If a planet can be seen with signs of civilization in another solar system can you assume it has life on it?

Question

assume you can observe, built up structures. remember the speed of light, ancient civilizations here on earth, and the interaction and impact that the life form(s) (our case, human) may have played. all your observations are done with massive telescopes.

Answer 1

Not really sure what your asking but, if you're looking at a planet that's 90 million light years away, then you're seeing the planet as it was 90 million years ago, and if that's the case you may see evidence of life, however a cataclysmic event could have caused the extinction of that race or they may have evolved and moved on. Theoretically either those situations could be happening while your looking at it

Answer 2

This is a complex question. The age of the light only means that at that time, there were structures that look like the results of intelligence. Nowhere can you assume that life was involved, and here is why.

Suppose a race built robotic workers and they built structures on that planet. Even if there was never life on the planet in the first place, there would be structures made by machines then. Hence, you could not say whether there was life there or not.

If, however, you saw structures on a planet and you also analyzed the light and you saw absorption lines for chlorophyl or rhodopsin, or some other complex organic molecule, then you may safely assume that there is at least plant or bacterial life at the time the light left that planet.

Consider that structures on an airless world would mean that either living beings or machines made them, and there would be no way to determine which from here, but we could be pretty sure that there was no indigenous life on a rock with vacuum.

Answer 3

Well assuming we could ever build telescopes that big, yes it would be a good indication for life existing in the past if not the present.I would say a definite indication of life but I don't know what level of detail we can see with these telescopes.By this I mean that certain geological conditions could create shapes and and patterns on a planets surface which would give the impression of intelligent creation but may only be the action of erosion or rock crystal growth.However If enough detail could be seen then it would be possible to rule out anything other than the existence of life now or in the past.That, I think,would be a wonder-full discovery itself.

Answer 4

How can not. It should be relatively easy to identify unnatural structures if one is familar with the ecosystem of said planet. Calcuating storms, abundant elements on the surface of said planet and most prevelant sources energy would also come into play when trying to decide if there are signs of life - by the way what do mean by civilization, life in general, or an actual civilized society of living entities. Either way signs of civilaztions would only support the notion that life exists. But it cannot work the other way because life doesnt' nessesarily mean that there exists civilization.... which is more so organized/ordered chaos than life itself which would simply promote chaos without boundaries...in order for life to exist there would have to be some sort of stabilized life cycle. which would naturally evolve into a type of civilation... depending on the defintion of "civilization", of course. Good question though...

Answer 5

There are several ways of living and acting. Einstein said "There are two ways to live your life - one is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle."

Life is a miracle. But to make assumptions is un-scientific. The nearest star is 8.6 light years away from us. This is a huge distance, but only 8.6 years in time.

If we had a telescope that was good enough to show signs of civilization on a planet, as of less than 9 years ago, I would like to assume that those folks have not blown themselves up in the last 9 years. As a scientist, I would not allow myself to assume this however. I would/could only hope that they still lived there.

;-D Hey neighbor! Come-on over! Let's have tea! Or do you prefer coffee?

Answer 6

Presumably you would know the distance of this planet. (say x light years away) The most you could conclude from your stated observations is that "x years ago, this planet had structures that look like the work of a civilization to us". It MIGHT have had life or it MIGHT still have life. More data needed........

Or a more 'massive' telescope.......!

Answer 7

Oh, I get it, it's a trick question. I suppose if you are observing "signs" of civilization, that would not necessarily mean there is still life there, only that there may have possibly been life there. Hey, we thought there were Martians because we thought we saw "signs" of civilization on that planet. Turns out it doesn't look good for life existing there. Looks can be decieving. Is that your point?

Answer 8

NO science thought for years that Mars had canals and there was not anything there. Most planets around the closest could not be detected at all until recent telescopes improvements.

Answer 9

different life in our photograph voltaic equipment is comparatively no longer likely, despite if life in different aspects of our galaxy or different galaxies around the universe is extremely yet another tale. Our galaxy, that's comparatively small, is approximately one hundred,000 mild years for the time of. to offer you a concept of how massive it particularly is mild travels at approximately 186,000 miles a 2d. You do the mathematics. Then multiply that by using the billion galaxies that are regular. And bear in mind, our view of the universe is obviously very constrained. So i think of to represent that we are the only spec of airborne dirt and dirt with life on that's style of brash. the section is so extensive the opportunities are only for it.

Answer 10

Assumptions can be made that there should have been some life sometime before or may be there is. But in what form and shape we won't know. So it is too early to come to any conclusions.
VR