Stephen Hawking says Aliens exist

Like I said it's a no brainer that extraterrestrials exist based on recent scientific discoveries.

THE aliens are out there and Earth had better watch out, at least according to Stephen Hawking. He has suggested that extraterrestrials are almost certain to exist — but that instead of seeking them out, humanity should be doing all it that can to avoid any contact.

The suggestions come in a new documentary series in which Hawking, one of the world’s leading scientists, will set out his latest thinking on some of the universe’s greatest mysteries.

Alien life, he will suggest, is almost certain to exist in many other parts of the universe: not just in planets, but perhaps in the centre of stars or even floating in interplanetary space.

Hawking’s logic on aliens is, for him, unusually simple. The universe, he points out, has 100 billion galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions of stars. In such a big place, Earth is unlikely to be the only planet where life has evolved.

“To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational,” he said. “The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.”

www.timesonline.co.uk...

We have found liquid water on other planets, signs of life, building blocks of life on comets, extremophiles and more.

It's obvious they exist.

Skeptics, please don't start calling Hawking names like you did with Edgar Mitchell.

Here's more:

He suggests that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then move on: “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach.”

Hawking has suggested the possibility of alien life before but his views have been clarified by a series of scientific breakthroughs, such as the discovery, since 1995, of more than 450 planets orbiting distant stars, showing that planets are a common phenomenon.

So far, all the new planets found have been far larger than Earth, but only because the telescopes used to detect them are not sensitive enough to detect Earth-sized bodies at such distances.

Another breakthrough is the discovery that life on Earth has proven able to colonise its most extreme environments. If life can survive and evolve there, scientists reason, then perhaps nowhere is out of bounds.

Hawking’s belief in aliens places him in good scientific company. In his recent Wonders of the Solar System BBC series, Professor Brian Cox backed the idea, too, suggesting Mars, Europa and Titan, a moon of Saturn, as likely places to look.

Similarly, Lord Rees, the astronomer royal, warned in a lecture earlier this year that aliens might prove to be beyond human understanding.

“I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms we can’t conceive,” he said. “Just as a chimpanzee can’t understand quantum theory, it could be there are aspects of reality that are beyond the capacity of our brains.”

WOW!!!

This is Stephen Hawking saying this!!!

Based on recent scientific discoveries, they exist. People on this board like myself and others have been saying this for years with each new discovery.

WOW!!!

[edit on 24-4-2010 by Matrix Rising]

[edit on 24-4-2010 by Matrix Rising]

Cool story, thanks for sharing.

It's amazing how we've gone, in such a short time, from positive that we're alone (and god's hand-made creation), to the complete reverse. Life is common, we're not special, and we may not even be intelligent enough to understand the beings that exist outside of our solar system.

Also, why would aliens colonize earth, as apposed to any of the other billions of planets in the galaxy? Yea, maybe earth is special? I don't know.. but if your whole civilization can move off the planet in a space ship, one would think they would be advanced enough to mine the resources on any of the other planets/moons in the solar system, while leaving earth alone; but who knows, really.. alien life is.. alien.

[edit on 24-4-2010 by Kaytagg]

The issue isn't so much if life exists outside of this little blue ball we call Earth. I have yet to see a scientist deny that as probable. The real debate is about intelligent life visiting Earth.

I am looking forward to watching this Documentary, It's incredible that Hawking, with his life being the way it is, is still one of the leading thinkers of our time, I am interested on his thoughts about where and how close he thinks they may be to Earth if they have moved away from their home.

I just hope it does not end up with the usual not a reliable source way of thinking enters the arena, of course that would be complete and utter nonsense, wont stop the idea being thrown around however.

Thank you for the information, I didn't know this was even in the pipeline

reply to post by Matrix Rising


Dear Matrix Rising

Steven Hawking is truly remarkable.

However note one thing he doesn’t say they are here.

He just says we need to stay well clear.

It's not actually Hawkings' idea:

Drake Equation

The question is more like: if it's so probable that other life exists, why haven't they contacted us? Or maybe they have, who knows.

reply to post by Matrix Rising


as much as i love hawking, his logic is flawed, he has underestemated the odds. there are things called "anthropic constants". basically, precise and narrowly defined variables that must be exact for life to exist.

