what are the chances that we are alone in the universe?

Answer 1

I'll give you the answer that I gave somewhere else.....
NO Chance.

considering that, there are approx 200 billion STARS only in our galaxy which means, putting in account 2-3 planets (no more to each star) we have approx half a trillion planets. (in our galaxy).
Therefore, taking in consideration 0.000001 that might be habitable, we still have 500000 planets that they might be habitable. from this number if we go down to .0001 with conditions similar to earth, we have 500 planets that might have life similar to earth.
The astronomers rise this number to 100.000 just for our galaxy, but I doubt if it right. But I doubt that we are alone. It should be very egoistic.
On the other hand...... consider that there are billions of Galaxies.
How should be posible to monopolise the "inteligence" (??????) in whole universe? It should be not only egoistic but arrogant too.

Answer 2

I have this theory that I call "The Infintessimal Theory" (And yes, I know that is not a real word). I am not going to go into depths about it, but I will paraphrase for you:
"If the universe is infinite, then it would be logical to assume
that the number of all things within this univers to also be
infinite. Thus, there are an infinite number of suns, planets
etc. in the universe. That means, in short, that the number
any given thing in the universe is also infinite."
That being said, I think that we would be very foolish to believe that we are alone. Even the Bible hints to it.... It speaks of Elijah being taken away in a burning chariot--- UFO? Also that a new Heaven and a new Earth will be where we live... Maybe we will be taken to a new place? Who knows?

Answer 3

I guarantee zero.

I cite the fact that under the most hostile conditions on our planet, life exists. Not sentient "take me to your leader" beings, but usually single celled organisms.

These hostile conditions exist on other planets/moons within our own solar system, the problem is those scientists willing to do the research are hampered by a severe lack of funding and public support. Raise taxes for education and hard science? Never!

The other thing to consider is that life does not HAVE to be based on carbon, its simply what happened in our system due to the prevalence of carbon. Also, oxygen is actually toxic to us at certain levels, so there's nothing to suggest that a silica based, radon breathing creature doesn't exist.

The sheer volume of the known universe, combined with the amount of earth-like planets discovered so far, almost guarantees that we are not alone as sentient life. Or that carbon-based, oxygen breathers are the only form of sentient life.

I may not live to see aliens, heck because of the size of the universe, and the difficulties in traversing interstellar space, our whole speices may die off before any of us sees another alien creature. But if I believe in anything, I believe life does exist out there, in a myriad of forms and levels of consciousness, and for us to dismiss the notion because we think an all powerful God created a sandbox just for us, but made sure we could only ever play on our one grain of sand is both exceedingly speciocentric, and just plain depressing!

Answer 4

It's a big universe, so I'd say that the chance of life, and even intelligent life, elsewhere in the universe is pretty good. The big question is whether we'll every become aware of that intelligent life. If we never become aware of that life, we might as well be alone.

Answer 5

You can estimate the potential for discovering life in the universe thet way SETI does. Below, I've copied and pasted the Drake equation, which is a way of estimating the potential number of radio-using cvilizations in the Universe.

"N = R* fp* ne* fl* fi* fc* L

where,

N = The number of communicative civilizations
R* = The rate of formation of suitable stars (stars such as our Sun)
fp = The fraction of those stars with planets. (Current evidence indicates that planetary systems may be common for stars like the Sun.)
ne = The number of Earth-like worlds per planetary system
fl = The fraction of those Earth-like planets where life actually develops
fi = The fraction of life sites where intelligence develops
fc = The fraction of communicative planets (those on which electromagnetic communications technology develops)
L = The "lifetime" of communicating civilizations "


Real scientists have argued and estimated the variables of this equation. Answers ranee from 1 (us alone) to millions (life everywhere...)

Answer 6

Mathamaticaly, the number of inhabited planets in the universe at our same level of inttelligence at this very time is 4. this do's not include races that,have come and gone before us and are now gone. other planets are gestating primitive life and will not be occupied by intelligent spieces for multi-million years. Still others have been erased by the crap shoot of planetary collision and such. No spieces at this time should be able to contact our present generation due, to the vast distance of separation to the nearest planets detected. our radio traffic emmitted for the past 100 years has not even had time to travel anywhere near the distance it would take to reach the most near planets and won't arrive there for hundreds of years

Answer 7

Without even looking at a mathematical analysis I think one is safe in accepting as a fact that we are not alone.

Answer 8

Do not expect it to be intelligent life as we know it. The chances are good if we keep that in mind.

Answer 9

We are in earth. Earth is with sun and other planet. Sun with other stars. We only can cross bounds of near planets from sun. So, if you go though probability then it is really absurd to be along......because there are millions of sun, stars are existing. But i dont know, could we ever meet them?

Answer 10

Small chance.