form of a microorganism.


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## Sunshine009

Yes.

This has 10 parts, and another one has 6. The producer tends to physicialize everything, as in no supernatural, just aliens, which is not what I believe, but he shows enough evidence that some of it really does prove earth was visited by outerspace before. I still believe in the universal spiritual laws of Jesus as not a religion but loving common sense.






Okay, want to be freaked out fast?

watch the 10th one, it takes under 8 minutes.


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## Sunshine009

Put on full screen and high volume


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## ValiantThor

I really doubt earth has ever been visited. Just because nobody knows we are here. We are a small tiny rock in floating in galaxy so vast i dont know any type of measurement to describe it. The only way an intelligent lifeform would know of the human race and is by picking up a tv transmission or signal from earth. And we have only been broadcasting since the 40s so the signals havnt made it very far. Maybe they scan space for planets a certain distance from a star much like we are, but even if they found earth and said ''hey this planet might have life on it'', they wouldnt be certain and they wouldnt make the trip all the way out here. Unless they receive some kind of signal letting them know this place has intelligent life. I really hope we never meet aliens, i think it would be the end of our race. Why would they waste their time coming all they way to earth? The only reason i can think of is they need a new home, more resources or something. Its to far to just come here and look at things and then leave.


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## Sunshine009

It's not far at all. Wormholes. Having access to a timetable of them.


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## 390

Intelligent life might be a legitimate possibility. Intuition says probably not, but statistics are not always intuitive, and natural selection might even favour intelligence in some extraterrestrial environments.


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## Choci Loni

N = the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which communication might be possible
R* = the average rate of star formation per year in our galaxy
fp = the fraction of those stars that have planets
ne = the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
fℓ = the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life at some point
fi = the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop intelligent life
fc = the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space
L = the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space.

The Drake equation explains the probability of us detecting signs of intelligent life.
As we have not detected any signs of extraterrestrial intelligent life, it is proposed by the Drake equation that at least one of these constants is very small and functions as a bottleneck.

It could for example be so that the number of planets in our galaxy with the right conditions is very low.
It could also be that the chances of life emerging, even on the right planet, are low.
We do still not understand how the chemical processes necessary for the creation of life actually happened from the very beginning.
Another scenario is that primitive life is relatively common, but the probability that it evolves into a more intelligent form is very slim.
It could also be so that intelligent life is common, but most civilizations tend to think it's safer to not reveal themselves to any other potential civilization.

The most unsettling proposition is that the period of time in which a civilization emits detectable signals is very short. We have only been able to release such signals, and been able to detect them, for a brief moment in a cosmological perspective. Maybe civilizations tend to destroy themselves a few hundred years after reaching this crucial level of technology. Just look at our planet today. Many of our natural resources are becoming more and more scarce, we are rapidly driving a huge fraction of the planet's species extinct and we're pumping out greenhouse gases like there's no tomorrow, literary.
We also have a potential problem in the existence of weapons of mass destruction.

This is sadly, according to me, not a particularly implausible scenario. Genes that are designed to preserve themselves are a product of evolution. For the evolution of all life until this day, it has always been the most successful way for all lifeforms (and their genes) to prioritize themselves before others. Now we've come to a situation where everybody would win if we worked together, but billions of years of evolution have designed us to be selfish. This problem is also known as the tragedy of the commons. As this is as a product of evolution, a fundamental universal principle, this problem could be very common. Maybe there's, say, only a three percent chance that any civilization survives for over a thousand years after reaching the level of technology that allows it to send signals through space.

All of this is, of course, only speculation.

This ended up sounding somewhat like a doomsday prophecy :/


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## CeilingStarer

On some of my recent researching, I think our solar system has a lot of history. I'm leaning towards the notion that we as humans haven't evolved "naturally." We've been visited before. I think that a lot of the "conspirators" like Sitchen etc were/are on to something. Likewise "Who Built the Moon" and some of David Icke's musings seem plausable.

Lloyd Pye of the "Starchild Skull" has recently confirmed that it's DNA (other than mitochondrial) is not human, and is far from anything "of this world." He has 10% of the genome (more than a fair indicator) and basically just needs the cash to map the rest, to please the "extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence" mainstream scientific community.


