Chance of Alien Life: 50/50

Hello ATS,

I am a new member, read ATS from time to time. I thought it was time for me to share an opinion of mine, I really hope I'm not breaking any rules by posting without any cool news stories or photographs, but it appears there is something crucial missing from the UFO / alien discussions, I feel important enough for a new thread. But I'm new here

The truth is, I get frustrated when people say "There has to be life out there, without a doubt, there are so many stars...", or "Just look up the Drake equation", or when anything odd in Earthly skies is somehow assumed to have originated from another planet. And what really drives me to the point of posting is being called "arrogant" for my admission that I just don't know if life exists elsewhere. I swear, the only thing that keeps some people going is the belief in their own minds that they are enlightened, and that everyone else is a bunch of boobs. I'm not lashing or griping at anyone, but I think it is important to the UFO discussion that people realize why many conclusions people belive in are held out of their own arrogant kookyness, not anything factual.

While it is a known fact there are odd, seemingly intelligent "things" that cruise Earth's skies from time to time, I have never seen any clues indicating that they come from another planet. If they are seen on Earth, and the simplest explaination is usually correct, chances are they came from Earth, right?

But there are so many stars... I know. Have you noticed what is happening on this planet? (This is where I get called arrogant) We have self-replicating chemicals developing systems of entities mutating in oddly convenient, statistically impossible forms. Without getting into the mysteries and holes in Darwin's theories, I just ask that open-minded people weigh the vastness of the universe with the wierdness that is life when you wonder if life exists elsewhere.

I know that is an easy one for most people who assume life is a simple product of caron + water + sunlight. That's my whole point, its not. It is a wierd system that somehow began and now perpetuates itself. From time to time chemists will claim to be on the verge of creating self replicating chemicals, but as of yet, they haven't. So you wonder how this happpened in nature. There is some way, but what are the chances those chemicals form together into something as complex as a single cell creature?

Which brings me to the Drake equation- an imaginary number you get by multiplying imaginary numbers. Each bogus value is assigned an algebraic letter, because this is serious scientific stuff. Example:

From Wikipedia:
fℓ is the fraction of the above (the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets) that actually go on to develop life at some point.

If you plugged and chugged the Drake equation and actually filled in that value don't talk to me about arrogant.

This is my point: As unlikely as it seems that this wierd, fragile system of life exists at all, it does. So yes, it is possible that it exists on another planet. Anything is possible. How likely? The truth is that nobody understands the phenomenon of life well enough to answer that. And until you understand what's happening here, it doesn't matter how many stars there are.

How does that pertain to UFOs? Call me what you like, but I am convinced this planet is a crazy crazy place. I'm putting this thought out there because I haven't really heard it expressed, and to let anyone convince me one way or the other, I want to know the truth as much as anyone. But I reject theories based on brute force imaginary numbers or improbable conclusions based on ambiguous evidence.

Thank you for reading my opinion, looking forward to your responses.

i agree indeed alien life is true yet i seen in descovery channel like 6months ago about nasa discovered a planet darwin4 there were some weird giant animal
here s the link in you tube its not complete but i seen the whole show and it is quite interesting
www.youtube.com...

This newly-discovered planet where life is thought to be feasible orbits Gliese 581, one of the nearest 100 stars to us, 20.4 light years away.

The new planet was found on 23rd April 2007 by a team led by Stephane Udry of Geneva University, The observatory they used was La Scilla, high in the Chilean Andes, where good viewing conditions would be available. (Hubble is a space-based telescope and was not used)

It is in the constellation Libra. It is the 87th closest star system to us. Its star (a Red Dwarf) is too faint to be seen with the naked eye, however. Its magnitude is 11.56.

What is unusual about Gliese 581c, amongst the 241 planets we have found orbiting other stars is

a) it is a rocky terrestrial planet not a gas giant

b) it is in the habitable zone i.e. with a temperature range at which water would be a liquid not ice. This is felt to be essential if it is to harbour life.

c) it has a radius 1.5 times that of earth (and a mass 5 x earth), the smallest yet,

(d) It orbits very close to its star (as the star, a Red Dwarf, is much cooler than our Sun, the planet needs to be nearer in to be warm enough to be habitable) and its year is a mere 13 Earth days in length.

There are two other planets in the same stellar system, one even further in (Gliese 581 b) a Neptune-sized planet of 17 Earth masses found in 2005 and one further out (Gliese 581 d) a planet of 8 Earth masses found in 2007.

The big question marks are:

(a) it is big enough to retain an atmosphere but is it breathable by humans?

(b) does it actually have (a plentiful supply of) water?

(c) how would we get there? (our present fastest rockets available would take 300,000 years)

(d) is the planet gravitationally locked to ts star, such that the same side of it always faces the star?

Many of the questions people will inevitably ask can only be answered when we can send an unmanned probe there. Meanwhile other planets will be found even nearer to us. (We know of a planet 10.5 light years away around Epsilon Eridani (the 9th nearest star) and 3 around Gliese 876, 15 light years away.)

Wilhelm Gliese was a German astronomer, best known for the Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars that he compiled.

[edit on 27-4-2008 by grimm703]

Yes! I loved that show. I need to get the DVD, as a programmer I loved the idea of software vs. aliens. Haha thanks.

reply to post by BernVerdnardo

you re welcome i think you can buy it either on ebay or download it via limewire pro