POLL – How common is life in the universe?

Let’s first define life:- chemistry that is self-replicating.

Based on recent data (Kepler), we can reasonably assume that there are at least 500,000,000,000 planets in our galaxy.

It’s my personal view that life is somewhat rare, but not exclusive to the Earth. The Earth has certain unique properties that enable long term stability, which must be conducive to intelligent life. But I’m only interested (for this poll) in life, not necessarily intelligence.

Obviously we don’t know the answer, but I personally assume that life has ‘happened’ on numerous occasions. I may be wrong, but I think it’s a fair assumption.

So… what are your views?

PS – this thread isn’t about other life-forms visiting here, it's about whether or not they exist.

Very very common. I'd say there is life on 50% of the stars(you know what I mean) we can see, not intelligent life, mind you, but life nonetheless.
Just think about how common it is here on Earth....everywhere, around you, are bacteria. you're always 8 feet from a spider, or so I'm told.

then think of how many stars are in just this galaxy. And then how many galaxies are in the known universe.

you gotta be very dense to think we're the only life in the universe.
I respect others' opinions that life is common or not common. It's only those who say that we're the only life there is atall, that I consider dense.(I do understand those who say that this is all a simulation, and none of those planets out there exist. I do respect that belief as well., It's just those who believe on one hand the stars out there exist, and on the other hand we are the only life, whom I'm calling dense.)

My view is that anywhere life CAN exist it WILL exist. If the right ingredients exist, life is inevitable. That begs a lot of questions. I'm not saying that means intelligent life, just life in one form or another. It could very well be the, "It's life, Jim, but not as we know it." kind of life, but it still counts.

The answer thus far is the Drake equation:

The Drake equation states that:

where:
N = the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which communication might be possible;
and
R* = the average rate of star formation per year in our galaxy
fp = the fraction of those stars that have planets
ne = the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
fℓ = the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life at some point
fi = the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop intelligent life
fc = the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space
L = the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space[3]

The Drake equation (sometimes called the Green Bank equation or the Green Bank Formula) is an equation used to estimate the number of detectable extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. It is used in the fields of exobiology and the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI). The equation was devised by Frank Drake, Emeritus Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

en.wikipedia.org...

I say who cares , what we guess? It won't change the answer at the end. Lets just wait till we find it . Instead of more of these threads. All you will get is speculation , and hearsay from our wild imaginations.

actions speak louder then words ,

just chill and wait and eventually one will pop up , then 3 then 100 then 1000 etc ..

our toys to detect it is still primitive on the grand scale of things , who cares how common life is . Clearly it isn't so common if we keep having to ask this question ? lol

lets just wait see , twiddle our thumbs

My views:
Based on the ever increasing number of celestial objects which are deemed habitable to our idea of life I'm convinced life is not exclusive to earth.

The idea that we are the only and most advanced lifeform in the universe is the most self absorbed thing I've ever heard. I'm sure the universe can do better than that.

Peace

The fact that life is so diverse on Earth gives no clues as to how common it is. What this thread is talking about is how likely life is.

There is a school of thought which advocates that the entire Universe is tuned to perfection for the existence of humanity. However that perfect tuning represents a very special state that must be accounted for so, unless God created such a perfect Universe a la Genesis, there must exist many possible Universes in a Multiverse or The Bulk as physicists call it now

I would challenge the idea that this Universe is perfect for human beings because life is not exactly easy for the vast majority of humans who exist now and existed in the past and ultimately humans die following relatively short lifespans which is not exactly perfect

So I think one could reasonably argue that this Universe is almost perfect for humans ergo there is a finite chance that we are not alone. However if we scale up the definition of The Universe to encompass The Bulk then other civilisations become much more probable, perhaps even a certainty

reply to post by BagBing


It's very conservative to say on 5% of the planets life has formed. It's hard to imagine that life could be on thousands of other planets, but when you look at the incredible number I would not be at all surprised. Not saying intelligent life,but life in general.

what makes us so special??? Nothing is what I think.
nice thread
SnF

Originally posted by wemadetheworld
There is a school of thought which advocates that the entire Universe is tuned to perfection for the existence of humanity.

That's a very simplistic view of reality...

However that perfect tuning represents a very special state that must be accounted for so, unless God created such a perfect Universe a la Genesis, there must exist many possible Universes in a Multiverse or The Bulk as physicists call it now

I would challenge the idea that this Universe is perfect for human beings because life is not exactly easy for the vast majority of humans who exist now and existed in the past and ultimately humans die following relatively short lifespans which is not exactly perfect

So I think one could reasonably argue that this Universe is almost perfect for humans ergo there is a finite chance that we are not alone. However if we scale up the definition of The Universe to encompass The Bulk then other civilisations become much more probable, perhaps even a certainty

Really? Why? We may be alone... (I hope not, but...)

your views don't add to the argument, they simply complicate it.

