Other life in space!

[damo666]

So many people believe that apart from our planet; earth, the probability of other life in space is very low. However, I think that if the universe is infinate then of course there has to be alot more life in space. Maybe not in our galaxy and maybe WELL out of our reach but surely, it has to be up there, somewhere..... What say you??

[bernardo]

1. The universe is not infinite
2. No matter how large the universe is, it is not certain that there is life anywhere else
3. I think there is loads of life all over the universe

[andy-hughes]

Most people think that other 'life' has to in some way resemble something they are familiar with, because this is a comforting thought.

Reality suggests that other life forms may not even have any physical form at all - they may simply be energy masses that communicate with colours, they may alreay be all around us.

There are plenty of stranger life-forms than us here already. Imagine a creature that comunicates only by using its sense of smell, and 'talks' to others of its species using scent. You don't have to imagine thee creatures - they are called ants.

If life on earth is so diverse and unusual, why should it be such a leap of imagination to think that other really unusual creatures exist 'out there'? It has to be, and to suggest that we are the only life form of intelligence goes beyond a comfot zone and into arrogance, which is dangerous on a 'species' level.

[jake-the-peg]

You should check out "Drake's equation"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

This was devised in the early 60's as an estimate of the number of intelligent species in our galaxy.

You devise estimates for parameters such as rate of star formation, probability of life forming etc. and at the end you get the number of life forms.

Current low end estimates are as low as 0.0000008 which would indicate less the one inhabited planet in ever million galaxy.

Even with this estimate there are billions of billions of galaxies which means that there are almost certailny millions of life forms but we'll never know for sure

[potterfan3]

There has to be, the universe is too big for there not to be.

[mibn2cweus]

The presence of life on Mars or even on the moons of other planets within our Solar System has not been ruled out. It is also possible that life on Earth originated from 'seeds' delivered from space in comets.

ESA article here

[EssJay1]

Who is it that says, if there isn't any life out there, it's an awful waste of space?

[mibn2cweus]

EssJay1, Carl Sagan / "Contact" (the movie)

more quotes here

[EssJay1]

Thanks - but it is a good point!

[Zevon]

Basically you can pick two things:

Life is very delicate, needs specific conditions and if these conditions change life can very quickly diue, dinosaurs, the dodo etc.

OR Life is very tough, every time one thing dies something else pops up somewhere else and thers things living in conditions at the bottom of the ocean and bacteria can survive being frozen and boiled.

You choose- tough and yes it probably (almost definitely) is somewher else, if its delicate then the odds are reduced.