Do you think that there are other worlds orbiting the stars?

[cloud_doll]

I'm just asking, I'm studying to be an astronomer and when you think about it, if each star is as big as our sun, then there are planets orbiting them. Could there be life on those planets? If so, what do you think they are like?

[Zeromus_X]

More than likely. The universe is pretty big (from what they tell us.), so it'd be pretty boring if we're the only life here. :cat:

[Luther X-Rated]

I guess that would be possible, but then it could be like Independence Day
all over again. Were going to have to rely on Will Smith to save our butt's.

[TheSpoonyBard]

Were going to have to rely on Will Smith to save our butt's.
We're doomed.

Given the size of the universe and the sheer number of galaxies/stars/planets, I say that it's highly probable there are other inhabited planets out there somewhere.

[Ouch!]

Isn't there some law that says every event can be perfectly reinacted at least once? So that would mean there could be another planet exactly like ours.

I doubt a planet needs to be exactly like ours to support life, though. If there is other life out there, which I think there probably is, I doubt it'd be anything like life on this planet.

[Madame Adequate]

70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars currently thought to exist in our universe.

You try and tell me that we're the only ones. Just try it.

But not all stars are the same size as our sun. Very few are. Still, most stars have a reasonable orbital area which is judged to have the right conditions for life. (Though some would say this is a prime example of carbon chauvinism.)

The real questions arise in the following forms;

How many races are within a distance we can reasonably make contact with?

How many races are within a distance we can reasonably travel to? (Largely this depends on whether or not there is a maximum speed limit, and whether or not we can circumvent it.)

How many races are within a recognizable span of evolution, both scientific and cultural? (Sure, we could probably work with a species with the equivalent of 10,000 BC quite easily, but 1,000,000 BC? Similarly, the future might offer even smaller scope - just a few thousand years could grant so much technology as to change a race beyond recognition. On a cosmic scale, it's unlikely we'll find many races close to our own, in this regard.)

How many races survive until the age of radio broadcasts, and how many of those until the space age, and how many of those survive until they establish self-sustaining colonies on other worlds? (Which I consider the point when a race has guaranteed survivability. A natural disaster of anything smaller than a star dying wouldn't take them out.)

But they are out there, I will stake anything on that. The chances of aliens not existing is so ridiculously remote as to make the question an exercise not in probability, but in comedy.

[fantasyjunkie]

I have to agree with MILF on this one.

[Slade]

Each star is as big as our sun? Try way, way bigger. Stars can range from tiny to whopping big. Our sun is one of the smallest known stars if I remember rightly.

[Alive-Cat]

Hmm, I thought our sun was one of the biggest? (Or at least one of the biggest known)

[starseeker]

Our sun is in the middle of the temperature range and is one of the smallest stars in the middle of its life (dwarf stars are at the end of their life). A bigger star would just have the area where liquid water is further out.

[Alive-Cat]

Our sun is in the middle of the temperature range and is one of the smallest stars in the middle of its life (dwarf stars are at the end of their life). A bigger star would just have the area where liquid water is further out.
starseeker is the master of this subject, he seeks them proffessionally! :love:

[Cz]

There are almost undoubtedly other lifeforms out there in the universe somewhere, for the reasons Mr. MILF has already stated. That said, the chances of them actually contacting us are pretty remote too, so I doubt we'll be partying with the greys any time soon.

[Captain Maxx Power]

Actually, mathematically speaking, it's not unreasonable to assume that there are no other forms of sentient life in the galaxy, though there are most certainly other forms of life out there. We know of bacteria once exsisting on Mars from fossils found there, and it's theorised that comet's ice may contain bacteria also. However, in terms of multi-cellular life, the probabilities are extremely low. I can't remember the name of the theory, but I believe the technical number of planets that can support life in our universe is 10^-31 (that's 0.0...etc. with about thirty zeroes added on). That is a VERY low number indeed, well below zero infact.

So yeah, despite there being so many planets, chances are we are quite literally alone. Other galaxies possibly, but certainly no "next-door neighbours"

[Cz]

Actually, mathematically speaking, it's not unreasonable to assume that there are no other forms of sentient life in the galaxy, though there are most certainly other forms of life out there. We know of bacteria once exsisting on Mars from fossils found there, and it's theorised that comet's ice may contain bacteria also. However, in terms of multi-cellular life, the probabilities are extremely low. I can't remember the name of the theory, but I believe the technical number of planets that can support life in our universe is 10^-31 (that's 0.0...etc. with about thirty zeroes added on). That is a VERY low number indeed, well below zero infact.If you're talking about the Drake Equation, most of the values used to determine the total are based on assumptions rather than any hard evidence, since anything on the scale of the universe is nearly impossible to quantify to a reasonable degree of accuracy. To trust that such a system would give a reasonable projection of the number of sentient lifeforms in the universe would be foolish.

