life on other planets |
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Zitro
Prog Reviewer Joined: July 11 2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 1321 |
Topic: life on other planets Posted: July 07 2008 at 16:04 |
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so, what do u think now that smaller and smaller planets are being discovered?
Edited by Zitro - July 07 2008 at 16:05 |
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stonebeard
Forum Senior Member Joined: May 27 2005 Location: NE Indiana Status: Offline Points: 28057 |
Posted: July 07 2008 at 16:36 | |
In my thinking....
"If.... ....there is a Creator, then I don't know. He'd probably want to study or occupy his time with more than us, so why not have other life-filled planets" ....there is no Creator, then hell yes! Countless stars, countless possibilities. We can't be the only ones who've done it." |
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Padraic
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 16 2006 Location: Pennsylvania Status: Offline Points: 31169 |
Posted: July 07 2008 at 16:42 | |
Most likely. Anyone interested can look up the Drake equation and other related arguments and hypotheses.
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Queen By-Tor
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: September 13 2006 Location: Xanadu Status: Offline Points: 16111 |
Posted: July 07 2008 at 17:40 | |
In the infinite universe I'm sure we're no special exception to the
rule of space being a vacuum. I'm sure there's something out there,
even if we never meet.
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Kestrel
Forum Senior Member Joined: June 18 2008 Location: Minnesota Status: Offline Points: 512 |
Posted: July 07 2008 at 18:20 | |
There probably are, but I doubt we'll ever meet. The nearest galaxy to ours is the Andromeda Galaxy which is 2.5 million light-years away. If we ever developed technology that could bring us near the speed of light... it would still take us 2.5 million years to get there. Unless we develop some teleport technology or wormhole stuff or something... I don't see a point in even thinking there is anything out there. Edit: I guess there are closer galaxies to us than the Andromeda galaxy; it's just the nearest spiral galaxy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_galaxies Even with the closest one which is .02 million light years away... that's still 20,000 light years away... I can't imagine ever reaching that. Unless Star Trek happens. Edited by Kestrel - July 07 2008 at 18:24 |
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Dean
Special Collaborator Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: July 07 2008 at 18:36 | |
Ah, that would be me then
The Drake equation (N = N* fp ne fl fi fc fL) is concerned with predicting the number of planets that could support a technological intelligent lifeform whose electromagnetic radiation (tv, radio etc.) we could detect now, so it specifically concerns itself with planets within our galaxy. What it does not predict is the infinitesimally small probability of us ever detected said radiation.
So, since we can never hope to detect the technological intelligent lifeforms in our own galaxy, there is no reason to exclude the other galaxies in the Universes and we can also remove the intelligence, technological and planetary lifetime factors from the equation, therefore the total number of possible planets that possibly could support (or have supported, or will support) life of any kind is, as they say, astronomical.
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What?
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Dean
Special Collaborator Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: July 07 2008 at 18:48 | |
Star Trek Voyager was stranded in the Delta quadrant of this galaxy (75,000 light-years away) and it was supposed to take them 75 years to get back (average speed of Warp 6). So 20,000 light-years would be 20 years.
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What?
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Kestrel
Forum Senior Member Joined: June 18 2008 Location: Minnesota Status: Offline Points: 512 |
Posted: July 07 2008 at 19:00 | |
Haha, so even in our imaginations we are not capable of such speeds. I've only seen a couple episodes of Star Trek so I had no idea how fast they could go. Do you happen to know Star Wars speeds? |
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Dean
Special Collaborator Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: July 07 2008 at 19:01 | |
... .. no.
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What?
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Kestrel
Forum Senior Member Joined: June 18 2008 Location: Minnesota Status: Offline Points: 512 |
Posted: July 07 2008 at 19:47 | |
Haha. Well, this http://www.theforce.net/swtc/hyperspace.html#speed says 120,000c.
Edited by Kestrel - July 07 2008 at 19:48 |
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Statutory-Mike
Forum Senior Member Joined: February 15 2008 Location: Long Island Status: Offline Points: 3737 |
Posted: July 07 2008 at 20:15 | |
The Drake Equation is pretty interesting, I'm thinking there is but we won't come in contact with them anytime soon.
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Padraic
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 16 2006 Location: Pennsylvania Status: Offline Points: 31169 |
Posted: July 07 2008 at 21:01 | |
Ah, I knew you would find your way to this thread. Such an interesting topic - led me on about an hour's worth of "wiki-ing" that had me reading about the Cambrian explosion and the evolution of the eye. |
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Dean
Special Collaborator Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: July 07 2008 at 21:07 | |
like a circling buzzard
The eye is the easy bit - 'tis colour vision that takes some explaining
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What?
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Padraic
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 16 2006 Location: Pennsylvania Status: Offline Points: 31169 |
Posted: July 07 2008 at 21:09 | |
Even staying within our own galaxy (which I consider big enough for our current purposes, thank you very much ), the nearest extrasolar planet is 10.5 light years away. If we were to launch a probe like Voyager 1 to study it (traveling at 17.1 km/s), it would take over 17,000 years to reach the planet - which has been determined to be a Jupiter-sized (mass) planet, so probably no little green men to greet it anyway. Remember the wise old (and late) Douglas Adams: Space is big. Edited by NaturalScience - July 07 2008 at 21:10 |
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VanderGraafKommandöh
Prog Reviewer Joined: July 04 2005 Location: Malaria Status: Offline Points: 89372 |
Posted: July 07 2008 at 22:33 | |
It annoys me when that happens... I was doing that earlier. I kept clicking on the relevant links and never getting back to where I started. |
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BroSpence
Forum Senior Member Joined: March 05 2007 Status: Offline Points: 2614 |
Posted: July 07 2008 at 22:49 | |
is difficult
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Norbert
Forum Senior Member Joined: October 20 2005 Location: Hungary Status: Offline Points: 2506 |
Posted: July 08 2008 at 13:45 | |
There is a life on Kobaia.
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clarke2001
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: June 14 2006 Location: Croatia Status: Offline Points: 4160 |
Posted: July 08 2008 at 17:14 | |
Life, absolutely. Intelligent life, I'm not so sure. Probably not in this time, in this galaxy. Pity...
But then again, many values of parameters in Drake's equation are unknown, so I can at least hope.. |
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Vompatti
Forum Senior Member VIP Member Joined: October 22 2005 Location: elsewhere Status: Offline Points: 67407 |
Posted: July 08 2008 at 18:12 | |
What is life anyway?
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crimhead
Forum Senior Member VIP Member Joined: October 10 2006 Location: Missouri Status: Offline Points: 19236 |
Posted: July 08 2008 at 18:43 | |
not in our solar system but it is possible in others.
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