ALIENS!! Real or Not??

[Kilala]

I refuse to believe that we're the only planet with inhabitance within in this Universe. So yes, I do believe in aliens. Perhaps not the flying saucer variety but who knows? Just because you can't see it for yourself does not mean that there is nothing there.
For example when you look at a black part of the sky at night withholds a multitude of stars, galaxies and so on. The problem is light pollution... given off of us AND existing planets and the moon. Go figure... But you can't tell me there is no chance of some other planet somewhere of having a form of life on it. Maybe a more advanced life-form... or a simpler one.

In 2001 Scientists claimed they'd actually found life in Outer Space. They found 'clumps of extraterrestrial bacteria in the Earth's upper atmosphere.' It may not seem like much but it's something is it not? Bacteria exists here - and boy do we know it haha.

Another thing was in like 2008. A photograph was taken which may have been evidence that there was once life on Mars. But that's just looking close to home! What about further out there?

Despite some of it being a load of hype, I do believe that maybe some of the sightings that people have seen are real. Maybe it's just a grand hoax passed down the generations... or maybe something real sparked it off.

The fact of the matter is, we only live on a tiny spec of this Universe. We don't anything yet... And I believe we're not the only ones out there ^~.

[OnOneRyder]

OnOneRyder, there actually is a significant amount of research in the way of looking for life on other planets. Look up Astrobiology. There are even several US universities that offer majors/minors in the subject.

You've gotten very far off-topic here. Instead of debating whether there is life on other planets, you're now debating whether science is science.

In the grand scheme of things there is very little being done and you and I both know that. Searching for planets with similar chemical compositions such as our own could lead to discoveries sure, but searching for signals of intelligent life is a much more efficient means that lets us search huge amounts of space as opposed to individual planets. I'd really like to see more effort being put into searching for intelligent life because we could really learn a lot about ourselves and what the future may hold for us.

Yes I have gotten off-topic, how many more 14 year old's do we need to chime in with one sentence responses that say the same thing everyone prior has.

btw m16 it's quite apparent you're quite knowledgeable on the subject. Student studying similar topics? Cosmology has always interested me but I never did much more than read a few books and read articles online. So the things I know are quite limited and probably full of holes or errors to some degree.

[M16]

What type of search for intelligent life are you expecting? The planets that we detect are so far away, that the only way we "see" them is by their effects on their host stars. They are too far away to be seen with telescopes, and far too small, compared to stars, and far too dim, compared to stars, to be visually seen.

The most we can do at this stage of scientific evolution is detect these planets, figure out what they're mostly comprised of, and take it from there.




If you're complaining about not enough searching for intelligent life on planets in our solar system, I once again don't know what you're expecting. We currently have two machines running on Mars, and they move at <10 MPH. So on a planet that large, you can estimate for yourself how long it would take to move this solar-powered Mars rover around.

As for traveling to Venus or Mercury, it is physically impossible to land any craft on either planet due to physical conditions. With respect to the gas giants, it is physically impossible to land any craft on Jupiter-Neptune due to the fact that the only part of the planet dense enough to physically land on is under such vast gravitational pressure that any craft would immediately be crushed.

And yes, I study Astrophysics and minor in Physics and Math.


Also, I don't intend to sound rude if any of this came across as rude. The only way I really know how to discuss something like this is matter-of-factly.

[OnOneRyder]

I'm certainly not naive enough to believe intelligent life exists in our solar system other than on earth. Other than earth and mars there really isn't anywhere capable of hosting life as we know it at such an advanced state. I believe it possible to be some other form of life to be found, such as bacteria but in such extremes it probably won't evolve into much more than that.

I also certainly don't expect to "see" anything. The way I believe we will discover life elsewhere is by intercepting the same type of radio signals we're constantly sending into space that any alien civilization is likely going to be giving off. Capturing even the faintest trace of one of those signals could give us huge amounts of information, or even just trigger us to focus on one location until we do receive something important. The advances we could make with technology if we could decode it by receiving any type of signal from a civilization hundreds, thousands or even millions of years in the future would be...astounding.

