The great Question of the universe?

Question

Do you belive in life on other planets and why?
If not why do you think we are the only life in the universe?

Answer 1

I believe there is life elsewhere in the Universe. I don't understand why we keep looking for life "as WE know it"!!!!
Its entirely possible that life exists elsewhere and is completely different from what we can think of. Say, just look at our own planet. Can we say that our planet itself is living? Its not so crzy a concept, there are so many micro-organisms in our own body... Maybe Earth itself is a living thing!
Nebulae may have floating microbial life... without even a planet!!! We have organisms on earth that live in extreme climates, extreme heat, lack of oxygen and using different types of energy sources. So whynot else where. :-)

Answer 2

From a scientific viewpoint the question is completely indeterminate. We won't know until we have some evidence, and, despite the cravings of the UFO chasers, we have no such evidence.

You ask if we "believe." Science does not deal in beliefs, but only in facts.

Having said that, there is a widely-held intuition that has been expressed in a lot of these answers, that says there is life out there. And it is true that probability supports that belief.

Personally I believe life exists in abundance just beyond where we can see. Maybe we will know one day. Because of the vast distances involved, it is not likely we will ever come in contact with other life. I'm afraid we are responsible for our own planet and our own future generations.

The best thing we can do is vote intelligently in the next several elections.

Answer 3

The way we can calculate the possibility of life is by the Drake Equation, created by Frank Drake in the early 1960s. It states:

N= [r* x fp x ne x fl x fi x fc] L where:

N= number of possible civilizations to communicate with

R* = is the rate at which stars capable of sustaining like are formed

fp = the fraction of these stars which have planets

ne = the number of planets similar to Earth in the planetary system

fl = the fraction of the Earth-like planets that hold life

fi = the fraction of life that becomes an intelligent civilization

fc = the fraction intelligent civilizations that attempt to communicate

L= the number of years the civilization remains able to communicate.

When these numbers are taken into consideration, we realize that there is a great possibility of life out there. There are about 400 billion stars in our galaxy, so there could be life right next door (relatively speaking, since that may be hundreds of thousands of light years away). Even if there is no life in the Milky Way, there are billions of other galaxies to turn to. We likely will not contact such civilizations in our lifetime, but it gives us a new kind of hope and dream for the future of our planet and the future of mankind.

Answer 4

We are 100% not alone in the universe. Think about it - there are millions of galaxies each with billions of stars all existing for a hundred billion years. We have been able to observe at least some of these stars having planets, which would indicate that planets are fairly common. Among all these innumerable solar systems, doesn't it seem probable that the same conditions that happened on our planet exist somewhere else? Even barring that, life could conceivably exist based on processes that are not even remotely similar to our own. Surely among all the stars we see there are others like us, or at the very least some alien bacteria.

And that's all only the visible universe.

Answer 5

Someone once said that thinking that we were the only life form in the Universe, was like an ant in the middle of a sandy beach who because he can see no other life form belives that he is the only living thing on Earth.

Answer 6

We could be alone. True, space is vast, and the number of alien worlds vast, but then so are the odds against life arising. And, someone has to be first!
I tend to the 'rare earth' school - the balance of probability is that life has arisen more than once, maybe many many times, but life bearing planets must be scattered very thinly.

But this is one reason why the search for life in our solar system is important. If extant or fossil life is found on Mars, or Titan, or another moon, then this really does change Drake's equation and would imply a universe teeming with life!

Answer 7

There must be because the universe is presumably infinite. All those stars we can see have planets orbiting them, so there must be some form of life out there even if it is simple bacteria.
The earth probably exists somewhere else in a parallel universe in space with us sitting on it wondering the same question.
If you have an infinite amount of monkeys banging away on typewriters. The rules of probabilty mean that one of those monkeys will write a piece of Shakesphere, just by chance. This analogy can be used on the universe. With an infinity of planets there must be copies.

Answer 8

Given the quantity of possible planets within our Milky Way alone, the probability of there being life on one of them is high. There are more than 200 Billion Stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Each one of them could have a solar system comprised of from one to ten (or more) planets with their own moons. Exceptions to this statement are those stars which are binary (two circling each other), trinary (three circling each other) or clusters (a mass of tightly packed stars). Those exceptions do exist and I don't think it would be possible for them to have planets in stable orbits around a wildly fluctuating central mass of stars circling around each other.

Beyond the Milky Way Galaxy there are thousands and thousands of other galaxies with each one of them containing billions of additional stars. Each of those (same exceptions apply) could have a solar system made up of from one to ten (or more) orbiting planets along with their own moons.

So the possible number of solar systems is quite large and the probability that one or more of them might have the right conditions for life to exist is very good.

At the same time, the probability that we will find "people" living somewhere out there is rather small. More probable would be vast numbers of insect, fish or bird species. A brief look at the numbers of different species here on Earth would justify that thought.

Answer 9

Yes of course I do. Just think about it a little bit... In our solar system we have 9 (give or take new definitions) planets that circle our sun. No look out into the sky any given night and try to count they stars.... they are ALL versions of our sun. Millions, and billions of suns. Now, it's naive and ignorant to think that in this ENORMOUS, and as far as human knowlege exists, UNENDING universe that WE (little Earth) is the ONLY planet with life.

Answer 10

I would be very suprised if, out of all the planets, Earth is the only one with life. I beleive that small life forms have been found already but i doubt there will be much bigger than that near here. I expect there must be more intelligent life out there somewhere but much farther away from Earth.