This is why we are not alone in this part of the Galaxy

Gliese 581 is a red dwarf star located just 20.3 light years away.
Its outermost planet Gliese 581 d orbits just inside of the habitable zone of its star, which makes it a potential candidate for being able to support Extra Terrestrial life.
Another planet, Gliese 581 c, was discovered in April 2007 , and is believed by some to be a rocky planet with a radius 1.5 times that of Earth.
In October 2008, members of the networking website Bebo beamed A Message From Earth, a high-power transmission at Gliese 581 c, using the RT-70 radio telescope belonging to the National Space Agency of Ukraine. This transmission is due to arrive in the Gliese 581 system's vicinity by the year 2029; the earliest possible arrival for a response, should there be one, would be in 2049.
There are Ten nearby class M red dwarf stars each possibly housing their own Solar Systems .
Most of the stars in the galaxy – more than two-thirds of them – are M dwarfs. If M dwarfs can host habitable planets, those planets might well be home to intelligent species.
If Extra Terrestrials have managed to produce faster than light travel then these systems are right on our doorstep.

Nearby Star Systems

[edit on 10-1-2010 by gortex]

reply to post by gortex


We're going to be finding more and more planets in the near future. It will come as no surprise to me when we find something very similar to Earth. It's not a matter of 'if'... it's a matter of 'when'.

IRM

The subject heading is misleading. It should be 'why we MIGHT NOT be alone' not 'why we ARE NOT alone'. Because the information put forward points to the possibility, not the proof.
Aside from that, we really need to get rid of our preconceptions that life has to be modelled on our own needs. Other forms of life may in fact require neither water nor solid ground even.

[edit on 10-1-2010 by unicorn1]

I believe that we may be able to develop much faster ways to send signals/comms across space well before 2029.
It could be that we can "overtake" the bebo message in a few years time,meaning we may be able to find/contact ET life before the 2029 estimate.
We could use a future technology to boost the bebo signal on its journey,by bending space time,or some other way we have not yet invented.
Hope so anyway.

I'm with InfraRedMan on this one. 'When not if.'

Science isn't like a clock with discoveries happening to a schedule, I know. Still...with the rate we are discovering new planets, it's so tempting to expect 'Earth-type' planets sooner than later.

15 years ago we found the first...now it's nearly 500. Apart from their massive sizes they are frequently like our own Solar System. That makes it fair to expect a similar composition to Earth..somewhere....

A massive Earth! That means somewhere there could be a giant Megan Fox and a normal-sized Tom Cruise...ahem...

huggs



interesting post...


with trillions of stars out there its impossible not there being intelligent life out there.

I also beleive we have neighbors close by as well.

and as the other poster stated ,,life forms can be completely different than us.
An example could be dolphins,,they are very intelligent.
Most life forms wont be space travelers of corse,,

Be nice if we could send probes to some of the planets we will soon be discovering.
if there werent so darn dang far,,,lol

but Im sure eventually we will find stuff on mars and europa.

huggies

Reply to Kandinsky
I agree but I think that it is wrong of science to dismiss planets that aren't Earth-like , life on Earth has shown it is very adaptable ,eg extremophiles , on this planet they are not the dominant species but on an Extra-Solar planet ,who knows , Intelligent extremophiles.

Reply to amyfriend
I think you are spot on with Europa , I have no doubt we will find animal life there , it has all the ingredients to make a tasty life soup .
Maybe Europan Whales and dolphins.

Originally posted by Kandinsky
That makes it fair to expect a similar composition to Earth..somewhere....
A massive Earth! That means somewhere there could be a giant Megan Fox

Oh... the possibilities!!!

"Troy... get your mind out of the gutter"!

IRM

[edit on 10/1/10 by InfaRedMan]

I'm with the people on the subject of Europa, that small moon may hold life as we know it as well as other life we have no idea about, I would love to see humans melt their way into the sea that apparently exists below the surface ice crust and explore, as for other exoplanets, only time will tell if others exist like our Earth, it seems so far we have only detected planets that are not in the habitable zone, the more our tech advances the more planets I believe we'll find that could or do harbour life.. Exciting times ahead good post OP

reply to post by Majestic RNA

it seems so far we have only detected planets that are not in the habitable zone

The habitable zone is defined by our current scientific knowledge for life as we know it , science as we know is constantly evolving so in 1, 5 or 10 years time the evaluation of that zone may be totally different to that of today .
Gliese 581 d and Gliese 581 c do fall within the zone as defined by current understanding so have a chance to harbor life .
As for Europa , I would love to know what is swimming in that Ocean but fear for the safety of whatever life is there once we find it

For those that are attracted to the idea of Europa harboring life....the video below is a must-see. It's Bill Stone and he's planning a mission to explore Europa's seas.

Engineer and daredevil explorer Bill Stone is obsessed with discovery. After years of crawling through the deepest unexplored caves on the planet, he’s building robots to go where he can’t. His company Stone Aerospace built DepthX, an autonomous robot, which descended 1,099 feet down Mexico’s deepest watery sinkhole. By 2008 he’ll send an enhanced machine through the ice of Lake Bonney in the Antarctic. But that’s just a test for the real mission, building a probe with Nasa to bore through miles of ice on Jupiter’s moon Europa, then swim through the buried Europan sea in search of alien life.

I did a very poor thread on this last year and the link wouldn't work...here goes...

