Living Planet #1

The topic of extraterrestrial life has always been an interesting one for me, if not one woefully bogged down by copious amounts of nonsense. I sometimes wonder about the possibility of life elsewhere -- I'm sure many of us do.

But today I just had a thought.

Today I considered that there is no other life out there.

Life had to begin somewhere. Perhaps there is no life to be found elsewhere simply because we are the first planet in all of the solar system, in this galaxy, in the universe, in all of existence to have life, ever.

Perhaps we are in fact, Living Planet #1.

Of course it's something to consider, but I think it's highly unlikely - much less likely than the possibility of extraterrestrial life, if you ask me.

There's a very popular scientific speculation that life on earth didn't even begin on earth, and that we might have been populated by spores from cosmic rock and other debris. It's been the less popular of the two theories, of course, but has just gained a lot more credibility, recently, with the ongoing investigation of the Red Rain phenomenon. There is new technology now that allows us to "see" further into the cosmos than we've ever done before - sweeping broader areas of space and looking for planets that are "very similar" to the components of earth. I think there are too many of them out there to seriously lean toward the idea that we are alone in the universe. Not only that, but ever since "science" (the community, not the concept) has been taking its interest in space, we've been relating every expectation of possible lifeforms to life on earth, as if the requirements for life on earth are somehow the prerequisite for any sort of life elsewhere in the universe. I think this sort of boxed thinking has been seriously hindering the scope of our exploration, though I can understand why it's being approached that way.

Oh, cool. I'll have to look up this "Red Rain phenomenon" at a time when I'm less tired and more likely to understand/remember what the crap I'm reading.

To be completely honest, I haven't actually done much looking into the subject. It was just something I had never really strongly considered, so I figured I'd throw it out there.

And yes, I do see where you're coming from. 'Tis a big universe out there with much we haven't seen.

Here ya go.

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/2c21c...ecbccdrcrd.html

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

Cool, thanks for the links. I'll have to keep an eye on how that to see how it turns out.

I too feel it is highly unlikely.
As we progress we see planets emerging (well the gravity of a planet wobbling a sun/star) all the time.
It would be willing to bet that most every star has planets. Some big some small some far some close...all those variables witt size and gravity.
But since most other things in the universe seem to duplicate over and over, why would a planetary system be any different?
As a huge mass of gravitational pull as a star has it would be befitting that they all gather asteroid belts, commits and..planets.
It may sound like a rare case for all the things to be aligned as we are to sustain life. But take into account the number we are talking about. Not really comprehendable.
Also on our own planet we continue to find life in areas that we never thought possible, antarctica, sulphite springs waaaay deep down in the ocean. atmospheric conditions that seem unihabitable. Bringing up my point that there may also be other forms of life that are even more resilient, taking less of a sustainable planet as our own.

Definintely a thought but at the same time, it's hard to believe we are all that exist. Starting at one end of our galaxy travelling at the speed of light to the opposite end of our galaxy would take 100 years. Science says that the universe is populated with billions of galaxies...and yet ours is so vast...now with that bit of information in mind...doesn't look like we're so alone afterall. And with modern technology I seriously doubt there's a way to prove or disprove life exists beyond our earthly boundaries.

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Originally Posted by Oneironaut_Jeff777

Definintely a thought but at the same time, it's hard to believe we are all that exist. Starting at one end of our galaxy travelling at the speed of light to the opposite end of our galaxy would take 100 years. Science says that the universe is populated with billions of galaxies...and yet ours is so vast...now with that bit of information in mind...doesn't look like we're so alone afterall. And with modern technology I seriously doubt there's a way to prove or disprove life exists beyond our earthly boundaries.

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Maybe not with modern technology, as it is today, but with the kind of technology that we are developing (at a rapid pace) I could see the search widening to a degree that we could definitely discover life on some other planet. We already have many stars mapped. If we can send probes (because, as of right now, manned space travel, that far, is out of the question) to planets that are within a reasonable range around those stars for life "as we know it" to be sustained, who knows what we'll find?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKPeMuKQ9yE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpK5a5l8Y58

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDOOZ_IPb6Y

Is it the cool new thing to ressurect dead topics?

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Originally Posted by Mark75

Is it the cool new thing to ressurect dead topics?

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Is it really that much of a pain on the eyes to pass over topics that have been pushed to the top? ;)

Push It

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Originally Posted by Mark75

Is it the cool new thing to ressurect dead topics?

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Just yours I guess, Mark. I'd take it as a complement.

I think that the odds must be huge that there is other life in the universe, but possibly the odds that intelligence and then development of technology may be extremely low--who knows, maybe so low that it happens so seldom that at any one time there are very few in existence. That would explain why we never see any extraterrestrials.

Well I don't anyway, I know some people do. But like so many other things, I wait to experience it personally before I start believing.

I heard somebody say once how amazing it would be both if there is other life in the univers, and if there is not.

I wouldn`t deny the possibilty that spacefaring aliens don`t (or almost) exist simply because we never see them. In fact, it would seem logical that such an intelligent species would avoid contact with our unstable barbaric selves :P, or at the very least, pass by undedected.

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Originally Posted by Spartiate

I wouldn`t deny the possibilty that spacefaring aliens don`t (or almost) exist simply because we never see them. In fact, it would seem logical that such an intelligent species would avoid contact with our unstable barbaric selves :P, or at the very least, pass by undedected.

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Well, you could think that; or you could think that any race that develops sufficient technology eventually destroys itself, so therefore there isn't any space-faring civilization; or you could think that they're just waiting for us to get out of the solar system before they welcome us into their League of Planets, or maybe destroy us then because we are a threat, or that our kind of carbon-based life may not allow us to recognize other intelligent forms and vice versa...

Whatever you do, if you see an alien with a book that says "To Serve Man", don't assume that they want to help us.

P.S. fixed typo.

Forget beyond our solar system. There might be life inside of our solar system. We know that there are conditions on at least a few of the moons orbiting various planets in our Solar System.

We know so little about the universe that it's stunning. The Voyager spacecrafts launched two decades ago haven't even left our Solar System. The closest star is over 4 light years away. There are 400 billion stars in the Milky Way system. The visible universe extends out to over 46 billion light years in all directions due to cosmic expansion, no one knows how big the universe is in reality because we can't see beyond that since the light hasn't had enough time to get to us yet. There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on Earth, so they say. But I bet there are even more.

In the end, there is no way we're the only lifeforms out here. In fact, given the extremely long history of the universe, there's probably countless civilizations that have already been established, thrived, and died out before even the Earth was formed.

EDIT: Here's a good video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcBV-cXVWFw

And a good series here, haven't seen it yet though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcBV-cXVWFw