[M16]

If we ever happened to receive any radio waves, they would be from the past, not the future. Foreign stars/planets are so far away, any sort of radio wave or any kind of wave we would possibly intercept would have been sent thousands of (earth) years ago.

Intelligent life itself is next to impossible to really debate about, because we have no way of tracing or measuring levels of intelligence as far as races go. I mean, if somehow we found on some planet miraculously that there are a bunch of cave dwelling creatures that walked on five legs and communicated through blinking with their four sets of eyes, I would still consider that intelligent life.

[OnOneRyder]

You're certainly correct about any radio waves being thousands of years old. No matter how advanced we get, unless we can stop/change time we will always be limited to how fast we can send information or travel at. However in the age of the universe, a few thousand years is really quite insignificant. If a planet somehow managed to evolve life a few million years earlier than our own which is very well possible, even if they didn't advance at a quicker rate their level of technology would be unfathomably superior to ours. This is the kind of information that if received could tells us a great lot about our universe and who knows, they may leak out a few secrets as well. As a physic student you've certainly heard about the grand unification theory. Figuring out some of the most complex yet simplistic questions like why everything is the way it is would be a huge step forward. Maybe not immediately as far as technological advancement goes, but just in scientific discovery alone.

[M16]

While thousands of years may not be much on the scale of the universe, it's an awful lot on the scale of humanity. We've evolved significantly as a species in the past four to five thousand years. We've nearly destroyed ourselves several times, and have made several substantial leaps in technological advancement.

Not that that's an extremely relevant point, but it's a comment on what you've said.

Again, it's not that I don't believe that other species exist out there. It's that I don't believe we'll ever come in contact with them.

[Led Zeppelin]

I personally don't believe in aliens...It's like saying sasquatch exists...I don't believe in him either >.>....For one thing isn't it proven that earth is the only planet that has an efficient amount of oxygene to be able to live of off because of our ozone layer circulates it... And isn't earth one of the only planet that has liveable temperatures because every other planet it's either too hot or too cold??...I just find it hard to believe that aliens are real <.<

[OnOneRyder]

In our solar system...yes. However with the amount of other planets out there it's always going to be impossible to rule out their existence. As for oxygen, that is only if life elsewhere requires the same elements to survive. There's nothing saying that another organism couldn't have evolved with methane playing the role of oxygen.

[Led Zeppelin]

It's possible for them to possibly live by breathing in methane...But what makes you believe there's aliens out there...Space crafts have been up there many times yet they still never claimed to find any...It just seems rather confusing to think about other living things out in space and how they could possibly adapt to the environment that they live in...And what do you think aliens could look like =S It's just a complexed subject

[Fate]

Pictures of aliens are all unconfirmed. Or, I guess you could say, they are all wrong. nobody has seen an alien; therefore, nobody can say that that's what aliens look like. And you'd think that aliens would have been sighted by now? I mean, notice how all pictures claiming to capture an alien or a UFO on camera is always blurred! And how come never, in live TV, does an object fly pass the sky?

[OnOneRyder]

Both of you are assuming an alien civilization is either living in our solar system or if not, visits it frequently. Like I've said before, the distances between stars are unfathomably large and without major changes in transportation the likelihood of traveling between them is very unlikely. They're probably looking up at the stars just as confused as we are, asking the exact same things.

[Led Zeppelin]

I doubt they would live on stars since they are bid exploiding balls of gas...It's like saying that aliens live on the sun since the sun is a huge star...And where would you assume aliens lived if it wasn't in our solar system...Don't say pluto because we already had a space craft with a camera on it that far away and none of the pictures show aliens <.< >.>.....and what do you think is considered to be an alien??

[M16]

PurpleDiamond, I don't think anyone was inferring that aliens can live on stars. I ould imagine that it's widely accepted that that wouldn't be possible, especially since there is no surface on the sun dense enough to settle on.

And as to your remark about Pluto, I'm not really sure what to make of it. We've taken pictures of the surface, but that statement is the same as saying "When we've sent spacecraft out to space and taken pictures of Earth, we couldn't see any civilzations. Therefore, none must exist."

http://ohmygov.com/blogs/general_new...eWestTerra.jpg

I don't know about you, but I don't see any signs of civilization in that picture. AND that picture is taken from a much closer distance than any picture we've taken of Pluto.

