Do you think life will be found on another planet in your life time? (CNN.com poll)

What would be the proof of life on another planet
- Unless it is in our solar system?

In my understanding - it's not possible to proof.
Because of the distance to another solar system -

And where are the color pictures from Mars - Photo's taken of things that looks like trees. Why Is that not shown in color?

I think we have life on Mars already.
-
It's such nonsens - That no photo's of the tree like - plantlike things have to be seen in black and white photos - from Mars - When we are shown ICE in color - Why not show the Plant looking things in color?

Black and white photo's sucks.

Black and white tends to be a better medium for high-detail work. It also isn't as bandwidth-intensive, which can be a real factor in deep-space communications.

As for proof of life on other planets...
1) The obvious - we find some other race's version of a deep-space probe.
2) Physical Contact - The aliens come and make public contact with us (The Day The Earth Stood Still, or War of the Worlds, depending on the aliens' disposition).
3) Information-bearing radio transmissions. Even if it's just the Altarian version of Gilligan's Island reruns, RF transmission is a fairly good indicator of life.

Proof of non-technological life forms is a bit trickier...we have to go there, since they can't come here.

I'm sure that even if it's non intelligent life forms we will be told about it, however if it is an intelligent species it will be covered up (although I'm certain it's being covered up already).

I absolutley hate the governments stance on this topic, what gives them the right to keep such information to themselves? On the surface it seems like we are all free, yet we're as oppressed as ever.

Originally posted by Brother Stormhammer
Black and white tends to be a better medium for high-detail work. It also isn't as bandwidth-intensive, which can be a real factor in deep-space communications.

Yes, If your looking for cracks and dead rocks - Black and white would proberly be okay.

Color photos is made out of 3 - black & White photos.
1 Black & White photo is just Black & White.

I think there will be a good chance of finding ET in my lifetime. But one has to wonder given the state of our own world today is there intelligent life on Earth? Humanity is always killing each other and now with Global Warming we are beginning the march to extinction. hardly the hallmark of an intelligent species but hey ho !

I think ET life will be found sometime next year when the Phoenix Mars Mission begins to dig in the soil in Mars's "habitable zone" at the ice/soil boundary near the Martian North Pole. The spacecraft is launching in August of this year and will land on Mars in May of 2008.

Here's a link to the Mission's Website:

phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu...

I am not optimistic about Martian Life.
If it was there, it would be far more visible, IMHO.
It would transform the atmosphere.

Microscopic amounts deep underground or in caves or just at the poles... it seems like clutching at straws.

Will extraterrestrial life be found in my life time?

Absolutely! However, I think they only way we will find it is through indirect evidence since the vast majority of microbial life here on Earth cannot be cultured. We only know it's there because we can amplify their genomes using the polymerase chain reaction. I'll even take it a step further and say that we would have already found it if we looked for other biomarkers besides DNA or common metabolic indicators since ET microbes may not use the same metabolic pathways used here on Earth or have the same genomic constituents. Life is ubiquitous on Earth and the idea of a habitable zone has fallen by the wayside in favor of chemical parameters in a given environment. In fact, I will even take it one step further state that I anticipate the laboratory synthesis of a plethora of exotic microbes unlike anything on Earth today; each adapted specifically to simulated in vitro environments... but you didn't hear that from me!

When it comes to intelligent life, however my views are not so optimistic.

SETI's silence is not coincidental. I've met many of the researchers there and trust me, if they had found something, I would know. So far, they haven't found anything... After the initial "WOW", silence. I strongly suspect that the advanced civilizations that DID arise, enjoyed only a fleeting period of technological capacity to send signals we could have detected. Perhaps the "WOW" later dubbed a false alarm was that society's final word as their world incinerated from a horrific discharge of their own making.... though that doesn't rule out the possibility of more of those pesky bird droppings! When I look at our own world and the state it's in today, I think it's odd that I do not expect to reach old age. I just don't see how I ever could. We are like a child who has toddled into the room where Daddy has forgoten to lock up his loaded gun...

I believe messages were sent but they were but brief flashes in the history of life on their worlds and here we are with too many stars to search from our own ticking clock. It is also possible that other civilizations progressed down completely different routes of technological development allowing our signals to pass in space like silent, dark ships in the night. It could have been more than we ever imagined but we did not have the capacity to recognize it for what it was.

I would love nothing better than to be wrong; to learn that star gates to other inhabited worlds, greys and UFOs are alive and well but I cannot see this happening. We cannot even handle what is in our hands right now, let alone the products of advanced alien races. Even Steven Hawking believed that space exploration was crucial to saving ourselves for a reason.... Our space program is dying as we enter the age of fiscal tunnel vision. We have been sending messages for the temporal blink of an eye and already we are allowing the life raft to drift away empty....

Even if microbial life is found on Mars, Europa or elsewhere, it will be all the more reason NOT to send people! Think about it. Would we want to risk transporting potential pathogens back here to our global ecosystem? Never underestimate the hardiness of a bug. Look up Deinococcus radiodurans (otherwise known as "Conan the Bacterium") if you want to see something really tough... from our own planet.

My 2 cents. Take from it whatever you like.

[edit on 27-5-2007 by X-tal_Phusion]

reply to post by X-tal_Phusion


Life was found on Mars 2004 at the latest,but the sacred cow mass media is nowhere to be found to cover it because they are hog tied by governments not to cover certain stories and so they are unrelaible and untrustworthy as far as unbiased and lopsided in coverage.They are lemmings. Use your eyes and don't expect the knowledge to be spoonfed to you like a Mars Baby.