Alien life certain to exist... Wait! No They Dont

Often times, I would get aggrivated with national news because, depending on which side you stood, or which media outlet you watched, the stories never seem to quite compare with one another. This was one of the things that lead me to pay more attention to online news. Sadly enough, we're in a time where news isnt factual anymore and hearsay is common ground. It makes one wonder what to believe anymore, if the news itself is impossible to agree with itself.

I'm certain there was alot of hope going around when scientist made mention that life on other planets was as possible as the sun in the sky.

Life Possible

Just recently, and on the same news site, no less, the concept of life on other planets is ripped away from the imaginations of people alike.

Impossible!


This has got me curious, and a little worried at the same time. What's real news anymore, when news cant decide one from the other? We walk out of school, learned from our textbooks, and grow in wisdom and read the paper to further our knowledge of the world around us. Newspapers, though a thing of the past, is where we spent our lives decerning fact from fiction. Now we use many other sources for our "facts" and yet our media "facts" change so often, it's impossible to know truth from fiction.

Are we really this messed up?

Thanks.

Yep, I have read alot of crazy in my time, but this truely has to be one of the more crazier claims I have come across in quite awhile.
We are talking spirit guide whitecloud and the federation of light crazy...naa, even that had more possibilities than this guys claims.

500 planets...he concluded because he examined somewhat 500 big planets signatures that the universe (highly conservative estimate of 18 sextillion planets (probably orders of magnitude higher) = impossible.

This guy is smoking some seriously bad crack. its like looking at a single blade of grass in front of you and saying rats do not exist because there are no rats on that specific blade of grass.

I would catagorically dismiss this fool, and I think the rest of the scientific community should shun that religious quack.

Both articles are awfully sensationalist "free" interpretation of scientific facts.
And this guy that having analised 500!! planets (of the billions and billions and carlsagan) has the ego enough to claim that...
The problem is that you are trying to get scientific news from very non scientific sources.
You should look for authentic scientific works. ie Papers of the findings and discoveries.
Don't let others chew your space-food for you

500 planets down. Only 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to go.

I definitely am not a tenured professor or even in college for Astronomy, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist (haha) to realize that we've only found 400 +/- exoplanets - most of them being gas giants, and very close to their host star.

Kepler is just starting to get crackin' at observing even only a tiny portion of space so it can find smaller, rocky planets.

And as far as SETI is concerned, they're using radio waves. Radio waves! Like an advanced civilization wouldn't be using some kind of faster-than-light quantum communications. SETI is a joke. And anything using radio waves would probably be so far away that by the time the signals got here (IF they even made it here), there would be nothing left of them.

SETI using such a narrow band of communications is like us only acknowledging the visible spectrum when the visible spectrum is only a fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum. And hell, is there anything beyond the EM spectrum on either side????

Anyways, it's like this professor is totally ignoring the fact that (here we go) a typical galaxy has between 200 billion to 400 billion stars and there are 200 to 400 billion galaxies - if the Universe is not infinite.

We haven't even tasted what's out there - we are still in our infancy with our understanding of the Universe, and our technology is so low for what we need to see. Even if we could zoom right up to an exoplanet (through a telescope) and see it clear as day, you would still be seeing the planet in the past, because of the speed light travels. So we couldn't even do anything practical with the cosmos until we actually implement quantum technology.

I can't believe this guy said that. That's just ridiculous. The chances of other life out there and habitable planets are 100%. The Universe is just too big. Something's gotta give.

Originally posted by Raelsatu
500 planets down. Only 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 to go.

-snip-
derp

reply to post by theRhenn


Wow...500 planets? What about the other 98,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000?
i once read this post saying that there is no life in any form on any other planet... So i read through the replies and one said " Out of all the planets in our solar system, all the planets in our galaxy. Possibly even other universes... you think we are alone?" really funny... to me...

Well I cant say I belive ANY OF YOU... GIVE ME... SHOW ME PROOF... I think your all hopefuls

I have been looking to the sky.. looking down the dark hallway.. and what do I see? NOTHING.. for 40 years I have seen NOTHING... I have wanted to belive.. but now I am losing that, because of the LACK of experience I have had.

Hmmmm I just find this all very entertaining.

