@Chips

Lol Its usually me that is beaten to it!!

With regards to the scientists saying its fake, i smell cover up...

there'll be some conspiricy involved somewhere along the line. I mean who knows what goes on in 'area 51' and such places

Are you sure you don't mean FX 53?

OK. Bad pun. Still, had to say it.

@kimk: We're not that clever yet. Not to mention the politics of the whole thing.
I expect the human race to be stuck in this solar system for at least another 400 years, with the way things are progressing. Politics tend to get in the way of scientific progress.

Actually NASA has desighned a ship projected for 2008, it's called the X-43:
The X-43 is an unmanned experimental NASA plane. It has a radical new form of jet propulsion called a Scramjet, for Supersonic Combustion Ramjet, which promises to introduce an era of routine flight at speeds above Mach 5, or approximately 7,200 mph (12,000 kph), and upwards of Mach 10 as well.
2008! that be pretty soon! Nat'l Geo: Flight So Ha!!!

I want a pet flying monkey. Should I check Ebay or the Black Market?

Edited by - Tightan on 9/2/2004 6:36:14 PM

Woop de doo, they have the right size, it's still no earth. In order for life to be sustainable, the plannets have to have:

1) One large moon, to stabilize the plannet so climates remain consistent enough for life
2) Liquid Water
3) A large plannet nearby (Jupiter) to suck up most of the incoming asteroids
4) An atmospere
5) A decent energy source
6) The right distance from the sun (not fried, not frozen)

And there are scores of other smaller factors. The odds of us ever finding a plannet with more than tube worms on it are slim at best. --- Vh16

I am Nobody; Nobody is Perfect; Therefore, I am Perfect

Do we realy think that we are alone. That's a very big universe out there....


I do not think we are alone...............AZAR

no we aren't alone. if anythings impossible, its that we're alone. there's more stars than you can count in our galaxy alone. there's more galaxies than there are stars in our galaxy. i doubt our galaxy is devoid of life other than us. probability of life near a star x number of stars... its just impossible for there to be no other life.

@VH16

If their is life out there, how do we know the beings that live there need similar conditions to us. What if evolution for them means they don't need water? or ever needed water? Some creatures of earth live in hospitable places.

Just a thought

"its just impossible for there to be no other life"

no, it's not impossible. that statistical game you were playing is just that - a a game. besides your terms need modification. probability of life near a suitable star x number of stars x probability of intelligent life evolving x probability of an advanced industrial society developing x possibility of extinctions both natural and artificial (war/nuclear conflict, global warming etc)

as all % chances are pure speculation, you can get any number you want. Your statement should read "it is almost impossible for there to be no other life"

I'll take the standing that there isn't ANY life out there on other planets.

despite what I said above, there probably is - somewhere. But the chances of it being intelligent, or like us in any meaningful way, is prob rather slim. My own view is that intelligent life that we would recognise is incredibly rare, and so far away from us and so impossible to get to that we are in effect alone.

Also this raises a moot point. If life, and intelligent life at that, were discovered errrm now? what impact would this have on religious beliefs and social constructs? for everyone that says "yay, ET!" there'll be more who are terrified by the thought and will simply refuse to beleive it.

I'm quite convinced that any "alien" messages would be ruthlessly covered up by the authorities. "Aliens" serve to provide a useful cover for highly-advanced aircraft projects, but as long as they're just that, a distraction, the authorities are publicly ambivalent. But the real thing, were it to happen? different story.

We just don't know. That's about it. It is neither possible nor impossible, in human terms, that there is life out there because we don't know.

What I mean is that being able to decide what is or is not possible requires more information that we've got. Not to mention that I've seen arguments over this issue elsewhere that clearly are based upon specific belief system agendas.

I happen to believe that what now seems to be an infinite scale to our universe and its contents with the added likelihood of other universes and additional dimensions to our known four makes it infinitely more likely that there is other life somewhere and somehow. But finding it or them may be as infinitely difficult.

@Bret,
All known life needs two things, liquid water and an energy source. The range and size of the sun regulate the presence/absence of those two things. And it's very diffacult for life to form in an ever changing enviroment. But, it anything is to develop beyond flatworms that is remotely similar to life on Earth, then it needs the things I have described. And it if's not Earthlike, we'll probably never find it anyway because they will just be too different and we'd have no idea what to look for. --- VH16