"My God, its full of stars!"

The quote from 2001: A Space Odyssey is the first thing that comes to mind when I look at pictures such as these:

This is a picture of the Messier Galaxy, a pinwheel Galaxy located in Ursa Major. Its twice the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy.



Here's a closer look.



Notice all the stars in this one picture?

How about even closer?



This is just ONE galaxy in our immense universe. Some of the stars in our OWN galaxy can be similiar to our OWN Sol.Sol is not unique in the whole universe to sustain life. Those stars might have planets on them, and some of those planets might be in the 'habitable zone' of that star, that is, capable of sustaining life. The life on those planets might even be intelligent.
Just looking at the pictures above, there is no possible way Earth is unique in sentient, intelligent life. Have they made it to Earth? That, I cannot answer, except I hope they have found a way to make it here.
Sol is not unique in the whole universe to sustain life. Our sun is a relatively young star, many of the stars out there are millions, if not BILLIONS of years older. If intelligent life flourished on those other planets orbiting similiar stars, they would be much more advanced then us, and achieved interplanetry or intestellar travel. To say WE are the ONLY intelligent life in the universe is incomprehendable in my mind.
Somewhere out there, is someone else, possibly thinking the same thing: Are we alone? Is it ONLY us out here?
My answer is NO.

reply to post by HomerinNC


Amazing post. We both have similar ideals. The immense vastness of this universe is unfathomable to the human mind. All the stars in the expanding universe are comparable to all the grains of sand on the Earth! Our knowledge of this universe is so infinitesimal, yet some of us still hold an anthropocentric view as if humans are the pinnacle of creation.

S&F

you can't look at these pictures and not believe in God.

Agreed

With all the other galaxies out there, that contain stars, that contain solar systems, that contain planets.....

I think it would be very arrogant, if not down right ignorant of us to assume there is not another "earth" out there some where.

The big questions are
What is their technological advancement compared to ours?

Which ones are still in "dinosaur age", and which ones are 2000+ years above us in technology.

What if they have 2 suns, so that drilling for oil is simply stupid, due to the over abundance of solar energy.

Scientists just last week said every single star in our solar system had at least 1 planet circling it. I assume the same is true for this system too.

How can you look at those images and not believe in life somewhere other than Earth?

Great pics!

I wonder if there any ET's on ATS?

I would say the universe in teeming with life, it just seems logical to me. There's some theories that suggest life was seeded by comets, at least the bare necessities. If that's so, it makes sense that the same has happened elsewhere. The big question of course is how much of that life is intelligent life. Who knows?

I think life is inevitable, it's a dead certainty, as for us being visited by it, well, I guess that's not the debate at hand here but I often wonder what's out there and what life would be like for another civilised world. It absolutely fascinates me, I wish I was born in an age where we were so far advanced that we'd know these things and have knowledge and interration with other beings. Not a chance in my lifetime.

The universe is absolutely amazing, if some higher intelligence would be so kind as to explain it to our simple minds, that in itself would be a blessing.

truly humbling.
watch:
www.youtube.com...

This topic comes up quite alot, however an important one it is. To deny that life exists anywhere but the earth makes one blind to the universe around them. This topic also brings up an important question.

Many people state that extra-terestrial intelligence could never have visited Earth, which is where they forget the Earth was not the first planet to form, billions of years ago lifeforms may have set out on a quest searching for life...their solar system could be several light years away from us. But what if, they have been travelling for several light years? The universe is so old in comparison to our existance, no one in the slightest can even start to imagine what kinds of life may be lurking out there.

Just glancing at these pictures alone is enough to see that we are not alone.

Originally posted by randomname
you can't look at these pictures and not believe in God.

Yes i can.

Originally posted by randomname
you can't look at these pictures and not believe in God.

Yes we can thanks very much!

reply to post by HomerinNC


I guess this is what infinity looks like...

Just imagine a species a billion years ahead of us.

I thought god only invented heaven and earth???

Nope, no god here, move along please.

I think the latest figure I read said that our scientists calculate there are fifty thousand million million stars in the 'known' universe.... 'known' suggests to me it goes on further but let's stick there with the fifty thousand million million stars...

That's 50,000,000,000,000,000 stars...

Let's be stupid and say that 1% of those stars have planets revolving around them.

And that of that 1%... only 0.00001% have any type of life on them from a single celled amoeba to something much more complex.

Ridiculous figures but it still means there are 50,000,000 (fifty million) planets out there with life on them.

Let us further assume, for arguments sake, that we are in the most advanced ten percent of planets - that still means there are 5 million civilisations out there in advance of us.

Do we really think some of them haven't managed to develop the technology to travel inter-stellar distances?

reply to post by YeshuaPiso

GUYS,GIRLS.
YOU MISSED THIS awesome video on the subject:
www.youtube.com...

Originally posted by Nite_wing
I wonder if there any ET's on ATS?

Well... er... some of us call it ETS among our own kind...
(chuckles)

Amazing photos.

Somewhere out there, is someone else, possibly thinking the same thing: Are we alone? Is it ONLY us out here?

I'd like to think so. The universe is so vast and we here on Earth know so little, but the drive is there to continue exploring, searching, learning.

Here is another pic of a galactic cluster taken by the Hubble



looks like those are all closeby, when in reality theyre probably MILLIONS of light years apart.
They also look small in the picture, but think: some of these can possibly be larger then the Messier Galaxy.
IMMENSE galaxies, just TEEMING with life.
It simply boggles my mind.

I reckon there are hundreds of billions of different species of life out there! Too many to even comprehend with our primitive brains!

Originally posted by randomname
you can't look at these pictures and not believe in God.

Actually, its quite the opposite.

How can a person think that the same thing that created all the stars, galaxies, etc. be the same person that cannot heal the sick, stop wars, and defeat the 'devil'?