life on other planets?

Question

is there really life on other planets? I'm not talking about aleins, i'm talking about the life that comes from h2o heat and energy. Please give me a hand soon!!

Answer 1

Right now there is zero evidence of life on other planets. We've tested the Martian soil, with no positive results, and we've seen no evidence of life anywhere else we've looked. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence project (SETI) scans the stars for radio waves from other intelligent civilizations, and has not found anything since they began in 1984.

But scientists are still optimistic. Life on earth is incredibly resilient, and scientists are hopeful that they can find simple life (bacteria, basically) on other worlds where there is water (so far that means Mars and Saturn's moon Enceladus). But getting to either is very difficult - it takes 6 months for a spacecraft to get to Mars, and about 7 years to get to Saturn. And it is very hard to conduct experiments remotely to look for life.

But the search for life elsewhere is important, so we will continue to look. Wouldn't it be neat if we did find life somewhere?

Answer 2

As Carl Sagan said...If not, then that's an awful waste of space. Whether we believe because we like the thought of not being alone in the universe, or refuse to believe in extraterrestial life because of religion or whatever reason, the simple fact is that there currently is no evidence that life exists elswhere.

Remember that back in 1990, astronomers were reluctant to say that there were planets orbiting other stars--because they hadn't detected any. I think the number is approaching 200 extrasolar planets now.

There are two basic camps (that I know if) in the scientific community regarding this question. First, there are the optimists, who believe that there has to be life out there somewhere. In their favor, there are BILLIONS of stars just in our galaxy, and even if only a few hundredths of a percent provide the right conditions for life, that is still millions of stars. Further, the basic elements and compunds needed for life as we know it, hydrogen, oxygen, H2O, carbon, nitrogen, and a few others, are relatively abundant in the universe, making it easy to get the right mix if we can get a planet at the right distance from the right star.

The other side, the pessimists, have a couple very valid points as well. First, all the factors leading to life are very complex, and many may as yet be unknown--this means that there is a low probability that all the conditions could be repeated as needed. Second, (for intelligent life) where are they? If there are Aliens out there, and they can get here, then where are they?

Fortunately for us optimists, there are lots of explanations, answers to the pessimistic view. Life on earth seems to get into just about every nook and cranny, and as we discover life living in deep ocean volcanic vents, in caves filled with noxious gases, and in a myriad of other hostile environments, we learn that life has a way of pushing the limits.

I have some links to various concepts you might enjoy reading about. Enjoy!

Answer 3

There are about 300-billion other suns in our galaxy. We have found planets around 200 of those other suns, all no farther away from us than 100 light years. Say that there's at least one planet around only half of those 300-billion suns and you come up with 150-billion planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone. A couple of years ago a scientific research group estimated that the total number of stars (suns) in the universe is about 70-sextillion. Do you see that the chances of there NOT being life elsewhere are absurdly high.

Answer 4

Life exists on a great number of worlds. Over the centuries, your planet was a curious place to visit once or twice and was not considered very interesting . Sure, your wars showed us how undeveloped you are as a species. Your infantile,(in cosmic terms) dependence on god concepts does not bode well for you and neither does your penchant to breed beyond your planet's ability to sustain you. We are now showing an interest in you because it is not often that we get to observe a species commit suicide. You are so close to maturing as a sentient species and it will be a shame to see you kill yourselves. There are just not enough of you becoming rational enough to force the issue. You let the least among you determine your fate, so be it.

Answer 5

Currently, there is no conclusive evidence of life on planets other than Earth, however there is evidence of there being water under ther surface of Mars which may lead to theories of life. Currently, we are finding that water is actually quite abundant in our solar system in one form or another and that organic molecules (those containing hydrogen, oxygen and carbon, the basic building blocks of what we know as life) are also very abundant. Just this weeks there was discovered to be layers of organic material on a mountain range on Saturn's moon, Titan. This leads to there being some suspicion of there being life on that moon, and meteorite samples from Mars in Antarctica have led to questionable suspicions of life on that planet. In all, however, we have discovered nothing conclusive.

Answer 6

Statistically, there just HAS to be life on some other planet.
It's just a matter of time and luck before lifeforms emerge from inert matter.
And even if there isn't any in our close vicinity at a given time, (our solar system), we've got to look at the big picture... There probably WAS life millions of years ago and probably WILL BE life in millions of years from now.
Millions of planets... so many chances for life to emerge.

Answer 7

Just recently on the news it was shown that Mars (I believe) had produced what they believe is H2O. Check out CBS news channel 3 on your internet to see if you can get more info on it.

Answer 8

Titan (Saturn) & Io (Jupiter) maybe

there are lot of articles on this subject - just google- earthlike planets

Answer 9

None that we know of. There may be some, but we have never seen it.