~~~ Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 The thing that I've never been able to understand is when they say planets are in the 'habitable zone' of a solar system. Surely we're only defining 'habitable' in the context of the conditions that we, our plants, and our animals would require to survive? Surely there's nothing to stop life elsewhere evolving in what we would think is uninhabitable, but is perfectly habitable for them? We would need some evidence to suggest life could evolve out with our earth like condition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaz Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 We would need some evidence to suggest life could evolve out with our earth like condition.Right now we've no evidence that life could have evolved anywhere, though. It just seems to me incredibly presumptious, if not arrogant, to assume that if there is life out there in the Universe it would have to exist on a planet similar to ours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Brightside Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Is it just me that thinks maybe aliens were about to make contact and saw the aftermath of an orange walk or rep walk or something and maybe decided we were too primitive to meet? It'd be fantastic to learn we weren't alone, but hopefully not in an Independence Day type way! That's the basic theory, I'm sure it goes something like "you wouldn't stop to talk to an ant or bacteria, would you? So perhaps that's why aliens haven't spoken to us." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa Cuddy Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 The thing that I've never been able to understand is when they say planets are in the 'habitable zone' of a solar system. Surely we're only defining 'habitable' in the context of the conditions that we, our plants, and our animals would require to survive? Surely there's nothing to stop life elsewhere evolving in what we would think is uninhabitable, but is perfectly habitable for them? This has been my thinking on it. WE can't survive on other planets within our solar system. Maybe other beings can. Also, among all the talk of whether or not we could could survive on "Earth 2" (a fucking presumptuous title though it is) what might any species already existing there have to say about us turning up with our deck chairs and Tassimo machines and claiming it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCelt67 Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 This has been my thinking on it. WE can't survive on other planets within our solar system. Maybe other beings can. Also, among all the talk of whether or not we could could survive on "Earth 2" (a fucking presumptuous title though it is) what might any species already existing there have to say about us turning up with our deck chairs and Tassimo machines and claiming it? Stephen Hawking touched on that regarding aliens visiting us, I think his quote was along the lines of "Aliens discovering Earth will work out for Mankind the same way it worked out for the Native Americans when Columbus discovered America". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 What's the point in this, why not improve our own planet first rather than chucking money to look at places we'll never goMost of the time I think you're generally reasonable, then you post some truly astonishing shite. How odd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quentin Taranbino Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 How far away is this earth 2? I.e in our fastest ship how long would it take to get there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hillonearth Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 How far away is this earth 2? I.e in our fastest ship how long would it take to get there? The fastest we've managed so far is about 56000km/hr. At that speed, it would take 81,000 years to reach Proxima Centauri, the nearest star, which is four-and-a-bit light years away. That means we'd get to Earth 2 in about 28 MILLION years at that speed, providing we don't stop for chips on the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Bairn Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 I'm only going to earth 2 if they have free WiFi, tbh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airdrie Onions Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Most of the time I think you're generally reasonable, then you post some truly astonishing shite. How odd. I'm an enigma. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alert Mongoose Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Parallel universes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~~~ Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Right now we've no evidence that life could have evolved anywhere, though. It just seems to me incredibly presumptious, if not arrogant, to assume that if there is life out there in the Universe it would have to exist on a planet similar to ours. What we do know is with the right condition life can evolve, life has been on our planet 100's of millions of years before humans. Relative speaking we're a new species. I don't think it's arrogant to not make assumptions without anything to back it up. We do know life can evolve without sunlight for example. Something we previously didn't think possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Sanchez Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 I'm an enigma.As long as you don't get there first and set up their gun laws, we should be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airdrie Onions Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 As long as you don't get there first and set up their gun laws, we should be fine. I wouldn't worry about that, the human race won't ever get there. You can bookmark that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dorlomin Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 I'm struggling to get too excited as I don't think we will ever see alien life in our lifetime. We are about to get a giant boost in the search for life in the stars. There are a couple of ways we might be able to guess at the pressence of life, oxygen in the atmosphere, the infrared signature of something similar to chlorophyll and a couple of others. The James Webb Telescope going up soon will dwarf Hubble in size And be massively more technologically advanced. The Kepler Telescope is less than half the size of the Hubble and only looks at a tiny part of the sky but has discovered 1000 planets and another 3000 candidate ones. Given the enormous leaps we are due in what we will see it is very likely that we will be seeing a large number of planets atmospheres and looking for the tell tale signs. Life emerged on Earth relatively quickly after the planet formed, many people think that this means when conditions are right life has a good chance. Its a numbers game, how many thousands of planets we discover, how many we can glean information on their atmospheres vs how common is life or life like processes. Intelligent life is very likely very very rare but thats a whole other argument. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~~~ Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 I don't think we will find signs of life outside the solar system. Not because I don't believe it doesn't or hasn't existed but just simply due to the distances involved and the times. I think they believe Europa would be the best bet for finding alien life within our solar system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DA Baracus Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Mind that we're really seeing this planet in the past. If humanity were somehow to make it there, it could be radically different to what is expected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itzdrk Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 What's the point in this, why not improve our own planet first rather than chucking money to look at places we'll never go Agree m7, its just like foreign aid n that.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamamafegan Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Mind that we're really seeing this planet in the past. If humanity were somehow to make it there, it could be radically different to what is expected. Yeah man that notion always fucks with my head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~~~ Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Yeah man that notion always fucks with my head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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