NASA discovers alien life; will be announcing on 2 Dec.

D.B.Cooper

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Probably not, though one can always hope. ;)

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe.

The news conference will be held at the NASA Headquarters auditorium at 300 E St. SW, in Washington. It will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's website at http://www.nasa.gov.

Participants are:

- Mary Voytek, director, Astrobiology Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington
- Felisa Wolfe-Simon, NASA astrobiology research fellow, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif.
- Pamela Conrad, astrobiologist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
- Steven Benner, distinguished fellow, Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, Gainesville, Fla.
- James Elser, professor, Arizona State University, Tempe

Media representatives may attend the conference or ask questions by phone or from participating NASA locations. To obtain dial-in information, journalists must send their name, affiliation and telephone number to Steve Cole at [email protected] or call 202-358-0918 by noon Dec. 2.

For NASA TV streaming video and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about NASA astrobiology activities, visit: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov

Source: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/nov/HQ_M10-167_Astrobiology.html
 
sure, and jesus came back to say hi :p
 
Last time they did this was because they "found water on the moon"
 
They may have found ancient bacteria on mars or something. If they did find any intelligent life, we wouldn't know about it. ;)
 
They may have found ancient bacteria on mars or something. If they did find any intelligent life, we wouldn't know about it. ;)

Or that there is a significant chance that intelligent life will be found on Earth within the next 100 years
 
intriguing. I think they will more likely talk about theories about E.T life.
 
Guys it's extraterrestrial life not little green men, but you knew that already!

This is a huge breakthrough, MASSIVE actually and I look forward to this! :)
 
Or that there is a significant chance that intelligent life will be found on Earth within the next 100 years

:D

People must realise that in the 'lifespan' of a planet, for only a tiny fraction of that will it be suitable to sustain life. The Earth is about 4.5 billion years old; IIRC the first life appeared about a billion years in. In about another billion years the sun will go red giant and vapourize the surface of the earth, though the planet itself will continue to exist for many more billions of years. Chances are that Venus/Mars etc. (in fact any terrestrial planet, apart from pluto and the many other dwarf planets) once held life.
 
They're making this announcement while they can their space travel program?
 
:D

People must realise that in the 'lifespan' of a planet, for only a tiny fraction of that will it be suitable to sustain life. The Earth is about 4.5 billion years old; IIRC the first life appeared about a billion years in. In about another billion years the sun will go red giant and vapourize the surface of the earth, though the planet itself will continue to exist for many more billions of years. Chances are that Venus/Mars etc. (in fact any terrestrial planet, apart from pluto and the many other dwarf planets) once held life.

Earth is a very old planet. The Universe is approximately 14 billion years old. Earth has only existed for roughly 9 billion of those years and only has 2 billion years left before the sun will begin to destruct.

It's a common misconception to think we're ahead of the times but the truth is, we are very late for the party and it's almost over. This solar system will pass away and others will be born, life goes on and on and on and perhaps in a few billion years from now, other's like us will be sitting on a planet far away, on a forum like this, marvelling over the imminent discovery of extraterrestrial life, and so the cycle continues! :D
 
I shudder to think of the ignorance that most people have towards the total scope and nature of the universe. If you think there is no life in the universe apart from on Earth you just are a lost cause.

The conditions for life while extremely rare to find when you are thinking of one solar system, become phenoiminally likely when you realise how many stars exist in the universe.

The universe is simply far too massive, far too old, and the ingredients/elements its made of relatively tiny, for anything but thousands/millions of forms of intelligent life to not to exist all over the place.
 
Last edited:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_E19_s_and_more

1014 (100 trillion) years—high estimate for the time until star formation ends in galaxies.[3], §IID. Once star formation ends and the least massive red dwarfs exhaust their fuel, the only stellar-mass objects remaining will be stellar remnants (white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes.) Brown dwarfs will also remain

Thats 100 trillion!

Zimbabwe-One-Hundred-Tril-001.jpg
 
I shudder to think of the ignorance that most people have towards the total scope and nature of the universe. If you think there is no life in the universe apart from on Earth you just are a lost cause.

The conditions for life while extremely rare to find when you are thinking of one solar system, become phenoiminally likely when you realise how many stars exist in the universe.

The universe is simply far too massive, far too old, and the ingredients/elements its made of relatively tiny, for anything but thousands/millions of forms of intelligent life to not to exist all over the place.
Keep on shuddering. The problem isn't that people don't have some grasp of the universe and the numbers involved. It's that they don't have any grasp of what life is, let alone intelligence. Hence the dippy notions that it can be cooked up in a primordial soup.
 
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