It wasn't long ago nasa announced that lifeform that formed in a poison environment proved that life can exist outside earthlike planets.

www.allvoices.com...

I can't seem why a guy like this makes a outrageous claim that planet earth is the only planet which harbours life in the universe. When there so many planets out there.So out of billions of planets only one planet can harbour life.Surely we along with other life forms we are not the only life around. Surely there has got be intelligent life somewhere infact there could be hundreds of these intelligent lifeforms.So yeah the odds are weighted against you. If you think that we are alone in the universe you must be crazy because i don't believe that.

Surely newspapers deciding what is true for themselves and editorialising based on that is exactly what we don't want?

Of course the newspaper reports are conflicting and confusing they're reporting two conflicting view points, thats more or less the job of the news, to spread news and not opinion (although you would be hard pressed to notice that most of the time)

The multiverse is infinite, such a claim is preposterous. Lately Harvard has not been impressive with their produce.

There could even be life on one of those 400 planets, but it could be microscopic or of an entirely different nature than our version of "life" on Earth & thus able to exist on gaseous planets. A civ a hundred thousand years more advanced I'm sure has a means of existing withing a gaseous planet as well.

Life could even possibly be in our own neighborhood (with all the recent disclosure going on with China/Brazil/England/Mexico/Vatican etc., this seems likely). E.g. there are many anomalies and weird sh1t on Mars. The Phobos II was destroyed after closely orbiting the planet. The last 3 photographs it took were of a perfect elliptical shadow moving over the Martian surface (the object causing said shadow would have to been behind the probe). Those 3 photographs are at at 8:17 in this vid (btw, there are interviews with astronauts in this vid too & they say w/o a doubt there is life already around Earth)


Here's just a few of the anomalies I know the names of on Mars. Point is, to make a claim "we are alone in the universe" is highly premature & extremely ignorant. This man likely became obsessed with expecting to see glowing cities and neon signs pointing to the planet saying "We're here! All you can eat bacon & eggs!"

"Dome on Mars" www.enterprisemission.com...

"Mars tunnels"
paranormal.about.com...

"Statue/person on Mars?"
www.marsanomalyresearch.com...

"Face on Mars--updated composite image"
upload.wikimedia.org...

"Bottomless hole on Mars??"
www.crystalinks.com...

If there is life out there...I know who shall be first to find out, years in advance before anyone else.

www.seeitornot.faketrix.com...

reply to post by nightrun


Sure, you and I can consider the odds somewhat objectively, most intelligent beings on this planet cannot.

Yet, so often threads like this never get beyond the "news" to look at the big picture of where humanity has to go to prepared itself for the inevitable. No matter what the claim--from any of us, pro or con--it is all part of the process of advancement toward a new reality that humans have never really wanted to consider. Our poor, little egos have to be throughly reconditioned first. And if you want to give the ETs any credit for smarts, you can say it is part of their plan as evidence by over half a century of very visual and identifiable signs that they exist. A few decades ago Joseph Campbell did an excellent job of demonstrating how important mythis have been in shaping human destiny. We, at present, are coming to terms with the mythology of alien contact as created by the appearance of UFOs in our midst. Some would call it shock (and awe) therapy.

The numbers are not important. They are relative in some sense to yesterday's scientific (and the public's) outlook, but data. Tomorr will bring more "news." And if you think data, talk, conclusions about ETs is going away anytime near soon, you are crazy. The concepts fostered and allowed facilitate and build the myth that then becomes belief, and that reduces the consequences of the terrible truth. Yep! UFOs are real. Get used to it!

First of all the size of the universe has little to no bearing on the odds of abstract thinking life forms(other than our own) existing. So you guys getting your panties in a bunch because a scientist draws his conclusion, apparently using reasoning and argument you cannot challenge, without examining every single planet that might exist somewhere in the universe...just stop. I do not have to even know about 1% of all planets to say that none of them have automobiles made entirely of fog.

Now, granted the above analogy is not entirely appropriate since there is nothing necessarily contradictory in the idea of intelligent alien life out there but it is at LEAST as probable(if not much more so) that in a vast physical universe only one planet, off in the back-end of the Milky Way galaxy, has resulted in abstract thinking sentient beings. The only definite odds we can give are that it is a 100% chance that we did evolve here and a %0 chance we have discovered other planets where similar life has developed. We can study and take notes about the unique facts about our planet including distance from the sun, the size of our sun, the size and directional spin of our planet, the evolutionary tree from amino acids to what we see today, the chemical compounds & gasses and such that exist for us to thrive on and exploit, etc.