"Astrophysicist Hugh Ross has calculated the probability that these and other constants (122 in all) would exist today for any planet in the universe by chance (I.e., without Divine design). Assuming there are 10^22 planets in the universe (a very large number: 1 with 22 zeros following it), his answer is shocking; one chance in 10^138, that’s one chance in one with 138 zeros after it. There are only about 10^70 atoms in the entire universe."

do i believe that life exists elsewhere? meh, i'm not sure. but to claim that the odds are in favor of life existing elsewhere is silly when the chances of life existing on our own planet is so slim.

Always a boost to have someone of such intellect caliber finally defending the E.T. probability. We will yet have to see how this documentary turns out but nonetheless, the way he is talking about alien life is not reduced to just microbes but probably more advanced beings.
What I find most disturbing is why did our modern generation had to go through all that mysticism crap to acknowledge a part of reality that may have been there even long before humans existed?

I agree that we shouldn't go looking for aliens.

Instead we should be cleaning up our house, before they come and visit.

I very much doubt that any species that can travel between stars and galaxies would be a war-like people. They would be an extreme rarity in anycase.

stephen is an idiot if he thinks blood thirsty pirates with warp drives and plasma cannons are gonna have spare time to take over other planets. They will be very busy killing eachother.

no scientist (or rational human being, for that matter) would ever declare alien life impossible. almost all regard it as not only probable, but almost certain, given the vastness of the universe. not a single one will treat alien visitation as likely however, because not only is there no real evidence pointing to specifically that conclusion, but it is mathematically unlikely as well.

i don't see how this is news.

[edit on 24-4-2010 by JScytale]

reply to post by Wertdagf


Dear Wertdagf

We all need a hobby.

With the sheer size of things, there has to be other intelligent life out there somewhere.

As for looking for them, hell yeah, we have to look and try and make contact.

We are already a doomed species whether they are hostile or not. why prolong the agony of not calling out?

Infact, I say to any far off beings who can see this message, come on down whether you are hostile or not and show us what you are made of!!!



[edit on 24-4-2010 by grantbeed]

reply to post by Kaytagg


Earth is special, because even though life may exist elsewhere in the universe, what are the odds of Homo Sapiens existing anywhere else? In the future when there is a CIA factbook of species of sentient life, the "origin" field will read EARTH. That makes Earth pretty special in my eyes.

Originally posted by Bob Sholtz
"Astrophysicist Hugh Ross has calculated the probability that these and other constants (122 in all) would exist today for any planet in the universe by chance (I.e., without Divine design). Assuming there are 10^22 planets in the universe (a very large number: 1 with 22 zeros following it), his answer is shocking; one chance in 10^138, that’s one chance in one with 138 zeros after it. There are only about 10^70 atoms in the entire universe."

do i believe that life exists elsewhere? meh, i'm not sure. but to claim that the odds are in favor of life existing elsewhere is silly when the chances of life existing on our own planet is so slim.

If he calculated the odds as greater than all of the atoms in the universe, and yet humans are here, his estimate appears severly flawed and invalid.

My personal guess is there are perhaps dozens of planets with advanced life, in our galaxy alone. It could be in the hundreds of thousands, millions even, considering the size of the entire universe.

Not exactly a revelation, any sane person would believe aliens exist in the universe, the numbers are simply staggeringly in favor..we will probably find life in our own solar system soon and that will show that the universe is most likely teeming with life...which is what i have always thought, i think complex life is rare and intelligent even rarer though given the hostility of the universe. And i agree that if aliens were needing resources they could pick planets that are not inhabited, planets that have much more resources than our own.

[edit on 24-4-2010 by Solomons]

reply to post by Schaden


Dear Schaden

There is one little bit you are forgetting though.

Time, the period of time that we have existed is very short so far and the way things are looking we will have been here on earth a very short time altogeather.

So time is a big factor in all of this.

Originally posted by Wertdagf
stephen is an idiot if he thinks blood thirsty pirates with warp drives and plasma cannons are gonna have spare time to take over other planets. They will be very busy killing eachother.

You don't even make any sense...

Once again, Matrix Rising confuses skepticism about aliens visiting the Earth with a disbelief in alien life. Only in the closed-minds of people like Matrix Rising are they one in the same. While there is no doubt among scientists and skeptics that we are not the only intelligent life in the universe, Matrix Rising continues to accuse them of not believing in extraterrestrial life. It demonstrates the depths of her ignorance and closed-mindedness.