[Alive-Cat]

Well, (I start almost every post with well,) I heard one time that if Aliens could somehow see this planet or something, from wherever they are, we would still apear as we were many, many years ago. Something about how light travels through space. So technically we'd still seem like very primitive beings to them, and probably wouldn't interest them.

[McLovin']

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away...

[cloud_doll]

Each star is as big as our sun? Try way, way bigger. Stars can range from tiny to whopping big. Our sun is one of the smallest known stars if I remember rightly.
I know that, I was just saying their not as small as we see them. I told you, I just started astronomy class, I know about the different types of stars.

But I think that all the UFO's and such are just lives on another planet that our WAY ahead in technology then we are.

[Evastio]

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away...

STAR
WARS!!!!!!!

Sorry. :) I couldn't resist the urge to do that.

To stay on topic I have to agree with Maxx Power. The only outer space lifeforms would probably be bacteria and single-cell organisms. Multi-celled organisms would probably live way too far from us for us to notice.

[theundeadhero]

All of that is theory that noone can prove.

How do we know that the universe isn't round and that the farthest we can see with the most powerful telescope one way is only one foot from the farthest we can see in the opposite direction. We would never know. I'm sure someone is going to get cocky and say blah blah this says this, but they can't prove it anymore than I can prove what I just said.

But the galaxies are expanding? Maybe it's the things inside this round universe moving around, instead of staying in the same spot.

But the stars are millions of miles away? Prove it. Maybe they are really small and just burn hot enough that the light reaches this far.

Yeah, whatever.

[XxSephirothxX]

Absolutely. If there isn't life on at least one other planet in the entire universe, I'll eat Neel's hat. With such an inconceivably massive area, it's just illogical to think that we're the only living creatures out there.

[starseeker]

There could be more advanced aliens out there because our solar system has a middling yellow sun in the middle of the first part of its life, not yet at giant stage. Other stars are much older and could have had planets and life existing for longer so more advanced alien races could have arrived.

(And for the record, Darth Immortal, I'm a girl)

[DarkLadyNyara]

Given the size of the universe and the sheer number of galaxies/stars/planets, I say that it's highly probable there are other inhabited planets out there somewhere.

Yeah, I agree.

Hmm, I thought our sun was one of the biggest? (Or at least one of the biggest known)

Not by a long shot.

Even if there is life on other planets (and there probably is), it's unlikely that we would be able to contact them. Let's face it, the universe is pretty damn big. Also, they most likely wouldn't be able to survive on earth, or earthlike conditions.

[escobert]

Actually, mathematically speaking, it's not unreasonable to assume that there are no other forms of sentient life in the galaxy, though there are most certainly other forms of life out there. We know of bacteria once exsisting on Mars from fossils found there, and it's theorised that comet's ice may contain bacteria also. However, in terms of multi-cellular life, the probabilities are extremely low. I can't remember the name of the theory, but I believe the technical number of planets that can support life in our universe is 10^-31 (that's 0.0...etc. with about thirty zeroes added on). That is a VERY low number indeed, well below zero infact.If you're talking about the Drake Equation, most of the values used to determine the total are based on assumptions rather than any hard evidence, since anything on the scale of the universe is nearly impossible to quantify to a reasonable degree of accuracy. To trust that such a system would give a reasonable projection of the number of sentient lifeforms in the universe would be foolish.

and the drake equation says that there are 7,000 earth liek planets in the universe.

Oh and I think about this stuff every waking moment I can. srsly

[cloud_doll]

Oh and I think about this stuff every waking moment I can. srsly
Same Here

[Shoden]

*plays star wars theme* Life may exist somewhere else but they aint been here, Theory of Relativity kinda proves it.

[Vyk]

The theory of relativity misses one important factor. It puts a limit on one thing and assumes that limit is also static. That's like saying you can't create anything hotter than 10,000 degrees. There's no limit to heat, except for the lack there of. Just like light intensity. After a while it all blinds you the same. But the only limit is absolute darkness. Just like mass. Though after a certain point it's inconceivable to imagine, it's still possible. The only limit is absolute emptiness. Speed I would assume works the same way. The only limit is really standing completely still. I think it's possible to go faster than light. It just might be impossible for us to actually accomplish that. But then the laws of physics supposedly kinda break down so who knows how that would work. Then bring in worm holes ^_^ In a million years we could totally visit life on other planets.

