Aliens.....do you think they exist????

[spaced]

Are we really the only life forms in the universe?? I know that most UFO sighting are a load of nonsense, but even if 2% of them were real, then that would mean that there is "something out there". Have you ever seen something you thought was extra terrestial? Discuss

[funnywebsite]

I don't believe in aliens. Nobody can proof a real sighting.

[Loosehead]

Statistically the existance of other life in the universe is certain. However due to the massive distances involved we will never see or comunicate with them. Even within our own galaxy there must be countless planets capable of supporting life even within our own limited parameters.

[einsteinsdog]

So if I make 100 stories up , will 2 be true ?

[Loosehead]

No einstein but if you take 100bn stars some of then will be of a longevity similar to our own. Our star is quite common but lets be pessimitic and say thay only 1% of stars are like our own. We now have 1bn stars to play with. Now lets be pessimistic again and assume that on 1% of them have planets so now we have 10m stars. Let assume rather pessimistically that of those 1% have planets capable of supporting life as we know it. We still have 100,000 stars left. Ok let's assume that only 1% of those have had whatever the spark for life is. So you see even in our own galaxy and with the most pessimistic arithmetic there are 1000 stars capable of life like our own. If we disgard human arrogance and say that life may also exist in more extreme conditions then potentially the galaxy is teeming with life. That's just one galaxy.

your example of 100 einstein is a little wide of the mark, but if you make up 1000000 stories a couple of them should be true!

[Clanad]

Paleontologist Peter D. Ward and astrobiologist Donald Brownlee wrote a book on the subject a few years ago titled Rare Earth. Their research indicated that extra-terrestrial life would be very uncommon, if it exists at all. They concluded that while microbial life may exist on distant planets, the chances for advanced life forms were diminishing with each research paper published. Their primary basis for such drastic predictions comes, primarily, from recognizing the extreme uniqueness of our planet and the unliklihood of similar conditions being duplicated elsewhere. SETI has surveyed all areas of the surrounding galaxy out to 40,000 light years with no evidence so far (our galaxy is 100,000 light years across). After a so-far unsuccessful search through more than 150 trillion radio signals from outer space, one of the longest running hunts for extraterrestrial intelligence is gearing up for a fourth-generation search on the world's largest radio telescope. Berkeley's (USERENDIP project--an acronym for Search for Extraterrestrial Radio Emissions from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations--is now 20 years old and has employed 10 different radio telescopes over the years.

The most recent, third generation search--SERENDIP III--piggybacked on the world's largest radio telescope at Arecibo in Puerto Rico. That search ended last month and the team continues to analyze the catalogued signals. Preliminary analysis, however, showed no likely "intelligent" signals from space.
The problem is, the nearest galaxy to ours is two million light years distant. Any recognizable "signal" from there would have had to originate over two million years ago. Any recognition of our existence based on radio signals will not be available to a civilization in that system for two million years as well.

[Buenchico]

As Loosehead has indicated, it's statistically likely that our planet is one of several billions which support life. While many of these life-forms would seem primitive to us, our own life-forms would seem primitive to many others. (i.e. if an 'advanced alien' could examine us, it would be like us looking at an amoeba).

Despite this, it's extremely unlikely that any intelligent beings, from elsewhere in the universe, could find a way of overcoming the constraints of time and distance imposed by the physical laws which were discovered by Newton and refined by Einstein.

So I believe in the existence of extra-terrestrial lifeforms but I don't believe that they've defied the laws of physics just to buzz around a very insignificant planet which is orbitting an equally insignificant star in an very minor galaxy.

Chris

[andy hughes]

I am certain that there is life elsewhere in the universe. For some reason, we comfort ourselves by hoping that life will come from a planet that supports life in a similar way to earth, which is not only unlikely, it is illogical.

There are doubtless superior life forms out there with no physical form what so ever, they may think in colours, and communicate by smells - that's just an off-the-top-of-my-head example, but the idea that they have to physically fly through space is not valid.

On the basis of my theory, they are already here, they just haven't troubled themselves to tell us - perhaps worrying that we lack the intelligence to appreciate their input into our lives. Checkng out the presentation of our world leaders, I guess they have a point!

[KebabMeister]

Greetings Earthlings, can you direct me to Rigel Kentaurus please? :)

Seriously, there must be some form of life out there since it would be rather arrogant to think otherwise. Of course we can't prove a thing but maybe one day we'll find out. Remember that some believed that the Earth was flat; that the sun rotated around the Earth; that God created everything...

[ronniemonda8]

Remember...we're only intelligent because we happen to walk. That was a fluke.

[einsteinsdog]

There is a book about this called Probability One by Amir Aczel available on amazon .I havent read it ., but he follows similar arguments to those above (looking at the review). If anyone has read it let me know how good it is please. I dont really understand how anyone can quantify the likelihood of chemical reactions taking place which make life .....

[Gnisy]

Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it isn't there - little boy from The Preacher's Wife.

[jake-the-peg]

I'm not too convinced by the "rare earth" argument.

One of the factors quoted in this is the distance of a planet from a star for surface water. and an estimatey of a 5-15% margin of error for a planet to orbit in.

Yet we are now getting stronger and stronger evidence for surface water having once flowed on the surface of mars.

Many of the other factors seem to assume that there is no other solution - for example Jupiter mopping up asteroids.

I suspect that this indicates that it is highly unlikely for intelligent life to evolve that is like us.

Thing is we just really don't have enough data to be sure yet, if somebody finds a way to detect eath sized planets at stellar distances that'd help - but that's a big ask.

In the mean time we'll get a better idea the more we look at mars and venus

[einsteinsdog]

Are there not about 100 extra solar planets confirmed now, all gas giants?

[ronniemonda8]

More than that. Earth-like is not impossible.

[Meagannoel]

I have had two sitings of UFO's.... I believe they very much exist. We havent even disocvered half of our own universe, who is too say that we are the only ones in it.