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Do you think there is life on another planet?

72 replies

Thingsarebecomingstrange · 05/04/2024 19:30

If so what do you imagine it would be like?

Similar to us humans, just plants, sea creatures, something beyond our imagination and totally out of this world.

Something much more advanced than we are or far behind.

I've been watching 3 body problem and it gets you wondering.

OP posts:
HappiestSleeping · 05/04/2024 19:33

Was it Arthur C Clarke who said "there are two possibilities. Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Both options are equally frightening."

I think that sums it up quite well.

boobot1 · 05/04/2024 19:38

Yes I do. All those options probably exist somewhere, another planet, another dimension, another time.

PuttingDownRoots · 05/04/2024 19:46

Life yes.
Intelligent life capable of contacting another planet... no

DetOliviaBenson · 05/04/2024 20:02

Yes. But I doubt we'd make contact in any of our lifetimes.

HappiestSleeping · 05/04/2024 20:03

PuttingDownRoots · 05/04/2024 19:46

Life yes.
Intelligent life capable of contacting another planet... no

One could argue that there isn't a great deal of intelligent life here 😂

UpsideLeft · 05/04/2024 20:05

I hope so because we keep destroying life on ours

Balloonhearts · 05/04/2024 20:06

Of course. It would be very egotistical to think that we are the only intelligent life to have evolved in the vastness of the universe. I doubt we will ever make contact or know of each other though. If there were sentient life on other planets that we could actually get to, we'd have seen them by now. Most likely those planets are far far out of reach.

PuttingDownRoots · 05/04/2024 20:07

HappiestSleeping · 05/04/2024 20:03

One could argue that there isn't a great deal of intelligent life here 😂

Thats an insult to the dolphins and cats.

Thingsarebecomingstrange · 05/04/2024 20:08

HappiestSleeping · 05/04/2024 19:33

Was it Arthur C Clarke who said "there are two possibilities. Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Both options are equally frightening."

I think that sums it up quite well.

That's a brilliant quote.

OP posts:
Soubriquet · 05/04/2024 20:09

I think we would be very ignorant to think there is no other life out there in the entire solar system.

HappiestSleeping · 05/04/2024 20:09

PuttingDownRoots · 05/04/2024 20:07

Thats an insult to the dolphins and cats.

Very true 😂😂

Birchvalley · 05/04/2024 20:12

My ex is on another planet. Lol

AgingDisgracefullyHere · 05/04/2024 20:12

The odds are yes. There's as many as 40 Billion earth-sized planets and I suppose billions of those are at a similar distance from their suns. So conditions that are similar are numerous and it makes sense that life resulted on some of them.

The odds of one of them having life capable of contacting us is much, much lower. So low that I think it's extremely unlikely.

ButtockUp · 05/04/2024 20:14

HappiestSleeping · 05/04/2024 19:33

Was it Arthur C Clarke who said "there are two possibilities. Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Both options are equally frightening."

I think that sums it up quite well.

Yep.

TheGreenManalishiWithTheTwoProngedCrown · 05/04/2024 20:15

The probability of a planet or moon existing with all the right conditions for life to arise would be infinitesimal, were it not for the fact there are so goddam many planets and moons. However, the probability of one having both the right conditions for life and exactly the same conditions that led to the evolution of humans really is so close to zero as to be effectively zero. This is why I can't bring myself to watch garbage sci-fi where every alien life-form is a human with different-coloured skin or some kind of lump on its head.

MrsTerryPratchett · 05/04/2024 20:18

Balloonhearts · 05/04/2024 20:06

Of course. It would be very egotistical to think that we are the only intelligent life to have evolved in the vastness of the universe. I doubt we will ever make contact or know of each other though. If there were sentient life on other planets that we could actually get to, we'd have seen them by now. Most likely those planets are far far out of reach.

This.

TwigletsAndRadishes · 05/04/2024 20:25

I don't spend any time wondering what life on other planets might be like.

But I do think, given the sheer size of the universe and the number of stars and planets in it, most of which we know nothing about, it would be very naive and arrogant to assume that earth is the only place where any intelligent life exists.

EspressoMacchiato · 05/04/2024 20:29

Of course there is.

Its extremely narcissistic to think we’re the only ones or were the only ones capable of asking the question or trying to make contact.

KitchenSinkLlama · 05/04/2024 20:29

Yes.

During the 13.7 billion years the universe has existed and given the billions of galaxies with billions of solar systems with billions of planets, yes life has and perhaps still does exist on other planets.
If that life is intelligent, yes I'm fairly sure it has evolved elsewhere, because it can (we are proof of that).

If there is intelligent life in our local part of the Milky Way galaxy now, who knows. It is a much more challenging thing to suppose, because of the extreme age of the galaxy and the likelihood of an advanced civilisation annihilating itself is relatively high.

That said, I have seen, once, some lights that were bizarre and I've not seen anything like it again. Was it an alien craft, I don't know, but I would imagine that any species that was technologically advanced enough to travel through interstellar space, would be able to examine life on earth from a distance of more than a few hundred metres of the ground. 👽

BigFatLiar · 05/04/2024 20:35

There have been a number of planets detected in the goldilocks zone of other stars. I think life is very resilient and that there is probably a lot of life out there. Intelligent life perhaps. The distances involved are still so great that without some revolution in physics the chances of travel or even communication are pretty low.

BorgQueen · 05/04/2024 20:37

There have to be multiple planets at various stages of evolution, it’s ridiculous to assume there are not.

MrsTerryPratchett · 05/04/2024 20:43

OP have a Google of the Fermi Paradox and the Great Filter.

Very interesting.

Balloonhearts · 05/04/2024 20:48

BigFatLiar · 05/04/2024 20:35

There have been a number of planets detected in the goldilocks zone of other stars. I think life is very resilient and that there is probably a lot of life out there. Intelligent life perhaps. The distances involved are still so great that without some revolution in physics the chances of travel or even communication are pretty low.

The problem with the planets we've seen in goldilocks zone of their star is that they almost all seem to be orbiting red dwarfs. Which means that their goldilocks zone is much much closer to their parent star than ours is. So almost all these planets in the habitable zone are tidally locked so nothing is likely to evolve there.

I think our situation, in the habitable zone of a yellow dwarf is rarer than we realise. But there must be others, just our chances of them being close enough to make contact is pretty much nil.

stargirl1701 · 05/04/2024 20:52

Statistically yes. But most likely bacteria/viruses/single celled organisms.

There are none visiting us.

GrannyAchingsShepherdsHut · 05/04/2024 20:57

I was wondering the other day how advanced a civilisation descended from dinosaurs would be now, had they not been wiped out.