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## Misanthropic79

Classified said:


> Yes, I would bet my life on it.
> 
> Now, intelligent life is another question. And how intelligent....
> 
> I still like the quote from the movie Contact. "If there isn't life on other worlds, it seems like an awful waste of space.


uke Mr Garrison quote

"Waited to see that entire movie to see that alien, and it was her goddamn father!"

I think the quote from Contact is valid though. Atleast in a microbiotic sense I believe that life exists on other planets.

If intelligent life exists I think it's either behind or around the same stage as us in it's evolutionary chain so unaware of our existence. Or it's further along and smart enough to stay the f**k away from Earth as to quote Futurama, this planet is ruled by a bunch of psychotic apes. We'd end up killing them, we can't help ourselves.

Besides I think amongst any of the space faring species of the Universe, Earth would probably be referred to as "The as*hole of the Universe."


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## Deathinmusic

It seems extremely likely that there would be. Carl Sagan (who was awesome) seemed very sure of it and was a big believer in actively looking for that life. Personally I don't find the search for extraterrestrial intelligence a terribly important enterprise. I guess I can see why some people would be fascinated though.


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## moke64916

Of douse I believe there's other life in "this" universe. It is so vast. So big, ever expanding. You know with the pictures they took on mars, the saw a big echoing of a persons/aliens face carved in it. And structures of pyramids. If you believe in God, do you think he would leave the whole universe only for our civilization to exist? Watch the movie, "them, fourth kind". It's s ome crazy crap. With real life video footage. With the lady that went through the he'll they interviewed her at chapmens university in California. It's. Movie wit.h real video footage of the events that. Took place in Alaska. It also happens to be the number one place for missing people. And the only way to get to the town is by plane or helicopter.


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## Sunshine009

^Yes, I saw youtube videos of pryamids on Mars too.

An old former astronaut said we haven't been back to the moon because it proves there was life there before and its suppose to be kept a secret..


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## ReachinOut

I've done plenty of research on how many things had to go right for life to be available on earth. When you hear how many things fell right into place the odds seem to go against life. But then you factor in just how many stars and planets are out there and it reminds me of the lottery. Yes the odds are way out there and the chances are slim to none. BUT. Someone always wins and I think that is a testament to how life is completely possible out there in the cosmos.


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## Ryoshima

Yes I do believe there is, Will we ever see them? Probably not.


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## Sunshine009

I believe and its just the weirdest thing. But we see all these sci fi alien plots in fiction movies and it almost seems like we are being prepared...


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## Noll

Yeah. Not somewhere close though, and not something that's very like humans. Rather plants or something.


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## Endorphin buzz

I think there is hundreds / thousands/ millions of different life forms that exists that we don't know about. 

I bet there is evidence that is kept from us too prove it.


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## Jcgrey

Yes


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## odd_one_out

Choci Loni said:


> The Drake equation explains the probability of us detecting signs of intelligent life.


Considering intelligent life, whatever the definition of that may be (and only in this galaxy)...

*Find*: N = the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which communication might be possible 
R* = the average rate of star formation per year in our galaxy *(We can estimate this with some confidence)* 
fp = the fraction of those stars that have planets *(unknown)*
ne = the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets *(unknown)*
fℓ = the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life at some point *(unknown)*
fi = the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop intelligent life *(unknown)*
fc = the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space *(unknown)*
L = the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space. *(unknown)*

I don't see the point speculating deeply when the unknowns are so large. Life shmife. Who cares (rhetorical)?



Choci Loni said:


> As we have not detected any signs of extraterrestrial intelligent life


Nor terrestrial.


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## hoddesdon

No


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## One Man Wolfpack

Yes, although it's quite possible that no two life forms from different planets ever meet.

And most life won't be what we consider intelligent, of all the life forms on Earth only one species became intelligent, so it's likely that there are planets with lots of life just not intelligent life.


