Are we alone?

Question

The universe is SO big, what are the chances that we are the only technologically advanced species? And will we ever meet them?

Answer 1

I believe that there is other life out there. What it is or if we will ever find it is questionable.

Answer 2

Dear Adora:

It is entirely possible that we are not alone in the universe.
However, would you desire to meet cave men, or
intelligent fish? I am not trying to be funny. The process of
man's evolution has occurred over a long time, but only in
the last 50 to 100 years has the really significant technologies
become highly advanced.

Splitting the Atom, Space Flight, Interplanetary Probes, Space Communications to Robots on Mars, Saturn, etc., Hubbel Space Telescope, are all examples of recent advances in our capabilities as a race. All have happened within a very short span of time. Now consider that the Earth itself is something like 4.5
billion years old.

So, the trick is to understand that the intelligent life of which we
speak has only existed for an eyeblink in time (relative to the Earth's age). And, your question suggests that we find:

A.) An equivalent planet (s) in the Universe to our Earth, which can sustain and produce life. 100,000 to 200,000 Billion stars
are in the Milky Way Galaxy which could have from 0 to 10
(or more) planets circling them and one or more could be a parallel to our planet, Earth.

B.) The closest star to our Solar System is 4.4 Light Years away. Other stars range from 4.5 to 180,000 Light Years away from
our Sun. And, the brilliance of each of those stars is such that we cannot see the planets orbiting around them (like looking at an automobile's headlamps and being unable to see anything near the auto). Such immense distances seem to preclude any
visitation Them-to-Us, or Vice Versa. Even message communications would take years to send one way, and years
to receive a reply.

C.) Some stars are younger than our Sun. Some are much older.
Obviously the related planets each star has would fall into that same age rating as part of that star's solar system.

D.) Now, on the selected equivalent planet (equal to Earth's ability to produce and sustain life) how would we know when the "Eyeblink" in time (intelligent mankind development) occurred? Maybe that planet is in the Stone Age of man's
development (or an equal to Mankind). The other possibility is that mankind has come and gone (wiped out by some terrible event) on that equivalent planet. This is a real example of finding a needle in the hay stack. However, many highly trained professionals are looking for signs which might indicate something and direct our attention to some particular area of the sky.

Footnote: I recently noted a news article that the Hubbel Space Telescope had developed a new technical problem, so fewer
announcements of discoveries from that source will come in
over the near term.

Answer 3

There is a wonderful television show that was produced over a decade ago called COSMOS. It is a sequence of 1 hour segments that deals with this and similar questions. The things presented were well thought out and still timely. The major conclusions were based on scientific concepts that continue to be found to be accurate predictors of what happens when we conduct experiments.
The author of that series concluded that there is not enough information available to give a definitive answer but there is enough information to give a reasonable estimate of how likely other intelligent life is. The Universe is very big and his method leads one to believe that there is quite likely other intelligent life in the universe. His method leads me to believe that intelligent life is so rare that we probably will not meet any of them in person.

I occasionally still see the show on cable.

Answer 4

The universe is not infinite, regardless what others tell you. But while it is finite, it is vast.

Given that there are something on the order of 10^24 stars in the universe, if we conservatively estimate that 1 in a trillion can develop life, that leaves a trillion stars where life can form.

If 1 in a million currently harbor intelligent life, then that leaves 1000 advanced civilizations.

I believe these numbers are conservative. Regardless, I think it is unlikely that we will ever know and even more unlikely that we will ever contact them. 10^24 is a lot of stars and equal to the estimated number of grains of sand on Earth's beaches and deserts....times 100.

Also, interstellar distances (forget about intergalactic) are simply too large for simple travel and present temporal challenges to communication.

Answer 5

The infinite possibilities of the universe are a given.

The operative word is "Technology".

Whether mankind advances to a point where the capability of reaching outer solar systems is possible, is highly doubtful.

Whether mankind can better solve it's own problems within this planet is also highly doubtful, at this time.

The possibility that mankind will be capable of inhabiting other nearby planets that are not condusive to humans seems highly probable, at this time.

What may result in the course of the next five hundred to one thousand years is that earth may deteriorate, while mankind moves to other planets to start that deteriorating process all over again.

What is needed most is understanding among all people, all six billion plus, on earth... and making plans to keep this planet going by preserving what needs to be preserved.

I don't see that happening soon, as there is much strife among classes of people, among nations and among groups.

Answer 6

This is a question millions of scientists have been trying to answer and still trying to ....
and the universe being so huge and wiht so many stars & planetary sytstems possibly created before our own, it is definitely possible that there are similar or more intelligent life forms around ...
Moreover we cannot see the current state of any stars .. the light that we receive are always old :( .. its possible that some stars are even evolving in the same way as earth ....

Answer 7

The chances of there being other intelligent species are high. The chances of us ever meeting them are extremely low.

Answer 8

If you're talking about intelligent life...

Look, since we haven't met them yet, we cannot say for sure if there is or not. ... think about questions before posting them. Do you seriously (grr) think that (gnar!) anybody here knows for (yarg) sure???

Anyway, there could be some unintelligent life (not reffering to this forum) in the form of red rain cells that fell over India. They have no DNA, and can survive at extremely high temperatures. They are also very resistant to radiation.

Here's some links to it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_rain_in_Kerala
http://arxiv.org/find/grp_q-bio,grp_cs,grp_physics,grp_math,grp_nlin/1/all:+AND+Rain+Red/0/1/0/all/0/1

The second link is to a professional website containing actual scientific papers, so it may be harder to understand than the Wikipedia one.

Answer 9

It seems unlikely that we are the only ones in such a big universe, but that is no proof. Of course if we met them, that would prove it, but we haven't yet. And there is no real way to disprove it.

Answer 10

I strongly beleive there is life out there.... just not life as we know it ... i beleive a million light years away there may just be another plantet out there that mirrors our own in many ways. but as for more acurate life forms that we can encounter in out life time... i beleive it may be life.. but not as we know it.. eg: a life form must be able to be aware etc .. who knows there may be lifeform on other planets in the form of micro beasties. ( sorry for my expressions, im not an avelevel biologist) we all asume life on other planets must be human based. such as green aliens. the life forms we may encounter may be nothing more than light or energy feeding from a substance we dont think or as sustanable .. confusing yes I know. i confuse myself most days. I know what im trying to say but it never seems to come out right.