[Led Zeppelin]

Yah you're right =P...but it's just so hard to believe that something lives out there <.<... I mean why do you guys think there are aliens since it was never proven...And if there were aliens I don't believe they ever came to earth like some people claim in news articles and what not... Do you?? =S

[Fate]

As far as I'm concerned, every article in existence about aliens or UFO sightings are nothing but complete lies. Hell, H.G. Wells even made a book called "The War of the Worlds"! You can't ever believe tha you have seen an alien - even with your own eyes.

That is the reason why even when an actual alien - although I don't believe there ever will be one - is sighted, it will still be thought of as a hoax.

[OnOneRyder]

Yah you're right =P...but it's just so hard to believe that something lives out there <.<... I mean why do you guys think there are aliens since it was never proven...And if there were aliens I don't believe they ever came to earth like some people claim in news articles and what not... Do you?? =S

Do I think they've ever been here? Honestly no, do not. Space is so vast that even if our own galaxy had dozens of space voyaging capable civilizations the chance of them heading our direction randomly would be slim. And even if they were capable of traveling such distances, unless you can get to or very near the speed of light the length of time traveling there could be thousands of years requiring a vehicle to be self sufficient for dozens of generations. I'm sure that if they looked at this solar system they'd realize there were several planets of interest to consider being able to support life. But I'm also sure that once we evolve technology capable of observing HUGE amounts of star systems and their planets in detail that we'll also realize there are thousands of planets just like our own as far as temperature and elemental make up go.

Why do I believe aliens exist elsewhere? The same reason I believe they haven't been here. There's billions of stars in our galaxy alone, if life happened here because of the earths position in regards to the sun and the elements found here there's a very good chance similar planets exist elsewhere and that most likely some of those sparked life.

[IceColdPillow]

The odds of "aliens" on Earth is far fetched, but not entirely impossible. Now I didn't see anything about the Drake equation yet, but basically, the Drake Equation is a method to find how many technically advanced civilizations may exist in our galaxy. I believe the standard agreement is that there is between 1,000-3,000 technically advanced civilzations in our galaxy[don't remember].

Take in account the MASSIVE size of the Milky Way galaxy, these thousand or so civilzations are so far spread apart, the chance of any real encounters is very slight. Then again, the Drake equation obviously has its flaws and who's to know most of the information is wrong.

So, lets take in account how far in space travel the human race has come in the last 50 years. Imagine a civilization that has been doing it for 10,000+ years! I believe there is a slight chance someone has came across us at one point, or maybe they have been here and use Earth as a "docking" station to refuel!? Fascinating xP

[RagnaToad]

And where would you assume aliens lived if it wasn't in our solar system...Don't say pluto

First of all, Pluto is in our solar system, so your sentence doesn't make sense.

Second of all, what about ANOTHER solar system? You are aware of the fact that our sun is only one of many stars, right? Even in our milkyway alone...

And we're not talking about aliens in modern culture that "visit" and anal probe us or whatever. We're just talking about organisms living outside planet earth, above the level of vegetation. (e.g. animals)

Come to think of it. Would a bacteria be considered "alien life"?

[IceColdPillow]

Well, I had just accidently posted here twice, and accidently deleted both of them like the dumbass I am .

Anyhow in replacement of my more specific post heres a vague review with missing facts. I had basically said that bacteria are considered aliens, and are believed to be found inside comets yada yad. And also that the best chance for life in our solar system exists on the moons of Europa and Titan. Sorry folks thats all I remember

[RagnaToad]

Wtf are Europa and Titan?

Dwarf planets?