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## The Lost Boy

^^ yes we are the only species on this planet to become intelligent..but we are just one planet, in a solar system, in a galaxy filled with millions of other solar systems with millions of other planets, surrounded by billions of other galaxys. There is no doubt there is intelligent life out there, possibly billions species that are out there


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## One Man Wolfpack

^^^I'm not saying there isn't intelligent life, it's more than likely that there is, I just don't think that every planet that has life will have intelligent life.


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## kowalskil

low said:


> What you said really, with the amount of stars and the amount of planets orbiting those stars it's possible.


I think so too. But it might be a very different kind of life.

Ludwik Kowalski
.


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## anthrotex

There is potential for life not just on planets, but on moons as well. It was either a couple moons of Jupiter or Saturn where they found liquid. I'd look it up but I just got home from classes so I'm in anti-research mode. ha


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## ugh1979

Endorphin buzz said:


> I think there is hundreds / thousands/ millions of different life forms that exists that we don't know about.


Agreed. The likeliness of it is just too high for it to not be true.



> I bet there is evidence that is kept from us too prove it.


I disagree. There is no way any alien civilisation advanced enough to visit earth is going to get itself spotted by our ultra-primitive technology.

I think something life Star Trek's Prime Directive is followed by all civilisations capable of interstellar travel.


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## ugh1979

One Man Wolfpack said:


> ^^^I'm not saying there isn't intelligent life, it's more than likely that there is, I just don't think that every planet that has life will have intelligent life.


True.

It depends on how long the planet has existed for, along with factors like how stable the atmosphere is, what conditions on the planet are like, how often there has been mass-extinctions, and of course the relevant evolutionary niches appearing.

For example without the KT extinction which cleared out the dinosaurs the **** genus would probably never have evolved, and maybe intelligent life (of our level) still wouldn't exist on our planet.


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## ugh1979

hoddesdon said:


> No


You also believe the earth is only 4,000 years old though don't you?


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## hoddesdon

^ No. It is offensive for you to put words into someone else's mouth.


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## ugh1979

hoddesdon said:


> ^ No. It is offensive for you to put words into someone else's mouth.


I must have you mixed up with someone else then.

Why do you think that life only exists on this planet out of the trillions and trillions of other planets in the universe?

The mathematical chance of you being right is billions to one. Those are some hard odds to go against.


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## komorikun

*Article about SETI*

http://www.slate.com/articles/healt...ms_with_searching_for_alien_life_.single.html



> With its telescopes back online, 2011 is looking like the beginning of a golden age in alien hunting. In previous decades, SETI efforts were horribly inefficient, and consisted of pointing telescopes at nearby stars and briefly listening in for any signals that might suggest the presence of an advanced species.* Now that NASA's Kepler spacecraft has begun to identify planets elsewhere in the galaxy-so far it has found 1,200 of them, of which 54 look like they might have friendly conditions to support life-SETI will home in on these Earth-like bodies in a much more targeted approach. *Though the White House has lately denied having any evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence, the odds of finding an alien civilization out there are about to increase immensely.
> 
> How immensely, though, is anyone's guess, because there is one troubling problem with the search for radio emissions from other civilizations that no number of spacecraft or radio telescopes can resolve. Say, for example, that Kepler were to discover a very Earth-like planet 450 light years away-one capable of holding liquid water and all the other things that, by our present definition, are essential for life. So we tune our (privately-funded) radio telescopes at this star system. *At this point, we're listening for an activity that might have been going on there in the Earth year 1561. In order to detect anything, then, the civilization that exists on this planet has to be at least 400 years ahead of ours. (Likewise, if they were to turn their telescopes on us, they wouldn't hear a thing, since no man-made signals were escaping out of the Earth's atmosphere in the 16th century.)*
> 
> *It's perfectly possible that our fantasy civilization would be 500 years ahead of us-but no more likely than its being 500 years behind us, or 1 billion years behind, or awaiting us 1 billion years in the future. The universe is about 13 billion years old, and Earth's arrival on the scene 4.5 billion years ago did not occur at some divine moment of planet formation.* It's possible that this other, Earth-like planet was at one point dotted with thriving alien cities, that it sustained an intelligent species for millions of years, but that life there winked out at around the same time we humans were working out the kinks in having opposable thumbs. If so, our neighbor's dying signals would have passed us by millennia before we could invent the radio dishes to capture them.
> 
> Astronomers call this the "synchronicity" or "life islands" problem, and it seems defeating except for one loophole: Say that long ago, this neighboring civilization, realizing it was cooked-imminent nuclear war, a dying planet, a robot rebellion, whatever-constructed a permanent radio beacon to outlast it, one that would seed the cosmos with detectable signals long after the species that made it was gone. It could still be there now, just waiting for someone to tune in. Nothing about this is science fiction; in fact, locating an interstellar beacon is the best chance Earth has of finding a neighbor. We just have to know where to look.





