We are alone, aliens unlikely in the universe, says expert

[American Patriot]

We are alone, aliens unlikely in the universe, says expert

Indo-Asian News Service
London, January 24, 2011


First Published: 17:12 IST(24/1/2011)
Last Updated: 17:18 IST(24/1/2011)







There are probably no aliens out there - meaning we are entirely alone in the universe, said an astronomer.

Even though there may many earth like planets, their existing conditions are likely to be too hostile to support life-forms such as extra terrestrials (ET), according to





him.

Howard Smith, senior astrophysicist at Harvard University, believes there is very little hope of discovering aliens and, even if we did, it would be almost impossible to make contact.

So far astronomers have discovered a total of 500 planets in distant solar systems - known as extrasolar systems - although they believe billions of others exist, the Daily Mail reported.

But Smith pointed out that many of these planets are either too close to their sun or too far away, meaning their surface temperatures are too extreme to support life.

Others have unusual orbits which cause vast temperature variations, making it impossible for water to exist as a liquid - an essential element for life.

Smith said: "We have found that most other planets and solar systems are wildly different from our own. They are very hostile to life as we know it."

"The new information we are getting suggests we could effectively be alone in the universe. There are very few solar systems or planets like ours. It means it is highly unlikely there are any planets with intelligent life close enough for us to make contact."

But his controversial suggestions contradict other leading scientists - who have claimed aliens almost certainly exist.

Only last month Professor Stephen Hawking said the fact that there are billions of galaxies out there made it perfectly rational to assume there were other life-forms in the universe.

[American Patriot]

I will be taking Hawking's side of this argument. And will be shown to have been right, probably a thousand years from now.

[Malsua]

Did you see the videos from the Temple mount?

Amazing.

From the distance... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zijSsQexbFw

from a lot closer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY2FFEufsuY

Very very cool, that second one. Wicked.

[Toad]

In all of human history it's just the last couple decades we've begun to scratch into the mysteries and wonders of deep space beyond earth. With literally trillions upon trillions of unfound planets out there, such a statement by Mr. Smith is premature at best.

Everytime here on earth we've said 'There's no way life can exist there"... in time we find it. Antartic ice, deep sea hot water vents, 2 miles into the atmosphere, highly acidic thermal pools. Given enough time and exploring I have no doubt we'll find highly unusual adaptions of life where Mr. Smith assumes it cannot exist.

[Malsua]

For what it's worth, the Israel ufos could be a big hoax. Shrug. Great video though.

[Toad]

Did you see the videos from the Temple mount?

Amazing.

From the distance... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zijSsQexbFw

from a lot closer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY2FFEufsuY

Very very cool, that second one. Wicked.

Holy crap! It's acceleration is unreal. Thats was pulling some serious G's.

[Malsua]

Check this out...3 different views.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu4ri2GozIY

[New Guy]

it is pretty convincing, makes me think that what I saw this summer might not have been satellites or led lights on a kite...


as to the original post, i'd say that it is incredibly unlikely that there is no life anywhere else. the part about not being able to contact life, sure that makes sense given the technology level and the distances involved. not to mention we have to be looking when they decided it was important enough to transmit, which again given the distances would have been in the past at some point.

my contention is that anyone that is advanced enough to be able to communicate across space is probably also smart enough to know not to do it.

[American Patriot]

It would be even more perfectly rational in the absence of evidence (which is not the same as evidence of absence) for extraterrestrial life to 'assume' nothing.

You're saying it is more rational to assume there is nothing out there without seeing evidence?

Ok.... Fine.

There is no God, since there is no evidence.

But what there IS evidence for is life out there - not intelligent, just life. Microbes. There was a stone that came from Mars that was blasted off the planet millions of years ago that contains fossils of microbes.

Comets hit this planet for literally billions of years before any life came to being here. And when it DID come into being finally, most likely it fell from a comet and did a "splashdown" in the ocean.

There's plenty of evidence for "life out there" whereas there's NO evidence of God, or any other supreme being creating all this nonsense.

[American Patriot]

They are lifeforms.

I think the discussion though is about "intelligent lifeforms" versus lifeforms.

There is no proof there is intelligent life other than ourselves and perhaps a few creatures living here with us (not counting numerous fairies, trolls and other 'little people'... /chuckles) anywhere out there in space.

Except if you take into account this is a ball of dirt upon which we live that contains billions of lifeforms and millions upon millions of various species of life forms right here on the planet. Everything from virus life forms, to bacteria, to single and multicellular life form structures.

Now if you LOOK out into space you will see stars that are many light years (closest is about 4 light years away) to billions of light years away (in other galaxies than our own).

