Earth doesn't feature - How insignificant WE are

I guess we are always searching for the truth about whether there is life on other planets. Why, do we as humans (some NOT all) think that we are so special that there can be no life on other planets. Why does NASA or the government try and hide the "possibility" that there is life on planets beyond our solar system. Ok perhaps they do or do not have conclusive evidence but the idea is a logical one that there is. Hmmm... am I rambling?

OK let me put it this way, and yes, i am Christian and believe in a number of things that may even go against the grain of the bible in terms of this i.e. adam and eve etc. The bible was written by man and i will leave it at that - even though i believe in God. (Chinese telephone syndrome)

Now, it is stated that God measured the universe with the breadth of his hand. He is a big man

But this post isn't about whether God exists or not, what it concerns is how small we really are. How insignificant we humans are and how easy it will be for earth to just disappear. As "quick" as it appeared in the larger scheme of things so too it can disappear. We place so much power in the hands of people like Bush etc yet he is just as insignificant. I am insignificant in the bigger scheme of things.

The earth is a mere spec in the universe at 4billion miles and think that further away does not even feature. Based on info from the HST (hubble) and its new camera - it is estimated there are 125 billion galaxies in OUR universe (if there is a multiverse - imagine the enormity)

Now our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains 100,000,000,000 stars multiply that by (ok not exactly so we could get technical so i will humour those technical junkies in a second) 3000 galaxies that we CAN see would contain 300,000,000,000,000 stars. Ok for the junkies, lets divide that by 1000 and we get 300,000,000,000 stars. Now put that all together and hold it up and find earth amongst all of that. Now consider this, theoretically there are 10 trillion planetary systems in the universe. Now even if there were only 1 million planetary systems we are one and we are a mere spec. Hell, if we have a picture of the milky way we don't even feature and we wouldn't be seen just by looking at it. We would be able to point out an approximate position but pointing to a spec that is earth would be virtually, if not totally, impossible.

So to conclude:

there are at least 100 billion stars with planets in our Galaxy alone

and we have people who still don't believe that possibly on ONE other planet there is life like ours - and perhaps an even more diverse life forms - perhaps their horses drive cars .

A picture of earth from 4 billion miles away:

We are just not that significant.

Other references:
Source

in 1999 the Hubble Space Telescope estimated that there were 125 billion galaxies in the universe, and recently with the new camera HST has observed 3,000 visible galaxies

Consider this, we have 100 billion stars with planets in OUR galaxy, multiply THEORETICALLY by 3000 (galaxies visible) and for the sake of technicality divide by 10, we get 30,000 billion stars with planets in 3000 VISIBLE galaxies.

NOW even more profound, lets assume there ARE 125 billion galaxies multiply that by 100 billion stars in each galaxy with planets thats 12500 billion stars with planets - looks like 12,500,000,000,000 stars with planets - even if 1 billionth has life supporting atmospheres that is 12500 planets with possible life.

Source

there are at least 100 billion stars with planets in our Galaxy," Lineweaver said. "With about 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe, our result suggests that there are at least 10 trillion planetary systems in the Universe.

Something more to read

We really are very insignificant!!!

Good question.

I think you may be setting up an improper logical analogy here.

Our 'insignificance' is an emotional value, and really has little bearing on whether there is 'life' on other planets.

What I find helpful is to define what I mean by 'life'.

Life, sentient life, communicative life, and spacefaring civilizations.

There is most definitely 'life' on other planets. A majority of this 'life' (carbon-based forms?) may be bacterial and fungal in nature. IOW, single celled or multiple celled creatures. There may also be silicone based life and other variations on this. But would 'silicon-based life' be life to you? (iow we may not ever be able to communicate with such beings, they may be too different).

Anyway, back to your question:

There probably is sentient life on other planets in our Galaxy. It's believe that there is not sentient life in our solar system, beside we on Earth, but it's not impossible (think underground Martian colonies?).

But the question is, can these other sentients find a way to either:
a) communicate with us
b) journey out in space and visit us.

So maybe you can rephrase your question to give me a better idea what you mean.

If you are trying to say 'aliens are here already vistiing us because we'd be arrogant to believe that we are unique', to me that's jumping over several steps in the question.

It's also not clearly defined. Maybe there are 'aliens' here, i.e. lifeforms not from Earth. But they may be in the form of what we call viruses.

But I think for your purposes, that this would not reduce your frustration. Technically, we have 'aliens', but they're too small to see and you certainly can't interact intelligently with them.

HTH

Thanks for replying My comments:

Originally posted by Badge01
Our 'insignificance' is an emotional value, and really has little bearing on whether there is 'life' on other planets.

Absolutely agree with you! We are significant unto ourselves (and loved ones) but in the BIG scheme of things we may be as significant as worms on another planet - not a fact of course.

Originally posted by Badge01
There is most definitely 'life' on other planets. But would 'silicon-based life' be life to you? (iow we may not ever be able to communicate with such beings, they may be too different).

Yes, life is life. If it is alive it is has life. How we define "alive" and "life" is an earthly and human definition and intelligent life may be so different on another planet, whether intelligent or not, and may be silicon based and be more intelligent than us. It may even be sulphur based - NOT that it is but the universe is so large we, with all our scientists, don't know a quarter of what is possible - perhaps not even a 1% of what is possible - they can only theorize for the most part.

Originally posted by Badge01
Anyway, back to your question:

Nope, i wasn't asking if there was life elsewhere, i was trying to make a point in terms of the size of the universe and number of planetary systems, that there HAS to be life and again, more OR less intelligent than us - sometimes i wonder though, with all that is going on in the world, how anything could be less intelligent than us.

Originally posted by Badge01
There probably is sentient life on other planets in our Galaxy. It's believe that there is not sentient life in our solar system, beside we on Earth, but it's not impossible (think underground Martian colonies?).

Again i agree 100% with you on that. AND we will probably never find out about it because the government/s assume we are all stupid as hell and believe we are the "significant" ones - the only existing life anywhere in the universe LMAO

Originally posted by Badge01
But the question is, can these other sentients find a way to either:
a) communicate with us
b) journey out in space and visit us.

a) perhaps they are from way out in space but we have yet to develop anything we can use to receive their messages
b) hmmm... contentious one. I believe they have. Maybe not so far as landing on the white house lawn.

Originally posted by Badge01
So maybe you can rephrase your question to give me a better idea what you mean.

again, no question asked but more of me pointing out that we cannot be the only form of intelligent life in the universe.

Originally posted by Badge01
If you are trying to say 'aliens are here already vistiing us because we'd be arrogant to believe that we are unique', to me that's jumping over several steps in the question.

It's also not clearly defined. Maybe there are 'aliens' here, i.e. lifeforms not from Earth. But they may be in the form of what we call viruses.

Agreed. I don't believe they hang around but pop in and out. But again, contentious. It could be assumed that they are here in underground bases. (yet to be proven as fact. I will give it the benefit of the doubt.

I believe there is life all over the universe whether intelligent or not.

However, fantastic post none the less Badge01

[edit on 30/8/2007 by shearder]