Posted on 12/08/2013 8:32:23 PM PST by Carbonsteel
The likelihood of life on other planets is "very high," a planetary scientist told a House committee in a hearing some Democrats chided as evading U.S. issues.
"The chance that there's a planet like Earth out there with life on it is very high," Massachusetts Institute of Technology planetary science and physics Professor Sara Seager told the House Science Committee.
"The question is: Is there life near here, in our neighborhood of stars? We think the chances are good," she said, answering a question from Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Texas, who asked: "Do you think there's life out there, and are they studying us? And what do they think about New York City?"
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
If aliens do exist and that's a big if, I seriously doubt they are visiting the Earth or giving people an anal probe.
Seriously though, I really don't think we'll find evidence of alien life any time soon.
That's why these Congesscritters get paid the big bucks.
Especially since there is none.
I think that there certainly is, was or will be - but the problem is the:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox
I, personally, believe that the fundamental problem is that only predators develop significant intelligence, because they really NEED it. This may be fundamental to life itself, regardless of it’s form, DNA, chemical basis, and so on. You can see evidence of this on our own planet - why have all the great civilizations developed between 30 and 50 degrees of the equator? Because those people faced more adversity. Neanderthals were likely to have been more physically capable than we are. Where are they now?
For predators such as ourselves, many have estimated that the time between developing radio to blowing the he** out of your planet may be as short as 100-500 years, which is, of course, the blink of any eye in cosmological terms.
An inkling of this theory can be found in the Bible itself, in the Adam and Eve story...”biting the apple” has it’s costs...
Source please?
To assume there is more intelligent life out there sets a very low bar.
Where’s your proof there is?
Why would you do that to a perfectly good movie?
Genesis.
I didn’t see any proof of life on other planets in Genesis.
You are right.
Also, the distances for visiting are too great.
"Out there" has the exact same elements that are here on earth. The periodic chart works for all existence. The only changes to those elements would be heat, cold and rather large explosions.
Probably all that would be found would be, at best, some bacteria--or old records of Ethel Merman singing: "There's NO business like SHOW business." :o)
Even if we somehow had enough fuel, our lifetimes are too short to get there. Even stasis sleep wouldn't be viable.
The astronauts wouldn't get back to earth for a thousand light years.
Their gardens would sure need watering, wouldn't they?
That Genesis song about illegal aliens...
Not so much...there are roughly 100 billion galaxies out there (give or take), With a million civilizations, that would would be one for every 100,000 galaxies, which is roughly the size of the Virgo Supercluster of galaxies of which our own Milky Way is a member. That would mean that the nearest civilization is, on average, 50 million light years away.
Good luck getting an answer when the exchange of greetings alone will take 100 million years...
Seriously though, I really don't think we'll find evidence of alien life any time soon.
Now on that you just might be wrong. The next generation of supertelescopes should be able to resolve the spectrographs of the atmospheres of Earth-sized exoplanets. If free oxygen is found in significant amounts, it's an indication (an indirect one, granted) of life, since free oxygen is highly reactive and can only remain in the atmosphere of a planet over geologic periods of time by being renewed, presumably by some sort of plant life.
Or "Watcher of the Skies."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.