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Is there life on any other planet?


George.
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An awful lot of people spend an awful lot of time telling us how many other planets have life on them. They never tell us which planets they're talking about, though. They never tell us if these other planets, the other ones with life aboard are in our solar  system, if they're in the Milky Way or any other galaxy. They never tell us if there are other forms of life within our universe or any other universe, if there are other ones.

 

What do people think? Is there more life out there? Are there other universes where life could exist - or are we really the only ones that actually exist?

 

Edited by George.
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Over the past thirty years or so, no matter where we have looked on Earth, we have discovered forms of life. From the deepest recesses of our oceans to the driest desert, from the coldest environment deep beneath the ice on Antarctica to some of the hottest environments around volcanic vents in the oceans. There are even bacteria that thrives in water so salty that most life on Earth would be totally unable to survive it. It has totally changed our traditional understanding of what is required for life to exist. There are Moons of Jupiter and Saturn which are known to have seas beneath layers of ice, and NASA is looking to send probes in the 2020s to investigate. They plan to drop robotic explorers from orbital craft to try to find any signs of life, no matter how basic. The best target is generally accepted to be a Moon of Saturn, named Titan, which is the only moon in the Solar System with an atmosphere (mainly made up of nitrogen). 

 

I have absolutely no doubt that life exists beyond Earth, but there's certainly no proof of little green men, and I don't believe we'll ever find proof.  

Edited by CrashBox
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The Earth has all the known elements that exist in the Universe. From these elements life has been created and developed. So any life in the Universe would also be made of the same elements and would have the same restrictions for existence, and would need similar environmental conditions.  This is not to say that there would not be different looking lifeforms if these conditions did exist. But the limitation of the required elements is the reason we don't have flaming Venusian lifeforms running around the Universe, or green skinned maidens from mars crying out "show me more of this Earth thing you call kissing" etc etc.

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The Earth has all the known elements that exist in the Universe. From these elements life has been created and developed. So any life in the Universe would also be made of the same elements and would have the same restrictions for existence, and would need similar environmental conditions.  This is not to say that there would not be different looking lifeforms if these conditions did exist. But the limitation of the required elements is the reason we don't have flaming Venusian lifeforms running around the Universe, or green skinned maidens from mars crying out "show me more of this Earth thing you call kissing" etc etc.

 

You are probably correct, W&F. Planet Earth probably does have some of every known element that exists within our universe. I would suggest however that they are only the known elements. That can possibly be said at present but it is likely that we have not yet identified all elements on earth. Ununpentium, atomic number 115, was discovered by some Swedish scientists in 2013. Haven't yet found out yet if Ununpentium exists anywhere else, other than on Earth.

 

However, we are still discovering this, that and the next thing. This means that we are still not sure that we know every single element on Planet Earth and it has to be said that at present our universe only has in it the things that we know about and can therefore identify, therefore there is quite possibly a lot more to be found out there and a lot more to be learnt. There is no proof to suggest otherwise - at present.

 

This suggests that there is possibly a lot more to discover. Will this mean aliens in the solar system, the universe - or somewhere that has yet to be discovered?

Edited by George.
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Yes I agree, there are many synthetic elements that might be discovered, like 115. But they are synthetic and would not exist without a scientist involved.   

 

 

The Earth has all the known elements that exist in the Universe. From these elements life has been created and developed. So any life in the Universe would also be made of the same elements and would have the same restrictions for existence, and would need similar environmental conditions.  This is not to say that there would not be different looking lifeforms if these conditions did exist. But the limitation of the required elements is the reason we don't have flaming Venusian lifeforms running around the Universe, or green skinned maidens from mars crying out "show me more of this Earth thing you call kissing" etc etc.

 

You are probably correct, W&F. Planet Earth probably does have some of every known element that exists within our universe. I would suggest however that they are only the known elements. That can possibly be said at present but it is likely that we have not yet identified all elements on earth. Ununpentium, atomic number 115, was discovered by some Swedish scientists in 2013. Haven't yet found out yet if Ununpentium exists anywhere else, other than on Earth.