Given that we have intelligent life on this ONE SINGLE planet and we have already discovered over 500 planets outside our own solar system this begs the question of how many earthlike planets and then how many in all probability have life forms residing there.

I would bet a thousand dollars, cold, hard cash right now that there ARE lifeforms of various types out there - life exists in ABUNDANCE.

I would NOT bet the same money on intelligent life forms of ANY sort, whether real, or paranormal. I wouldn't bet God exists, and I wouldn't bet we run into any Klingons or Vulcans any time soon.

But I bet within a thousand years (much sooner I think) we WILL prove life exists out there.

Whether it is intelligent or not is the question.

I tend to even wonder about intelligent life here on our own home world...

[Kosciuszko]

So far astronomers have discovered a total of 500 planets in distant solar systems - known as extrasolar systems - although they believe billions of others exist, the Daily Mail reported.

Stephan W. Hawking on the other hand says that aliens do exist, and we should immediately kill them if spotted, "before they kill us".

Hawking is a nonbeliever, but he is also a very good mathematician. With billions of solar systems out there, is it not presumptuous of us to think that we are the only ones blessed with intelligence? The dysfunctional world that we live in is quite pathetic. There must be something infinitely better in the Milky Way beyond the reach of our largest radiotelescopes. I would not presume that a miserable Civilization like ours is going to be rewarded one day with riches of the entire universe. What if it was God's wish to create 1000 Earths populated by intelligent beings? Christ's salvific mission here on Earth is sufficient to redeem the entire Universe.

I would leave the door open, that some yet unknown civilizations, much more peaceful and advanced then our own will show up at the end of the world to do God's will. We are but the scum of the Universe.

[American Patriot]

We might be scum of the universe, but we can live life happily in our arrogance of being "Alone".

/chuckles

The CHURCH has always claimed (apparently until recently) that we are alone. That it was blasphemous to even SUGGEST there might be others out there someplace.

Now we have scientists (allegedly open minded people who seek knowledge based on facts and things you can see, feel, smell and touch) claiming the same thing.

Arthur C Clarke once said that, if an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right but if he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

Hawking (and me, and Einstein, and Sagan) all think in similar terms. Math, which confounds me at times still grants me the ability to see the odds of something happening or not. The rest of those men - Hawking included - have their doubts about life out there.

They don't doubt it CAN happen. They doubt it WON'T happen.

That we sit back and say "Impossible" is a limitation only of imagination. It's not a limit of Nature or of God. To say it is reasonable to believe that other intelligent life can and probably does exist is not by any means blasphemy against God.

It's a blasphemy against thinking intelligently.

A deer can't IMAGINE aliens.

A human being not only CAN imagine them, we can EXPLAIN them if they show up (as in what atmosphere they live in, how much gravity their home planet has, and a vast amount more). The deer can only run away if confronted by such things as men and aliens.

[American Patriot]

I have only a little doubt about the 'rock from Mars' actually being from Mars, but I actually tend to believe that Mars has life all right-life that has been seeded from Earth. Did you ever consider that possibility? In the absense of certainty about Martian life or it's origins, and in the certainty of life being on and from Earth, why not?

Sorry other way around. Life came from the Planet that MARS used to orbit (as a moon) when that planet was destroyed by another planetoids.

[American Patriot]

Maybe so. I have a strong suspicion that we aren't precisely what we think we are.... and Noah's Ark came here from the Planet that Mars orbited... crashing here and without much in the way of technology or any way to reproduce it.

People went far and wide....

And so did the animals we brought.

So... Hoagland is probably right. LOL

[American Patriot]

You watch too much Science Fiction.

Try reading physics for a few years. lol

People were off the deep end about Matrix a few years ago. I remember one poster telling me "You guys don't seem to get it, the MATRIX IS REAL" as he attempted to tell me how weird the world was around us, and *I* (being me, Rick) was part of the Matrix that was the bad guys.

Was all MY fault you see....

/chuckles

[MTStringer]

Hoagland...right. Hmmm. Hyperdimensionally speaking, 9 out of 10 versions of me find that thought amusing.

[American Patriot]

hoagland...right. Hmmm. Hyperdimensionally speaking, 9 out of 10 versions of me find that thought amusing.

lol!

[American Patriot]

Peterle, I need to assist you here with your English.

I felt a RIIIPP and i saw me sleeping belove me!

Should ACTUALLY read as:

I felt a RIIIPP and i saw me sleeping below me!

(Or you might have meant, above, or below, but not Belove...)

/chuckles

[American Patriot]

lol. Peterle... you should see pictures of me in dark glasses, earphone, dark suit....

If only you really knew me as well as I know me.

lol