Thread: Science about to prove the existence of life outside of our planet?

We have had a number of amazing developments in Science recently that to me has massive implications.

We have found water on Mars and evidence of past oceans on the surface. Fragments of rock from Mars possibly containing fossilized bacteria and now, it is the opinion of many people within the scientific community that it was once very much like Earth today.

The moon Titan has a atmosphere, and there is a belief that there may be enough organic material for life to start.

All of these experiments have led to the suggestion that enough organic material exists on Titan to start a chemical evolution analogous to what is thought to have started life on Earth. While the analogy assumes the presence of liquid water for longer periods than is currently observable, several theories suggest that liquid water from an impact could be preserved under a frozen isolation layer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosph...tan#Atmosphere


Add to this the fact that we have detected the signs of lighting in the atmosphere and that we believe lighting was what sparked the chemical reactions that led to the origins of life on this planet.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...ning-life.html

Furthermore on the 3rd news has come out that Cassini may have already collected the data to prove there is life on the icy moon Enceladus. Data collected by recent flybys through the plume of icy water ejected from the surface suggest that there is a strong possibility life may exist under the surface in deep oceans, all we need to do is look through the data.

The Cassini probe may have already collected data that could reveal the presence of life on Saturn's moon Enceladus, a new study argues. But mission scientists say teasing out the subtle signature of life may prove difficult. http://space.newscientist.com/channe...turn-moon.html

Okay, little single celled organisms or bacteria don't sound like much but if we can find life on planets and moons then the only conclusion we can reach is that the Universe must be teeming with life. This will have to be accepted by mainstream science and the media. The evidence will be undeniable.

This is only considering that life out there is very much like our own which I think is very improbable. Evolution could lead to very different forms of life developing on other planets or moons. We are carbon based lifeforms, however other forms of life may be out there. (Silicone based lifeforms etc)

If the Universe is teeming with life then the idea of Aliens visiting us now seems much more plausible to even the most skeptical person. This changing of opinion I believe will be very strong and will perhaps be the pressure needed for the truth to finally come out. For governments to reveal all that they know. Just look at the impact of recent rumors that the White house had been briefed about the Phoenix lander detecting life.

Given our galaxy has billions of starts, it's only natural to expect a fair number of stars with life. But regardless of how common life is, there's still very little reason to believe aliens are visiting us.

There are others, but you should at least consider these 2 important factors:

1) We don't know if it's possible to develop technology for interstellar travel, and if it's possible, only a small fraction of civilizations would be at that stage.
2) An alien species has no special reason to visit our sun instead of some other star from the billions of stars available.

Given that the universe has been around for billions of years, and humans as a species have only been on this planet for a few thousand years, I think it's reasonable to assume that there has been plenty of time for other civilizations to develop. After all, we managed to pull it off quickly, even with all the unnecessary conflicts we've had.

Also, with our massive output of electromagnetic radiation, we would not be very difficult to notice if some form of life with the technology to detect it passed close enough to us. We already have the technology to detect a similar output of radio waves.

But as the Universe is so infinite, and we have only been here for such a small fraction of time, it is very likely that we just haven't been found yet. It takes light over 100 billion years to travel across the universe, and we can't come close to those speeds.

Given the universe has billions of stars...

This is Mars... same star as ours. Only other planet with a history of being able to have supported life in a solar system also shows signs it once existed. What does that tell you about the nature of genesis? Of course, the data isn't out yet so it's way too soon to call.

But the point there's no reason to assume the universe isn't teeming with life. There are a lot of possible reasons for the fact that our civilization hasn't received first contact yet, my favorite so far is the shared dimension.

I read a while back that something like 80% of astronomers think that there was once life on Mars.

The most likely candidate for there to be life currently is Europa; in the ocean under the ice there could well be hydrothermal vents like those which it is speculated started life on Earth.

Unfortunately missions there keep getting delayed, and it'd be quite an engineering task to get through the ice.