New study of Solar System speculates on life on other planets

University of Bath ^ | 12 September 2006 | Staff (press release)

[betty boop]

“This book sets out how much water and ice there is in the solar system," said Dr Blondel. “This obviously has implications for our search for extra-terrestrial life.

Thanks for the ping, TXnMA! You mentioned it looked interesting. Just looking at the above italics, though, I'm not gonna buy anything from this Dr. Blondel until he shows me the design and execution of any experiments he might have conducted on this question, or any miscellaneous data that might bear on the problem that has accumulated for far, from whatever legitimate sources, that has not yet been fully interpreted.

Plus I tend to put my hand over my wallet anytime someone starts intoning mantras about extraterrestrial life and/or global warming.

I'm just so grim these days, you see, that I'm no fun at all. :^)

And so I'm so glad you wrote, TXnMA. Thank you so very much!

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Come on. This did not have to be a crevolist thread.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Astronomers once thought Earth was the center of the Solar System. Scientists once thought the Earth was flat and that there was ether in space. They, too, were experts in their fields. They still had faulty models.

[PatrickHenry]

Astronomers once thought Earth was the center of the Solar System. Scientists once thought the Earth was flat and that there was ether in space. They, too, were experts in their fields. They still had faulty models.

Yes. Science continues to learn, and when old models fail, they are rejected in favor of new models that are supported by new information. We know this. Science dumps whatever's demonstrated to be wrong, and sticks with what's demonstrated to be correct. That's why science is increasingly successful.

What's your point? That it's best to avoid learning anything, and to remain mired in creationism?

[Quix]

Thanks thanks.

Love reading your posts.

[Virginia-American]

However, if the surface ice were very thick, this would cut the water below off from oxygen and sunlight which are important for most forms of life on Earth, and so might have prevented life from developing.

That's a load of horsecrap. The first life developed under anaerobic conditions and would actually have died in an oxy/nitro atmosphere

Good point. Also, sunlight is not be necessary. There is a lot of tidal heating of the Jovian moons, so there may well be things similar to undersea vents there. Undersea vents on the Earth support life without sunlight.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Alamo-Girl]

Yes indeed, it has great potential. Thanks for the ping!

[Jaguarbhzrd]

As they said in contact, if there is no other life out there, it's an awful waste of space.

[SunkenCiv]

Hey, watch it buster, *I'm* the only true king of the sandpile... ;')

[SunkenCiv]

But seriously...

There are two kinds of people. One kind thinks earth is it forever. The other kind sees 100 billion stars in the galaxy and 100 billion galaxies in the Hubble volume and wonders why we are still sitting here playing king of the sandpile with each other.

The Earth is it, even in this Solar System, which will be the only game in town for the foreseeable (give or take some supposed quote of the late Ben Rich) -- regardless of any exobiological entities (microbes). Even though 200 extrasolar planets are known (and that number will yo-yo, even while heading ever higher), very little in the way of their characteristics will be known for a long, long while.

[Vaquero]

People also speculated that the Earth was Round..

and there a some who still ponder that great mystery(see inset)

[capitalist229]

Is this a prayer thread? I need to know before posting science.

Touche

BUMP

[RightWhale]

Then there was Sagan with his enhanced revelation of wasted space. If there is somebody out there, fine, the space is being utilized; if there is nobody but us, we have a lot of work to do. Right now it appears it is just us. We should proceed on that basis until we do in fact run into the others if they are out there.

[RightWhale]

No doubt we will have a very long time before we need to begin considering the possibility of filling the universe the way we filled the New World in the 1800s. What little we can do compared to the extent of the Milky Way not to mention the Hubble volume during the average lifetime of a species such as ourselves, be it 10 million years, ought to encourage us to go pedal to the metal and never look back.

[b_sharp]

"I believe the quoted individual is saying that the more we know about Venus's runaway greenhouse effect, the more we will know about the effects of terrestrial climate change. By climate change, I submit that he means global warming."

You are probably right. The statement is a bit ambiguous to whether it is specific to 'global warming' or is a more general statement. I simply assumed one interpretation and you another. However on rereading the statement, it appears you are more likely to be correct.

[SunkenCiv]

By the time the global warming vermin take over everywhere, they'll have us all spend a fortune on refrigeration equipment to lower sea levels and create thick, year-round icecaps in the Arctic, just to save their beachfront homes. ;') There'll be more land at that point...

[RightWhale]

We could have started fleeing the solar system 20 years ago. There was enough tech to get started. For those who are fixated on that old Sci-Fi nightmare about arriving after 500 years at the next star and finding your camping spot already rented out 450 years earlier because of advances in spaceflight tech advancing so much after you left, remember that we update our operating systems over the comm lines and can do the same in starships.

[SunkenCiv]

:')

[old joke]

How many software engineers does it take to change a light bulb?

Can't be done! Hardware problem!

[Nuc1]

We should indeed move out there as soon as possible. As you say, it appears we have a lot of work to do.