When do you think we will encounter extra terrestrials? Or do you think we are alone?

Question

Im guessing in a 100 years

Answer 1

probably now or in the future. i do not think that we are alone, i am still trying to determine it.

Answer 2

By "encounter" you mean meet them and shake hands with an extraterrestrial? There's a couple problems with your question. First, we don't know the frequency of extraterrestrial life. We could be the only life in our galaxy (or perhaps even our universe, although it seems the height of hubris to believe we're that unique). If life is very uncommon, we might never encounter any. If it is common, space travel is still very difficult and we might not be able to reach any within any useful timeframe. (To get to the closest star in 100 years, we'd need to travel at about 5% the speed of light, which is well beyond any current or planned technology).

Would you consider "detecting" (if not "communicating with") extraterrestrial life to be an encounter? If so, it's possible that we'll be able to start gathering evidence for that within the next few decades. At this time NASA is planning a series of powerful new telescopes, including a "Terrestrial Planet Finder" that will be capable of locating Earth-like worlds around other stars. The presence of water, oxygen and other molecules combined with a planet in the right temperature range of a star would be good evidence of life on other planets, and that's something we could learn relatively soon.

In addition, if there are technological civilizations out there, we may still locate them through enhancements of SETI-like technology (essentially combing through the radio spectrum for signals that appear to be non-natural). Thus far, the search for radio signals has not been adequate to rule out the presence of civilizations that use radio elsewhere in our galaxy.

Answer 3

When you see how large our universe is, with the billions of stars and planets and systems, it's hard to believe that we're the only beings out there. At the very least there has to be animals and organisms on other planets, if not people that are as smart as us. But who knows, maybe there's extraterrestrials that are way smarter and advanced than us. We really just don't have the technology to know yet, but the time will come. We live in a vast universe though, even if these beings exist, whos to say they have any desire to explore space, or even believe that it exists?

There's no doubt that humans are totally interested in the question of whether or not extraterrestrials exist. Personally, I'll find it comforting if I'm still alive when they discover other life. To know we're not alone in the universe assures as that we aren't alone, aren't isolated, and that we aren't the most advanced beings in the universe. Humans are naturally curious, we are never happy with the information we have. We may one day collonize and explore many planets and systems, and still not find life.

Answer 4

Not only what we think matters, but looking at current statistics and what not, I read somewhere (sorry it was a while ago) that basically there are alread millions of planets out there with life on them already!!! With such a HUGE universe, how could there not be more life? It is all simple probability. According to this also, about 10,000 planets would have more intelligent lifeforms, such as ourself. Now, give or take a few thousand at most, even then there are still plenty out there to find! Many are probably stuck in their galaxy, as are we. Big green aliens are not likely to be there, but there is sure to be other life out there in the universe! The odds of us being alone is almost next to none from what we know!!! It could be a long time before we find life. Especially if you mean intelligent life. We may all die off before that even happens... Who knows. We will find out in time!

Answer 5

Do you really think any government anywhere would allow the masses to know that extra terrestrials have been here? We fight with each other over so many issues, we kill because someone thinks or looks differently than us, we don't have the maturity to accept et's because we can't even accept people on our own planet.

Answer 6

I would say that we will never encounter extra terrestrials, although I do think that they probably exist given the number of stars. The problem is that the distances between solar systems are so huge. Keep in mind that it takes 50,000 years using our current technology to make it to our nearest neighbor, Alpha Centauri. And even if they had technology that allowed them to travel at near the speed of light, it would take them thousands of years to accelerate to that speed, because the g-forces would be so tremendous. If aliens were to contact us here, they would have to have planned it thousands of years in advance. If we were to contact aliens, we would have to start it now and wait thousands of years.

Answer 7

With the way the world is going know (unusual weather, earthquakes, tornado's etc) I think we will be visited soon. Probably in a few years. I think we have already had visitors, it is just being kept from us. Like other things the higher ups don't think us lowly tax payers and worker bees need to know about!

Answer 8

We are so NOT alone. We are quite behind the rest of the universe. ETs have been with us for a long time, possibly since the beginning of time.
You may not actually meet one but you can research evidence that they are around.
Check the Internet.

Answer 9

honestly...never.
if there are (and I'm sure their are), other planets with intelligent life on it...and they are more advanced than us; what could they possibly gain by contacting us. a primitive culture to them. i suppose they think we will kill our own planet off pretty soon (since we are...and doing a bang up job of it too), and don't want US polluting their "spot" in the universe.

i guess we are the "rednecks" of the universe.

Answer 10

IF YOU WANT TO SEE AN EXTRA TERRESTRIAL LOOK
AT A NEWBORN BABY.

Answer 11

Impossible that we are alone, now as for intelligent life coming here or being anywhere near our solar system..eh...