But I agree. The bigger question is whether or not that life is sentient and technologically advanced enough to care about. Also its assumed most life has to meet the goldy-locks zone requirements. i.e. earth and human living conditions are "just right". It hard enough to find life at all. Let alone something else out there that's just right for their conditions. Also, we focus on finding carbon based life forms. We assume that other life has to develop under the same limitations that we did. And I'll skip all the technical jarble, but for the most part they're right as far as I know. I saw something on this, and the only other base they could think of was silicon I think. And that possibility would have merely created rigid crystaline plant-like things. Not something we could eventually communicate with.

But I totally think there's other life out there. And I really hope at least one other life form is sentient.

[eestlinc]

the reason you can't travel faster than the speed of light is because mass converts to energy at speeds that high.

[Crehan89]

Each star is as big as our sun? Try way, way bigger. Stars can range from tiny to whopping big. Our sun is one of the smallest known stars if I remember rightly.

The closest star to earth after the sun is a star called Proxima Centauri which is around 4.2 light years away, seeing a light year is how far light travels in a year (makes sense) that star is some way away. But there are others, when you look up at the stars in the sky, some are much much much further away. Some of them probably are not there anymore, they have died and what we see is how the star looked like light years ago. So i say there is life out there somewhere. It's just finding it in time.

[Madame Adequate]

Each star is as big as our sun? Try way, way bigger. Stars can range from tiny to whopping big. Our sun is one of the smallest known stars if I remember rightly.

The closest star to earth after the sun is a star called Proxima Centauri which is around 4.2 light years away, seeing a light year is how far light travels in a year (makes sense) that star is some way away. But there are others, when you look up at the stars in the sky, some are much much much further away. Some of them probably are not there anymore, they have died and what we see is how the star looked like light years ago. So i say there is life out there somewhere. It's just finding it in time.

Well, consider that our sun isn't due to stop doing it's sun thing for something like 4.5 billion years. I'm fairly confident that after that length of time, we will have figured out a way of taking care of ourselves in some other way. If intelligent life gets even a few million years, it will most likely be able to ensure a situation where it will survive.

[Captain Maxx Power]

A lot of people seem to have me confused:

Galaxy = The Milky Way = Where we are
Universe = Everything at all

I never said that the equation said there was no life in the UNIVERSE, I said it claims that there is no life in our GALAXY. There's a big difference. There's almost as many galaxies in the universe as their are stars in our own galaxy. So even if we are the only ones in our galaxy, then logic would dictate there's at least one sentient lifeform in each galaxy. Problem is the distance between the galaxies is so insurmountable that attempting to contact each other is out of the question.

And for the record, the first transmission capable of being picked up by aliens would be an address by Hitler. Fitting that one of histories greatest monsters would be the first signs of intelligent life seen on our planet. I'd imagine based on that we're the planet everyone avoids. :rolleyes2

[starseeker]

Our galaxy has 200 to 400 billion stars in it so no matter how low the odds, there must be life out there somewhere and if there isn't any race that has faster than light travel (needed to reach us), could probably travel between different galaxies. Very big numbers make even miniscule odds possible. Its harder to prove that life doesn't exist in the galaxy, universe whatever than that it could exist.

I'm sure radio broadcasts predate Hitler by about 20-30 years.

[escobert]

[QUOTE=starseeker
I'm sure radio broadcasts predate Hitler by about 20-30 years.[/QUOTE]
No, Hitler sent the first radio broadcast.

[Levian]

I hope there's life out there. I'm getting tired of regular food.

[Madame Adequate]

QUOTE=Bert]No, Hitler sent the first radio broadcast.[/QUOTE]

WTF are you people on? Radio was invented before Hitler was even born.

[Vyk]

I bet Bert's smoking sarcasm, if you get my drift.

Unless I missed something in history class. I know Hitler saved Germany's economy. But I never heard him praised for any special radio broadcasts

[escobert]

I smoke everything. Hitler didn't obviously send the first radio wave, he sent the first like worldwide message from the 30 something olympics. It's what most people believe eas the first type of message sent onto space form earth.

[Vyk]

Wow. I hate my school now. I never heard anything about that.

[escobert]

Yeah they say that if alien races were to pick uo radio signals from earth, the first person they would see would be Hitler xD. Maybe it was video he was the first to send. something liek that. :/