Quote (RewtheBrave @ Thu, Dec 11 2008, 08:24am)

Is there life outside our little blue planet?

http://i38.tinypic.com/1rq0w9.jpg

Mars. Possible evidence of bacteria/life on Mars.

It's now believed that extrasolar planet HD 189733b has carbon dioxide in its atmosphere. It's something like 60 (63?) light years away from us. This brings to the fore a question that Carl Sagan made popular in the 1970s and 1980s: is there life outside of our planet? Odds are that in a universe filled with billions of galaxies that each contain billions of stars, somewhere life has emerged. But we don't know that for certain, so a pioneering science of astobiology or exobiology has started looking into some interesting questions. Planets with oxygen-carbon atmospheres, water and salt are among the most sought after, but since distant planets are difficult to evaluate, most of the work being done is speculation on atmospheric conditions. Some scientists think life has already sprouted on Mars (some even think that bits of mars brought life to Earth) but then declined (some claim it may still exist and a direct chemical test in the 70s was about 50-50 on this, so perhaps it has life now), and some maintain that there's life on some of the moons in our solar system.

Have we been visited?

This is a more contentious subject matter, but I wonder how many people on jsp have observed UFOs. I'm guessing several have, but the explanations are often quite sobering (air balloons, test missles, light/weather effects, hallucination, helicopters, hoaxes). Some people suggest that the ancients were visited by aliens, who gave us technological gifts and taught us things. However, while there are some ancients who believe din UFOs, it's hard to find any thoroughgoing accounts of alien visits

Edit: "how did they get here?" Wormholes are the best current answer out there imo. Kind of weak.

Quote (Jackson_l @ Wed, Dec 10 2008, 11:58pm)

I highly doubt it, throughout the universe, we were so incredibly lucky to have received all these factors needed for survival.

To have another planet like ours would be highly unlikely

Quote (BovineDesi @ Wed, Dec 10 2008, 06:02pm)

Life conforms to the environment -- if earth were a little farther away from the sun it doesn't mean we wouldn't exist...we just all might have like blubber or fur...see what I'm saying? Darwin's theory my friend.

Quote (Jackson_l @ Wed, Dec 10 2008, 07:06pm)

Not exactly, if we were too far there wouldn't be enough heat to sustain life in the first place, leaving no environment to evolve and adapt to