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Permalink Reply by Akshay Bist on April 27, 2011 at 7:51am

Alien life could be as close as Mars or Jupiter's moon Europa. Europa is a strong candidate, because underneath its icy surface it has a warmer ocean. The ocean is warm because of the heat produced by tidal flexing caused by the gravitational pull of Jupiter & its other moons. That environment is similar to the deep sea environment of the Earth, where many life forms survive on minerals mixed into the sea by rocks & underwater volcano's.

So in this solar system alone, there is life on earth & is or has been life on maybe 2 other places.

According to Wolfram alpha there are 2x10^11 to 4x10^11 stars in the Milky way & there are 1.7x10^11 galaxies in the observable universe. With so many possible solar systems, I think there is a pretty good chance that sentient life has evolved or will evolve in other places in the universe. But the chances of any of them into contact with each other, not so high.

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Permalink Reply by Arcus on April 27, 2011 at 12:33pm

Should we perhaps make more detailed assumptions, i.e.:

Location            P(organic life)     P(intelligent life)

Earth                       100%                      100%

Solar system             1%                         ~0%

Orion Arm                 5%                         ~0%

Milky Way                10%                        1%

Local group             15%                        2%

Virgo SC                    25%                       5%

Universe                   99.9%                   99.9%

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Akshay Bist on April 27, 2011 at 12:48pm

Since Earth has confirmed intelligent, organic life shouldn't the probability of life in the solar system, milky & the universe be 100%?

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Permalink Reply by Arcus on April 27, 2011 at 12:54pm

Ah, should have specified it would be solar system (except earth) etc. Otherwise yes, everything would indeed be 100% and a lot less interesting. :)

In addition, I don't really have any background for the %-ages except what I pull out of my , it was more a model design I was getting at.

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Permalink Reply by Akshay Bist on April 27, 2011 at 1:00pm

Come to think of it, I should've guessed so. it was obvious.

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Permalink Reply by Rob Uncapher on April 27, 2011 at 1:42pm

I believe and everything I've seen about life out there points to an overwhelming,Yes they do exist.However are they intelligent,have they been here,are they still visiting I dont know.

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Permalink Reply by Isaac on April 27, 2011 at 4:44pm

It's certainly possible that extraterrestrial life exists and I would argue that it is highly probable that it does. However, until there is actual data that shows the existence of extraterrestrial life, I'm pretty much forced to believe that the earth is the place in the universe that life exists.

 

I'm slightly annoyed by people who think that the earth has been visited by extraterrestrials. The vast distance between the stars makes interplanetary space travel from one solar system to another extremely improbable. Also, as of yet, there haven't been any exoplanets that have been discovered that can harbor life, although I'm certain that scientists will eventually find those types of planets.

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Permalink Reply by Kekerusey on October 2, 2011 at 3:24am

As a long-time science fiction buff I would like to believe that there are aliens somewhere in our galaxy/universe however I am realist and the simple fact is that whilst there is evidence for other worlds that might be able to support life there is currently no evidence to support the actual existence of life on any planet outside the Earth.

 

I think a more interesting question is what would we do if we found some? Perhaps worse what if they found us?

 

Keke

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