[IceColdPillow]

Europa is a planet covered in ice, it is a moon of Jupiters. Liquid water exists under a thick sheet of ice on the surface,now on Earth, near vents on the ocean floor, life flourishes, it's a possibilty the same could be said for Europa.
Now Titan, Titan is one of Saturns moon. It's surface is similar to that of Earth, but instead of liquid water oceans, the oceans of carbon and methane filled liquid. Also, the atmosphere is built up of nitrogen and methane and other trace organic molecules that are similar to early Earths atmosphere.
Now the downside for Titan and Europa, it's too damn cold. So, any life would have to live off the planets warmth and not the sun. The only hope is when the sun in 4-5 billion years turns into a red giant, perhaps the sun would be close enough for the planets to change and could harbour life and its not foolish to say that Titan[idk about Europa] could eventually be something like Earth.

[I did that off memory, i'll fact check later ]

[Darkwave]

i think that they are real but they are that so far away that we will never see them

[IceColdPillow]

Thats my ultimate theory too, I believe. The Alpha Centauri C star system lies about 4 light years away! Thats the closest, now imagine the trip an alien ship would have to take, Get out of our solar system, through a harsh, empty galactic gap in between solar systems, then the Oort Cloud, then the massive Keiper Belt, then they would have to somehow find our dingy little planet. SO the odds are really stacked up against them unfortunately.

But, the first worldwide radio signal was sent out about 80-85 years ago by Adolf Hitler, so as you know, all EM waves travel at the speed of light, so it is possible that another race picked the signal up and could be on their way by now :]

Oh, and btw the closest star with a planet that I guess could harbour life is about 10-12 LY away xP

[Ryu-Kentoshii Hirokima]

I think that it is possible that Extra-Terrestrials do infact Exist...I'm not saying they do, or don't, I just think it is possible that they might Exist, somewhere out there...LOL

Anyway, Happy Posting Fellas

[smithhanson]

I think that aliens are real. As many people have said before, I highly doubt that out of the infinite planets out there, we are the only life. We have already found water on mars, and Enceladus has an icy surface where tons of water could lie below with alien life. If the inhospitable moon Enceladus could have life, then we know that it is likely that several types of planets could as well.

Also, in other solar systems there are planets much like the ones in ours; there are lots of Saturn-like planets, or planets similar to Neptune out there. So the question is: Isn't it likely, then, that there are several Earth - like planets in other solar systems? If so, then we might not find just alien life; we might find intelligent life.

The thing is, once we find one planet with alien life, we know that there are trillions of others.

[GypsyElder]

Don't forget that there are tons of other galaxies, wouldn't we be aliens to the aliens? I also always wondered this: whose to say that there aren't other humans out there??

I personally don't really know.

[RagnaToad]

whose to say that there aren't other humans out there??

Me.

Man is only one little but insanely complex species of all species we have on our fart of a planet.

The chances of
1. a planet exactly on the same distance from her own sun.
2. that planet rotating at more or less the same speed
3. that planet cooling down at the same time as planet Earth
4. that planet having exactly the same gases around it, and substances in/on it.
5. the evolution of 'life' on that planet going exactly the same as on planet earth.
6. all this exactly at the same time as planet earth, because Man isn't really old, in Galaxy terms. Two planets having 'man' at the same time, that would be unimaginably coincidental.

The chances for that are, I'd say, pretty much non-existent.

I'm not saying there's no 'life' out there, or ever was, or ever will be.
I'm saying that there is no chance that there is a human civilization out there.

[Che]

Me.

Man is only one little but insanely complex species of all species we have on our fart of a planet.

The chances of
1. a planet exactly on the same distance from her own sun.
2. that planet rotating at more or less the same speed
3. that planet cooling down at the same time as planet Earth
4. that planet having exactly the same gases around it, and substances in/on it.
5. the evolution of 'life' on that planet going exactly the same as on planet earth.
6. all this exactly at the same time as planet earth, because Man isn't really old, in Galaxy terms. Two planets having 'man' at the same time, that would be unimaginably coincidental.

The chances for that are, I'd say, pretty much non-existent.

I'm not saying there's no 'life' out there, or ever was, or ever will be.
I'm saying that there is no chance that there is a human civilization out there.

Well, it's not impossible, as it would have to have a probability of zero to be impossible. It's just really really, low. But I'm just nitpicking. Everything else you said I agree with.

[Midnight Panda]

i beleive that the galaxy is too vast for us to be the only species. it may only be plants or stuff but i beleive there are other creatures out there. we are not alone