Is there another Earth out there?

USA Today ^ | Staff Writer

[bedolido]

Forget the next Star Wars movie. The real space sequel guaranteed to capture public attention, astronomers say, is the discovery of another planet like Earth in our own starry neighborhood -- and it is likely to happen within a decade.

[RightWhale]

What a load of hooey.

Of course they won't want to hype this like the Powerball Lottery. The implications are way too big. Even looking for another earthlike planet is bound to upset someone, put someone into a state of denial. Imagine if they actually find one. Not in 10 years, but maybe in 4 years. Who knows?

[PISANO]

So if they exist, where are they

They do exist but they are GUARDING Iraq's WMD.

[PatrioticAmerican]

There must be another Earth, holding all the smart people. It seems we have all the dumb ones here.

[JoeSchem]

''Finding another Earth will be the single most exciting moment in all of human history,''

The Second Earthing?

[RightWhale]

more than once every 100 years

Accidentally leave out a couple zeros? Once an epoch, that's all they get. If Williams, Piersall, and Jenson can't do it, it's not meant to be.

[Salman]

I think it is highly unlikely there is intelligent life in the galaxy and maybe in the entire universe...excepting earth, of course.

It seems so obvious. Suppose, for example that it takes us 10,000 years from now to produce a space station that can travel to the stars. Further more, assume that each space station finds the resources to split into two space stations every 10,000 years. In only million years, that is 100 doublings. That would be hundreds of trillions of space stations for every star in the galaxy. To quote Enrico Fermi: "Where are they?"

This line of reasoning presupposes that "intelligent life" implies interstellar travel. It doesn't. It doesn't even imply the existence of signals we might detect. Were humans in 3000 BC "intelligent life"?

The answer to "Where are they" could well be "grubbing around on their own little planet". Like ourselves.

"Earthlike" doesn't even imply intelligent life.

If it means earthlike mass, chemical composition, and earthlike orbit around a sunlike star, then inevitably there are countless earthlike planets. If we add the requirement of recognizable organic life, we have no way of estimating the probability.

However, the distance of the sun from the galactic center, the regularity of the sun's orbit, the paucity of nearby stars compared to the galactic arms, and the type of galaxy are likely factors in the possibility of life. Also, given the existence of life, consider the improbability of the chain of events that lead to ourselves.

Given the vastness of the universe, there might still be countless instances of intellegent life out there. Suppose the average per Milky Way type galaxy is say one million, more or less evenly distributed.

Barring interstellar travel, radio in most cases, and incerdible luck location-wise, we'd never know for sure.

[RightWhale]

If they go, and they multiply, they quickly consume the galaxy.

They might well consume what for them is the good stuff. They might have already passed through the solar system and mined it out of whatever they wanted and moved on. More than once, perhaps many times. So here we are living on a slag heap, getting ready to burst upon the unsuspecting galaxy. Think we'll do any better, not burn out after a few hundred lightyears?

[Ku Commando]

[jpl]

I agree. I love Star Trek as much as anyone, but I think that, realistically, interstellar travel simply isn't possible, and that even if there is another sentient advanced species "out there" that never the twain shall meet. And even if interstellar travel is actually possible, you have to have the will to actually do it, which I doubt that we do. It's been over thirty years since any human has even ventured out of low earth orbit.

[f.Christian]

Arthur fC. Clark ...

"if space creatures haven't evolved the high enough intelligence to communicate above pig farmers in overalls in swamps ---

I ain't gonna believe in em" !

[RightWhale]

I think it is highly unlikely there is intelligent life in the galaxy and maybe in the entire universe

Extend that to complex life like animals and plants, intelligent or not and we can agree.

[alnitak]

Guys, 2 issues here, the Drake Equation (estimate of number of earthlike planets in the galaxy) and the Fermi "Where are they" Paradox. In its most succint form, the Where are they? paradox may be rendered as [courtesy Dr. Jill Tarter]:

1. IF extraterrestrial civilizations have existed elsewhere and "elsewhen" in our galaxy,

2. AND IF interstellar travel/colonization/migration is
inevitable for at least one of them,

3. THEN simple calculations indicate that an expanding wave of colonization will fill the galaxy on a time scale short compared to the lifetime of the galaxy,

4. BUT we do not "see" them here,

5. THEREFORE (1) is wrong; there has never been another technological civilization anywhere or "anywhen" on our galaxy except the Earth!


As regards point 2, I would like to turn it on its head. If we posit that technological civilizations do arise fairly frequently, AND if the galaxy is not filled by [at least] one of them, then for that to be true we require that ALL individuals in ALL those societies eschew space travel for the ENTIRE existence of those civilizations. This is highly unlikely, to say the least.

All this assumes that interstellar space travel is possible: my feelings are that for a civilization that has harnessed the entire resources of its solar system (including its Oort cloud), it is.

[theFIRMbss]

>Imagine if they actually find one. Not in 10 years, but maybe in 4 years. Who knows?

"My roommates work for CBS News. Everbody in the biz knows something is up. The local stations reportedly are taking dozens of calls a day [by Jun 3] about that anomaly near the sun. Planet X is not hidden, if you can´t see it, you´re lying." [6/3 - "new" zeta talk]

Believe it or not,
ZetaTalk is still saying
Planet X is here,

and now they've added
a diagram of how it
will stop earth's spinning...

[JamminJAY]

I don't know about all this another Earth stuff but I'm sure there's another planet, ever talk to a liberal?

Jammer

[RightWhale]

I'll tell you, if Planet X wanted to sneak up on Alaska, this is the time of the year to do it. It's light out 24/7.

[Junior]

Interstellar travel is possible (there isn't any magic wall keeping us in the Solar System). The question is, is it practical?

[Junior]

From your link:

Today [Jun 3] from governmental sources in Kazakhstan we have heard that real goes motion a pole and beside us unrolled program of preparation to natural disasters.

Sounds like the aliens are already here...

[AntiGuv]

First of all, there's every plausibility that life is common but that technological civilizations do not arise fairly frequently. Out of millions and millions of species on Earth, only one has developed a technological civilization. Moreover, that particular evolutionary tree took some 600 million years in order to accomplish the task..

Secondly, you again assume not only that other species would have personality characteristics conducive to interstellar expansion, but also that interstellar travel, migration, colonization, and communication are all relatively plausible, effortless, and attractive.

Consider if you will, an Earth where near-luminal travel were available - tomorrow. How many people would want to take such a trip? Where would they go? Let's say they hop on over to the next earthlike planet. They would be essentially cut off from Earth. One communication signal would take at least a decade to travel back and forth.

What would they do once they're on that planet? What if the planet turns out unsuitable? What if they have a mutiny along the way? A civil war? They have to establish the colony. For what? Are they dissidents, or whatever? Now, how long will it take for them to set up a another expansive, resource gathering civilization? In order to send out more colonies. What are their motivations? Or, do they wait for this new world to fill up first. What if their civilization collapses?

The questions proliferate ad infinitum. The fact of the matter is that: we do not see indications of other civilizations, which suggests that other civilizations do not expand to fill the galaxy, and we don't know precisely why that is...

[theFIRMbss]

> if Planet X wanted to sneak up on Alaska ...

Maggie O'Connell
wouldn't be afraid of no
sneakin' rogue planet...

[theFIRMbss]

>Today [Jun 3] from governmental sources in Kazakhstan we have heard that real goes motion a pole and beside us unrolled program of preparation to natural disasters.

>>Sounds like the aliens are already here...

[laughs] I saw that, too.
I assume that's high-level,
NSA code talk...

(For real double-talk,
however, nothing beats their
date "explanation." [?!]