 

However, we are still discovering this, that and the next thing. This means that we are still not sure that we know every single element on Planet Earth and it has to be said that at present our universe only has in it the things that we know about and can therefore identify, therefore there is quite possibly a lot more to be found out there and a lot more to be learnt. There is no proof to suggest otherwise - at present.

 

This suggests that there is possibly a lot more to discover. Will this mean aliens in the solar system, the universe - or somewhere that has yet to be discovered?

 

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Yes I agree, there are many synthetic elements that might be discovered, like 115. But they are synthetic and would not exist without a scientist involved.  

Agreed, a scientist or a group of scientists invented Moscovium and they either did it by luck, chance or success. It may prove to be very useful, or it may prove to be useless to man, poisonous and destructive. Having said that, we still have no proof whatsoever as to what other natural elements are here around us, sitting on the moon or right on the edge of the universe that we exist in - or any other universe. If there are other elements, we may well know nothing about them. We've possibly never seen them because they are out of our range. They may be just like Moscovium 115, created by some wee alien for whatever reason or just to find out if he could actually do it. They may also be just the thing we need

 

Having said that, we won't know until we find out. Perhaps an alien from another planet in another universe will tell us how he found it all out.

 

Humans will be extinct in 100 years

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That last link is great, and ties in to my view that when we talk about life elsewhere, what we are actually talking about is only "life" as we know it. There must be billions of things in the universe that are "alive" in one way or the other.

 

It is vital to remember what a minute blip us humans are in earths history, let alone the universe, and frankly the sooner we're gone the better! 

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There have been an estimated five billion species on the planet since the first mix of elements first came together to create life on Earth!!! In the rest of the Solar System, there has not been one single example and there probably won't be. This planet, and all the life forms on it, are frankly amazing. While the Solar system is small, it contains all the known elements that will be found elsewhere in the Universe, yet it is the parameters of this planet which has created this wonderful world.

 

I have no reasonable response to the concept of "It's life Jim, but not as we know it", but I hope we all "Live long and Prosper" if nothing else  :thmbsup

 

That last link is great, and ties in to my view that when we talk about life elsewhere, what we are actually talking about is only "life" as we know it. There must be billions of things in the universe that are "alive" in one way or the other.

 

It is vital to remember what a minute blip us humans are in earths history, let alone the universe, and frankly the sooner we're gone the better! 

Edited by Whistle and Flute
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 While the Solar system is small, it contains all the known elements that will be found elsewhere in the Universe, yet it is the parameters of this planet which has created this wonderful world.

 

Yes, the solar system is small. It's not just small, it's less than miniscule in comparison to the rest of the universe that we live in. It contains all the known elements that will possibly be found elsewhere, but I have to use the word, "possibly" as I havn't yet seen, heard or become aware of any proof regarding that. If there is any relevant proof then Joe Public hasn't yet been told.

Edited by George.
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Well scientists and astronomers use spectroscopy on any light source from the Universe, planet, star or another galaxy and they then break this light source down into known chemical natural elements. They can tell all sorts of things from this, but what they are looking at next in the newer generation of this (they need more powerful equipment), is for "unnatural" chemicals, those which must have been created by a third party (i.e. a life form). There is some pretty amazing science going on at the moment.  Earth punches well above it's weight. It's just a shame it is in such an inaccessible and quiet part of the universe. Or maybe that's it's advantage, who knows!

 

 

 While the Solar system is small, it contains all the known elements that will be found elsewhere in the Universe, yet it is the parameters of this planet which has created this wonderful world.

 

Yes, the solar system is small. It's not just small, it's less than miniscule in comparison to the rest of the universe that we live in. It contains all the known elements that will possibly be found elsewhere, but I have to use the word, "possibly" as I havn't yet seen, heard or become aware of any proof regarding that. If there is any relevant proof then Joe Public hasn't yet been told.

 

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