Do you believe there is life on another planet?

[Soubriquet]

I think it would be incredibly naive of us to assume that in all the planets in all the universe, we are the only one with advanced life forms.

I like to believe there is another planet out there with humans on it but it may only be primitive life.

You?

I think there is a chance there is life somewhere else in the universe. The chance of there only being this planet with life seems very, very small.

What would be very interesting is whether there are non-carbon based lifeforms.

I am hoping that before we or any extra terrestrial life have evolved far enough to find life elsewhere that we/they have already learned not to, and to leave well along for fear of interfering / starting conflicts.

I think there must be life out there. I doubt it's humans though. Whether we will ever be in a position to connect with other life forms is another question.

The vastness of space and the numbers of galaxies, planets, stars, moons and whatever is utterly boggling to me. It is impossible to imagine that there AREN'T life forms on other planets, be they single cell (as we know them) life forms up to well, who knows the scope of development over billions of years.

Our tiny blue planet is so, so insignificant in the universe!

Would be interesting if we were able make contact but I can’t see it ever going well.

There are so many movies showing how “aliens” will destroy our earth. People will be paranoid

We can't even live in peace on this planet and look after it properly.
No way should we be interacting with other planets yet.

@Soubriquet

I think it would be incredibly naive of us to assume that in all the planets in all the universe, we are the only one with advanced life forms.

I like to believe there is another planet out there with humans on it but it may only be primitive life.

You?

I think it's incredibly naive of us to assume that, across the vast universe, we are an advanced life form

Based on the evidence so far I'm hoping the universe has better on offer....

I thinknits rather arrogant ti assume we're the only intelligent life form in the universe. There must be life out there somewhere. Perhaps not little green men, but certainly something.

I think the chances are pretty high, I just can't get my head around the vastness of the universe and this being the only planet sustaining life.

If you think about it, there are potentially more stars out there than there are grains of sand on all the beaches on earth and that there are 8 planets orbiting our own grain of sand. Add the fact that the Big Bang happened 14 billion years ago and life only appeared on our planet just over 3.5 billion years ago. Humans only appeared between 5 and 7 million years ago and think that in that 5-7 million years we've only really had the potential to go into space in the last 60 years then it's highly likely there is other life in the universe... it might be anything from teeny tiny amoebas that are just evolving right up to dying civilisations who know about us but who are advanced enough to know not to contact us until we achieve warp speed whilst they fly past (First Contact reference there for the Star Trek fans)

Any kind of life that's at the same evolutionary level as us may be too far away to know about us. It's the ones that are a little more advanced but not enough to know that anal probes are passé that we need to worry about.

Would be interesting if we were able make contact but I can’t see it ever going well

Not only that, depending on where they are and how advanced their technology is, they could be looking at earth and seeing dinosaurs, they may nit realise life has evolved and they may be afraid of the giant reptiles

I believe in aliens. In fact aren't we technically aliens? Didnt we evolve from bacteria on a meteorite? Happy to be told I'm wrong on that.

They have found evidence of water having at one point been on the moon and Mars haven't they ?

I dont know.lw what form.life on other planets take but I do believe that there is some.

Would be interesting if we were able make contact but I can’t see it ever going well.

As we can't live harmoniously with other humans I can't see it going well with 'other intelligent' life, amoeba maybe. Not going to argue with Prof Cox that there is life out there somewhere. If you look though at how relatively fast we managed to mess up our shot at world domination I wouldn't like to place bets on another civilisation being near enough and developed enough, but to not also have made a mess of their planet to make contact at the same time we are able to.

It's one of the mysteries i really hope is solved in my life time. I definitely believe there is other life out there somewhere. The space question i can’t get my head around is how can anything be infinite... like, when space ends.. then what ?

We know that, on Earth, wherever there is liquid water, there is life. Even on the deepest ocean floors, life exists which utilises energy not from sunlight but from geothermal vents.

That being the case, it’s reasonable to ask if life also exists where liquid water is present outside our planet. We know that some of Jupiter’s moons are covered in ice, and have atmospheres which contain some oxygen. Those ice caps are believed to cover seas of liquid water which may contain life. We don’t know yet. But if life does exist in those seas, it would strongly indicate that the universe is teeming with life.

What sort of life, though? It could just be simple organisms such as bacteria or algae, we don’t know. My own view is that if technologically advanced civilisations did exist elsewhere, we would have found evidence of them by now. We have been looking seriously for decades and have found nothing.

My own view is that if technologically advanced civilisations did exist elsewhere, we would have found evidence of them by now. We have been looking seriously for decades and have found nothing

Without getting in too deep with conspiracy theories, the space program etc are all heavily involved with the military/government aren't they ? So people would be well placed to keep it all quiet if that was the decision.

Makes the whole Majestic 12/ area 51/ x files /roswell thing at least fairly plausible

I believe there must be other lifeforms out there. Whether they are similar to us, or so different we wouldn't recognise them as lifeforms is a different matter.

@Soubriquet

I think it would be incredibly naive of us to assume that in all the planets in all the universe, we are the only one with advanced life forms.

I like to believe there is another planet out there with humans on it but it may only be primitive life.

You?

Yes!! Always have. Also ridiculous to assume if there's no water there can't be life on a planet. Just because our species and the animals and plants etc we live around need water doesn't mean other alien whatever's need it too!

I also think we should leave them alone. They don't bother us we shouldn't bother them

We can't be the only ones, considering how vast the universe is. But as someone said Earth is large enough and we don't live in harmony, we don't need another race, who most likely would not be friendly.

@HerRoyalRisesAgain

Would be interesting if we were able make contact but I can’t see it ever going well

Not only that, depending on where they are and how advanced their technology is, they could be looking at earth and seeing dinosaurs, they may nit realise life has evolved and they may be afraid of the giant reptiles

Personally speaking, the giant reptiles would be preferable. They wouldn't launch missiles at them.

My own view is that if technologically advanced civilisations did exist elsewhere, we would have found evidence of them by now. We have been looking seriously for decades and have found nothing

Wow. We've been looking for entire decades with what is limited technology, and can barely get off the planet yet. I bet you were never any good at hide and seek if you give up that easy.

Personally speaking, the giant reptiles would be preferable oh they would be for me too. But the other life out there may not know about humans, or how violent we can be.

This is an excellent summary of the potential reasons we haven't found any other life out there yet, despite the huge number of potentially habitable planets...

We know that some of Jupiter’s moons are covered in ice, and have atmospheres which contain some oxygen

The big four Galilean moons only have trace oxygen/atmosphere(s).

And even if they did have both oxygen/atmosphere, the immense radiation from Jupiter would have a devastating impact.

Titan, the largest moon in the solar system (orbiting Saturn) is the only entity that has a proper thick atmosphere like Earth/Venus. But its distance from the Sun means that its a bit cold.

In fact, Titan is the only moon in the solar system that has an atmosphere to speak of.

Theres is a good reason we are carbon based. From the bits I’ve picked up over a lifetime,ll it’s actually pretty tricky to get life to exist in the Universe.
I mean clearly in an infinite universe the odds are high that it’s happened elsewhere too, but actually, much lower odds than you would think.

We are all way more special than the general approach to life would have you think.

Yes! Strongly recommend this article. Sort of blew my mind. The overwhelming likelihood is that there is intelligent life elsewhere but why haven't they contacted us? This explores that question:

waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html

I want us to concentrate resources on protecting & nurturing life on the one and only planet in the whole universe where we know life exists.