When was the question of life on other planets raised?

Question

& who first suggested that life may exist on other planets?

Answer 1

I know Bruno did it just back before Galileo, and he was burned at the stake for it.

Answer 2

Belief in extraterrestrial life may have been present in ancient Egypt, China, Babylon, India and Sumer, although in these societies, cosmology was fundamentally supernatural and the notion of alien life is difficult to distinguish from that of gods, demons, and such. The first important Western thinkers to argue systematically for a universe full of other planets and, therefore, possible extraterrestrial life were the ancient Greek writers Thales and his student Anaximander in the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. The atomists of Greece took up the idea, arguing that an infinite universe ought to have an infinity of populated worlds. Ancient Greek cosmology worked against the idea of extraterrestrial life in one critical respect, however: the geocentric universe, championed by Aristotle and codified by Ptolemy, favored the Earth and Earth-life (Aristotle denied there could be a plurality of worlds) and seemingly rendered extraterrestrial life philiosophically untenable. Lucian in his novels described inhabitants of the Moon and other celestial bodies as humanoids, but with significant differences from humans.

Answer 3

In literature Jules Verne brought up the subject in 1865's 'From The Earth To The Moon'. That's my earliest recollection. It was the subject of one of the first silent sci-fi movies.

Answer 4

It probably happened the first time people realized that those lights in the sky were other worlds.

Answer 5

probabaly asked then before or during the time of aristotle