Every single planet that does exist has this one fact we can assert in common:

All of them have at least one, completely unique feature that no other planet shares.

Perhaps our unique feature is that we are the planet able to give birth to and sustain(for a limited time) abstract thinking life forms.

This is not "arrogance" for those of you sinking to THAT ad hominem. It is acknowledgment that nature does not have to take into account our wishes in order to be who she is.

EDIT: I see some of you are having difficulty understanding that the subject is NOT "life existing in the universe" so your talk about microbial life forms and such is just silly. The subject is INTELLIGENT life. The sort that might be able to communicate something to us or create space-faring vehicles that somehow get around the speed of light problem.

He made a pretty silly statement because he starts with the assumption that life in the universe has to evolve in the same way it did on earth. With the discovery of more exoplanets and extremophiles we know that life finds a way. Life sustains itself even in conditions that scientist would have said it can't happen until life was discovered in these areas.

We don't even know how life started on earth. Was it abiogenesis or panspermia?

For instance, what if the DNA molecule forms within comets and all it needs is a planet with simple RNA to start replicating itself.

We have found the building blocks of life in comets and all we have is theories and speculation about abiogenesis.

So this guy has to start with a silly assumption in order to reach this conclusion.

This would mean the environment of a planet doesn't drive evolution but life does. So the environment will conform to life through mutations and natural selection. So from this standpoint the Astronomer in the article is way off.

Life adapts to it's environment through mutations and natural selection. He assumes that life needs the right conditions on a planet in order to get started and there's zero evidence that supports this notion.

Originally posted by darrylss
Well I cant say I belive ANY OF YOU... GIVE ME... SHOW ME PROOF... I think your all hopefuls

I have been looking to the sky.. looking down the dark hallway.. and what do I see? NOTHING.. for 40 years I have seen NOTHING... I have wanted to belive.. but now I am losing that, because of the LACK of experience I have had.

Hmmmm I just find this all very entertaining.

???????

Dude. We're talking about other life on other planets - not UFO's and aliens visiting Earth!!!!!!

Hopefuls? I think YOU'RE a hopeful because you didn't ascertain the point of the OP and you read what you wanted to read. You're off on a tangent.

Just because we may not be engaged by ET's (well, who knows) does NOT mean that the other trillions of planets out there (and trust me - they're out there - do your research) are lifeless. That... Well, that's just egotistical to think that.

And just because YOU never saw a UFO or alien doesn't mean they don't exist. Hell, I have never seen a UFO, but I will put money on the fact that there is life out there. It's logic.

Why pay attention to what the media says?

Humans still cannot understand their own body's, let alone our enviroment, before you even think about stepping on what we thinnk we know about the stars - take that into consideration.

We humans also seem to ahve an incredibly big ego. Perhaps we are visited by aliens every day, if they are its definately not because we're special, or important, or this planet has something that others do not, ebcause honestly, in the grand scheme of things we're still just another grain in teh sand.

but this grain of sand is wearing glasses that make all other grains of sand invisible.

Point of this - why are we listening to what some smuch behind a camera is saying. How the hell would he know? Especialy moreso if the guy making claims cant even explain to you how his own brain or body works.

Dont let other people define for you, what is real and what is not. I'm sure if you sat back, looked over everything UFO related from teh time it was documented, there's more than enogh there to suggest that yes, Aliens exist and yes, they have visited us in the past and may be visiting us now.

This is where our ego gets in the way.

But because we cant see it! And because if they realy were here we're so special and important that everyone would know ! And because of hese two facts! its not true!!

While I can't even begin to debunk the NASA UFO's as others have attempted, even if there are thousands or millions of undiscovered planets most are dead, uninhabitable and have been long been destroyed by nearby stars.

Even if there is advanced life, on another Earth, human life is probably as advanced as it get's, limited and corrupt though it is.

Our evolution has mostly ceased, combined with climate and geological fluctuations never mind viruses and a possible giant mega solar flare incinerating Earth like in Knowing we are on the same path of extinction as the Dodo bird.