If you look at all the other planets in our galaxy, you would think we are pretty special. The earth is at a perfect distance from the sun leaning on a tilted axis to where we are not in an inferno and not covered in ice...just right. Seasons rotate annually giving us climate change instead of infinite drought or flooding. We have one moon that influences our tides in the ocean (imagine if we had 4 moons...what would our tides be like then?). Every other planet has tons of massive craters and destruction from meteors and asteroids impacting the planet, yet we have just a few. Although each planet has its own beauty in some way, no other planet ( that we know of ) has the ironic qualities that earth has. Do you think we are special because of a higher authority or by coincidence?
2007-11-09 17:11:00 · 7 answers · asked by ben j 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
coincidence
there are other planets that are as lucky as us too.
take gliese 581 c for example..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_581_c
I don't know if life exists on the planet, but it is in a great spot for life to exist and they claim it DOES have water.....
If we weren't lucky, then we wouldn't be here asking questions.... we wouldn't be here at all.
http://exoplanets.org/
2007-11-09 17:15:02 · answer #1 · answered by Mercury 2010 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
That's the 64Million dollar question nobody has an answer yet. One approach is that you can say God meant it that way. The other extreme is that, among the billions of Galaxies each containing Billions of stars, the probability of finding the right conditions for the emergence of life is very high. So this happens to be here on Earth. So basically you can say that it was just extremely low probability but multiplied by the number possibilites yields at least a result of 100% success for life and intelligence. But then again I'd rather believe that my consciousness is not a result of chance but a preconceived design by a higher being :)
2007-11-09 17:20:28 · answer #2 · answered by h8gwb 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There must be billions of planets in our galaxy alone, probably trillions. And there are billions of other galaxies. We only know about 9 (or 8) planets so far. It's impossible for us to say if ours is unique at this time.
2007-11-09 17:38:14 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
We are not special, man will probably not exist in 50,000 years. All traces of man will be gone in another 100,000. Then Earth will be like all those other empty peaceful planets out there.
2007-11-09 17:18:23 · answer #4 · answered by Augie 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nothing special. There are billions of planets out there in he universe. One of them had to have the right conditions for lfie as we know it.
2007-11-09 17:49:41 · answer #5 · answered by Bob B 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it's the old tired question. If we weren't in a place that had those "special" conditions, we wouldn't be here to talk about it. So, just by our very existence, we define the "special" conditions.
2007-11-10 03:19:30 · answer #6 · answered by busterwasmycat 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No one explains it better then Carl Sagan himself.......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86BPM1GV8M
2007-11-09 17:15:06 · answer #7 · answered by Ares 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