> *At press time, the planet Earth has about 5 billion years left before our sun becomes a red giant, probably swallowing us up in the process. *There are any number of ways that our fate could be hastened. The moon could take a hit, throwing us off tilt; we could succumb to a super virus; global warming could bake our planet to a crisp; or we could nuke one another into oblivion. There is a distinct possibility that we are living out the final act of the human race. This is not some gloomy assessment of humanity. It is a basic fact of the uncaring randomness of the universe, not to mention our stunning incompetence at preserving our finely-tuned habitat. As those investment commercials say, it's not too early to start thinking about our retirement.


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## Bots

*Dont care !!*

I am not really interested in the speculation that there may be living species on other planet. I wud rather say that i am more interested in the species of our planet-the beautiful blue planet-Our Mother Earth. Lets try to preserve the sanctity of our planet, before we move on to others.


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## OrbitalResonance

Bots said:


> Lets try to preserve the sanctity of our planet, before we move on to others.


Lets not and burn it to the ground instead.

Gradatim Ferociter Ad Astra


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## Unkn0wn Pleasures

I think it's likely. But I can't see any reason they'd have anything to do with us. Whats the chance they're of similiar size and intelligence as humans.


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## nbtac41

alte said:


> taking into account the size of the universe and the number of stars in it, statistically speaking, it would be astounding to not have life on other planets.
> 
> Going a little deeper, i think simple life forms like microbes probably are common throughout space. On the other hand, life with human like intelligence probably doesn't exist or if it does it is very, very rare.
> 
> Couple reasons why i think so.
> 1. There have been millions (billions?) of species on earth but only one (or few if you consider human relatives like neanderthals) with human like intelligence. This says human like intelligence is almost an accident of evolution and not something inevitable.
> 
> 2. If advanced alien civilizations exist then we would have seen signs of them by now. Earth has been around for 4.5 billion years with macroscopic life forms atleast 600 million years old, plenty of time for advanced civilizations to reach us and leave signs of their presence. If advanced alien civilizations exist why haven't they contacted us by now?
> 
> Also, other signs that we haven't seen like interstellar alien probes, dyson spheres surrounding stars, self replicating machines spreading through galaxies.
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/dyson_sphere
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/self-replicating_spacecraft


im totally agree with your views


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## Josh O

Of course it's all opinion but I find it difficult to believe that theirs NOT life on other planets. There's how many million galaxies? How many billions of planets? It's out there somewhere. I just don't think any of the human population will live to see extraterrestrial life. We are killing our own planet rapidly.


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## 0lly

Yes, but I can't help thinking that any intelligent alien civilisations are going to be so transitory compared to the ages of their respective planets, that any communication with them would be unlikely. And it's probable that only one intelligent species could evolve on each planet in the planet's habitable lifetime, so the window of opportunity where a planet has a civilisation on it which is interested enough and intelligent enough to communicate with us could be fleeting. 

I mean, in the 5 billion or so years of Earth, only for the last 100 years have we made any noise. And whose to say we will continue to do so for any truly significant time. Perhaps civilisations are separated as much by time as they are space.


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## Nightlight

Yes.


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## GenoWhirl

Yes, in this endless space where there could very well be similar structured galaxies like our own, I find it very difficult to believe our planet is the only one that supports life. Within the realms of space our planet is completely insignificant so what makes our rock more special?


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