Huge breakthrough in search for Alien Life as NASA detects gas on exoplanet associated with life

a reply to: AlienBorg

Yes, it's actually inversely proportional to the square of the radius of the planet. If the same mass is concentrated in a larger radius the value of the gravitational field will decrease according to the inverse square law.

The way the evolutionary process works is affected by many factors not just the gravitational force. How the planet spins and whether it has any moons play very important roles.

The way evolutionary processes work on other planets has yet to be determined.

But i think its a safe bet that there is going to be somewhat divergent qualities compared to here on Earth if indeed life happened to emerge.

Given the numerous different factors at play aside from just surface gravity.

a reply to: andy06shake

It may well be that alien life may well be so alien as to be unrecognisable as such to us carbon based units?

a reply to: Oldcarpy2



This is the thing carpy2 we are only really just beginning to understand what constitutes life here on Earth never mind another planet 120 lightyears distant.

Life could indeed be so outside our scope of understanding it would indeed be unrecognisable.

a reply to: andy06shake

Indeed. We just assume life means it has to be on Earth type planets with oxygen and water.

Yet here on Earth we have life in boiling deep sea fumeroles.

Maybe, it can exist on Moons of Saturn or Jupiter in seas of liquid methane or even inside stars?

Life, will find a way.

a reply to: Oldcarpy2

Life, will find a way.

In an infinite universe with infinite combinations and diversity, I'm sure life is apt to arise.

Whether or not that's more often than not, or if my daft Vulcan quote i just plagiarised holds any weight, remains to be proven conclusively.

But it would be sheer arrogance to imagine we are the only life given the grand scale of it all.

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: Oldcarpy2

Life, will find a way.

In an infinite universe with infinite combinations and diversity, I'm sure life is apt to arise.

Whether or not that's more often than not, or if my daft Vulcan quote i just plagiarised holds any weight, remains to be proven conclusively.

But it would be sheer arrogance to imagine we are the only life given the grand scale of it all.

It's very very unlikely we are the only planet capable of holding life. In the past for example Venus and Mars were able to sustain life and most likely life existed there billions of years ago. Even now you may find microbial life on both planets.

As for the Universe, it's not infinite in size or mass, it's finite and its diameter is about 8.8 × 10^26 m or 93 billion light years. But the amount of galaxies is just enormous. Some have estimated around 2,000 billion galaxies each having on average 100 billion stars and at least the same amount of planets (probably many more).

If we currently want to look for like then our solar system can offer many clues. The biggest clue is a moon of Jupiter, Europa, that has twice as much water as here in Earth, and it's an ocean planet more or less. NASA has planned a number of missions as it's very likely we find something interesting there.

a reply to: AlienBorg

It's very very unlikely we are the only planet capable of holding life. In the past for example Venus and Mars were able to sustain life and most likely life existed there billions of years ago. Even now you may find microbial life on both planets.

That remains to be established conclusively but i tend tend to think along the same lines however you are suggesting some things that have yet to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

You seem to be speculating somewhat and presenting it as fact.

We don't know if Venus and Mars ever produced life because the fact is we don't conclusively understand or comprehend how life emerges hence to suggest both worlds we capable of sustaining life billions of years in the past might just be wishful thinking Goldilocks zones or otherwise.

As for the Universe, it's not infinite in size or mass, it's finite and its diameter is about 8.8 × 10^26 m or 93 billion light years. But the amount of galaxies is just enormous. Some have estimated around 2,000 billion galaxies each having on average 100 billion stars and at least the same amount of planets (probably many more).

The observable universe is estimated to have a radius of about 46.5 billion light-years.

Meaning the farthest objects we can observe or detect are about 46.5 billion light-years distant in all directions.

As to the size of the actual universe, far as i can establish it's not something we are ever going to be able to measure or observe with the current technology we have at our disposal, or from down here on planet Earth, hence to suggest that it's not infinite in nature equates to a guess.

If we currently want to look for like then our solar system can offer many clues. The biggest clue is a moon of Jupiter, Europa, that has twice as much water as here in Earth, and it's an ocean planet more or less. NASA has planned a number of missions as it's very likely we find something interesting there.

In our own solar system, the best bets for finding "life", or at least the conditions we think are conducive to life, are primarily focused on Mars, and like you suggest certain moons of the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn.

With Europa, Enceladus, and Titan being the best prospects for finding life or conditions that could support life.

Here is a thought, considering the visible matter we can detect, stars, galaxies, planets, etc, makeup around only 5% of the actual observable universe.

For all we know the rest of the universe, or what we postulate to be dark matter and energy, could be teeming with life that we simply fail to comprehend or are able to detect. Just I'm just spitballing now all the same.

Our universe is a big place and what we don't know about her amounts to quite a bit and then some.