Originally posted by BagBing
PS – this thread isn’t about other life-forms visiting here, it's about whether or not they exist.

Well if they are visiting here, we would know if they exist, right?

reply to post by zorgon


Are we talking about intelligent life? or just having some form of life?
I thought they were asking is a basic life form..maybe I didn't read it close enough.

reply to post by BagBing


It's just my take on the Anthropic Principle:

en.wikipedia.org...

But it really depends on how you define The Universe in relation to The Bulk

Originally posted by wutz4tom
reply to post by zorgon

 

Are we talking about intelligent life? or just having some form of life?
I thought they were asking is a basic life form..maybe I didn't read it close enough.

Just life elsewhere...no matter how simple

Originally posted by wutz4tom
reply to post by zorgon

 

Are we talking about intelligent life? or just having some form of life?
I thought they were asking is a basic life form..maybe I didn't read it close enough.

I dunno ask the OP In any case it will just be a guess, like the last hundred thread asking if there is life out there.

Now if you believe the people who have met them, then the proof is already here.

I assume there is life everywhere. If so, why haven't we found them? Or they us?

Time is a factor. Possibly, spaceships came here during the last Galactic Census, and just found a lot of dinosaurs. And since we are sort of way in the boondocks, galactically speaking, we are still noted as "dinosaur planet" and so no one has passed by in hundreds of millions of years.

More likely, when I see what living Hell this whole world actually is, is that we are under quarantine.

And seeing how we appear to be pretty close to self destruction right now, maybe many other civilizations have gone through this, too, and annihilated themselves millions of years ago, without ever making it to space travel. And if we never make it to actual space travel, not shooting rockets, well, sooner or later there WILL be some kind of natural disaster that will wipe everyone out, even if we don't do it ourselves with nuke bombs, and being off planet would be the only hope for survivors. We can see the evidence that it has happened two or three times before, 95 percent extinction of everything, yet life recovered.

Originally posted by BagBing
Just life elsewhere...no matter how simple

I just bet the oceans on Europa are literally TEEMONG with life, because below the ice conditions there would be the same as our deepest trenches and those are teeming with all sorts of odd life

I just hope the first pictures we get are not some big teeth as the probe gets eaten

Originally posted by zorgon

Originally posted by BagBing
PS – this thread isn’t about other life-forms visiting here, it's about whether or not they exist.

Well if they are visiting here, we would know if they exist, right?

Who exactly is "we" here?

"The four most common elements that are utilized by life on Earth (hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen) are the most abundant non noble gas elements in the Universe."

Gilmour, I; Spehton, M A. pg 3

We now know that planets are very common in our galaxy.

We know that water (at least in ice form) is abundant in our Solar system. This can surely be assumed to be the case in many systems if they formed in the same way that (cloud collapse, accretion etc) and with the similar materials as ours formed.

It is believed that the universe is just under 14 billion years old, if I remember correctly. If we want to be conservative, we can say scratch the first 4 - 5 billion years due to the lack of heavy elements needed for life as we know it.

That leaves us possibly 9 - 10 billion years for life to have occurred elsewhere.

There are people who believe that Earth is unique in its ability to host life due to being exactly the right distance from it's star, having a magnetic field to protect against harmful radiation, having the right tilt on its axis etc.

I'd say that it's a bit silly to think that life only occurs in environments exactly like Earth's. We could also speculate that life based on other elements could have evolved.

It's difficult to answer the op's question because we are still learning about other star/planetary systems, although planets similar to Earth, I am positive, will be found if the various agencies get up off their backsides and actually build the tech that can not only directly see a planet but also 'taste' its atmosphere (plans have been drawn up but keep getting shelved)

Nevertheless, even with the tech we are using now, discoveries are being made all the time which suggest we are not so unique.

With the information we have now, I would say that life as we know it is probably very common. Is intelligent life common? Don't know, but some biologists have suggested that intelligence is an 'inevitable' adaptation that would always occur in the correct conditions and given enough time.

Given that we have hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy alone, I really think that people who believe that life, and intelligent life is impossible, or even rare, are conservative and careful in the extreme.

All the ingredients are not only there, but are abundant. If only we knew the exact process that kick started life on Earth, I think the op's question could be answered.

Apologies for any grammar errors or mistakes in my thought processes. Had a hot date last night and only had 3 hours sleep

All types and kinds of life can exist in our universe. Maybe not walking up right or multicellular, but the possibility remains.