Extraterrestrial life

Are we alone in the Universe?

  • Yes

  • No

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Anti-Chris

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With the announcement of the SKA today, it got me thinking again... Are we alone? What are the chances of us ever confirming life outside of earth?
My honest opinion is that earth can not possibly be the only planet that has ever sustained life?
Will we ever be able to confirm the existence of life on other planets? I don't know.
Will we find and communicate with intelligent life from space? Chances are extremely slim, but not impossible.
Will we ever be able to visit another habitable planet or be visited by an extraterrestrial life form? Very close to impossible, but probably still not 100% impossible.

So just curious to see what the other forumites think... Is there complex life out there? A simple "yes" or "no".
 
I'd be interested in understanding what specifically observers would be looking for, to determine whether they are receiving/seeing anything that would be considered to be some type of off-worldly intelligence.
 
The sheer scale of the universe means there is likely something else out there somewhere.

The interstellar distances involved in establishing contact means we will likely not know for certain for the foreseeable future.

Even at the speed of light it still takes a stupid amount of time to reach another star.
 
It is unlikely that we are the only sentient species in the universe. It is equally unlikely that two such species would ever encounter each other, so it's a moot point.
 
I think they exist, and they can travel to us, but they don't. Or they don't make themselves known or visible.

We are probably very primitive to them, both in technology and how we interact.

I mean here we are worried about us destroying us. Very primitive.
 
SauRoNZA said:
I think it's highly probable that there is other life somewhere out there, but it's so far removed from us it's unlikely we'd ever interact or even become aware of each other.
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I figure there's likely a space battle going on somewhere in the universe; creatures far more technologically advanced than we are. But space is big even for them.
 
Anti-Chris said:
My honest opinion is that earth can not possibly be the only planet that has ever sustained life?
Click to expand...
Probably not

Anti-Chris said:
Will we ever be able to confirm the existence of life on other planets? I don't know.
Click to expand...
Probably, who knows how long it would take though.

Anti-Chris said:
Will we find and communicate with intelligent life from space? Chances are extremely slim, but not impossible.
Click to expand...
Agreed.

LCBXX said:
I'd be interested in understanding what specifically observers would be looking for, to determine whether they are receiving/seeing anything that would be considered to be some type of off-worldly intelligence.
Click to expand...
Pollution is one thing.

theconversation.com

Four ways to spot hints of alien life using the James Webb Space Telescope

New telescope allows us to study the atmospheres of planets orbiting stars other than our Sun in unprecedented detail.
theconversation.com theconversation.com

Oxygen and ozone
Phosphine and ammonia
Methane plus carbon dioxide
Chemical imbalances
 
r4nd0m said:
I think they exist, and they can travel to us, but they don't. Or they don't make themselves known or visible.

We are probably very primitive to them, both in technology and how we interact.

I mean here we are worried about us destroying us. Very primitive.
Click to expand...
Well.... They could be watching the bombing of Hiroshima live.... Thinking about it, they might be seeing the dark ages on earth or maybe even the Dinosaurs if they are far enough away....
 
Anti-Chris said:
Well.... They could be watching the bombing of Hiroshima live.... Thinking about it, they might be seeing the dark ages on earth or maybe even the Dinosaurs if they are far enough away....
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True, but maybe they don't have those relativistic limitations. Would be gnarly, right?

Maybe we're like the dog licking its bollocks. Maybe we're EarthTV. Eh.
 
r4nd0m said:
I think they exist, and they can travel to us, but they don't. Or they don't make themselves known or visible.

We are probably very primitive to them, both in technology and how we interact.

I mean here we are worried about us destroying us. Very primitive.
Click to expand...
It's always us who are the cavemen and never the aliens... :/
 
MrGray said:
It is unlikely that we are the only sentient species in the universe. It is equally unlikely that two such species would ever encounter each other, so it's a moot point.
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I have met many other sentient species. Animals of earth with backbones are also sentient species. And if we look at how humans treat other sentient species, maybe other sentient species should be hiding from us.
 
This is always an interesting question, lets take the following 2 planets as example:
  • Trappist 1e, is 40 light years away and 95% similar to earth.
  • Gliese 581g, is only 20 light years away and 94% similar to earth
So, in theory if there was a sufficiently advance civilisation, similar to our own, on either of those 2 planets we should have picked up transmissions of some kind from either.
However, even if we have not, it is not that simple as the civilisation can be either far more advance than us OR much more primitive.
OR maybe we have heard something, but we don't understand it.
 
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