Cool thread. I think it's pretty amazing, when thinking about the vastness of the Universe. I absolutely love to go to the Hayden Planet-arium (sorry, couldn't resist the South Park), just to view the size of our Galaxy in relation to other galaxy clusters onto super clusters. The sheer size of the visible universe is tough enough alone to comprehend, but to imagine the possible infinite vastness is basically mind blowing.

Personally, like many of us here at ATS, I am of the mind that our solar system is only but a common system in an endless sea of similar systems which do in fact support a wide variety of life. I really do not see how any rational thinking person can think otherwise. Psychotic religeous folk may be the only ones left who think otherwise in this day and age I suppose. Oddly enough in this day and age, they are still living with the doctrines set in place hundreds and sometimes thousands of years ago.

I too have seen a few programs concerning the Gliese 581 star and the surrounding planets we have detected. I remember being so excited when I learned of this. It really seems that the more science is learning about the universe, the more science and we are learning exactly how much the rest of the Universe resembles our own immediate surroundings. Most stars are binary and many do not have planetary bodies, but many do. I wonder how many other civilizations there are out there, and how far along their technology is? It's probably a number which is too astronomical itself for me to comprehend. There really must be countless civilizations out there seperated by countless light years. Perhaps the habitable zone for other life is vastly different han ours. There is just no way to know that unless you met an alien I guess. And if that is the case, then the chances and odds of life variety explode 100 fold again. It's just so fascinating to me.

reply to post by gortex


The problem I have with all this fantastic information is this. I truly believe that there is life out there and in fact have visited us before and probably still are...

I think we are like kids looking at a car thinking of all the cool cars out there and the toys to put on the car. BUT WE STILL don't know how to DRIVE, don't have a job and no way to get a car.

so all this military BS should be spent on the exploration of space and all the effort to divide our countries and become the king of the hill should be put toward exploration and unity.

I think we are too immature to make any significant move to space, and until we mature as a species we will just be tire kickers looking.

Originally posted by gortex
reply to post by Majestic RNA

 

I would love to know what is swimming in that Ocean but fear for the safety of whatever life is there once we find it

That is a worry, no doubt about it, even melting/cutting into the ice could protentionaly cause harm or kill whatever lives under the ice crust (that’s if there is life there) us humans don’t have a very good track record concerning preservation of life..... Europa tuna fish anyone??

Originally posted by Majestic RNA
I'm with the people on the subject of Europa, that small moon may hold life as we know it as well as other life we have no idea about...

While Europa gets alot of the "life elsewhere" attention -- and deservedly so -- I'm more inclined to think that life may exist on Saturn's Moon Enceladus.

Enceladus -- like Europa -- is suspected of having a sub-surface ocean. However, the Cassini spacecraft has been able to "sample" the water from Enceladus (it streams water-ice into space via a geyser) and it has found that the water is salty, which means that the ocean most likely is liquid (the liquid water dissolves the salts.

PLUS, Cassini has detected organic compounds -- not life, but the building blocks of life -- in that water-ice. Organic compounds have been detected on Europa, but not necessarily in the water -- because the water is not as accessible as it is on Enceladus with its geyser.

Here are a few articles on Enceladus, its ocean, and the potential for life:
www.america.gov...
saturn.jpl.nasa.gov...
www.universetoday.com...

It is exciting to think about the possibilities out there. We always assume that it would take the same amount of time for a message to get back to us as it did getting to its destination. What if the message is sent back to us through alternative methods and gets back many times faster by advanced tech.

I also often wonder if there are systems out there that may have multiple planets with intelligent life.

Imagine a solar system where life exists on an Earth a Venus and a Mars simultaneously. Perhaps there is life in our own backyard, we just can't conceptualize life that is different from our own, needing water, air etc.

reply to post by gortex


Yea, we will probably know something by 2025. There are many projects that are up or going up soon that will be able to detect not only Earth sized planets but chemical compositions of their atmosphere. IMHO, NASA's Terrestrial Planet Finder mission should provide the best chance. Many scientists agree that we should find a planet very much like Earth by 2025.

The only thing with these planets around these red dwarfs is the radiation is not suitable for human life, and thus gives some pause to the possibility of any type of significant life being there. Plus, most of these planets are so close to their sun that they are tidally locked, meaning one side always faces the star, the other is in constant night.

Even with the numerous gas giant planets we have found it still doesn't rule out life, especially on any surrounding moons. So yea, I agree that it is very unlikely we are alone in this part of the galaxy, it is probably a very crowded block. The next 15 years should be VERY interesting, in fact I would expect us not only to find an Earth-like planet but also to find microbial life on Mars or something on Europa. Thanks for sharing... S/F...

great vid there guy. nice S+F4U. I just hate the way our scientists use only the Earth Paradigm for deciding what life can exist on. We dont even know the full earth planetarily yet, and we now dictate what makes life possible for all other possibilities. What if one day someone came from another planet saying they lived on the planet nearest the sun on a square orbit>? would we just ignore it because we know our science says this thing isnt real? lol

reply to post by jkrog08

also to find microbial life on Mars or something on Europa

Thanx for the response jkrog08, I believe microbial life has already been found on Mars by Mars pathfinder rover but for various reasons the data was discredited and hidden , a bit conspiratorial I know but if I remember correctly they said the test was flawed

OP - what did the message say that we beamed them?

Some scientists have speculated it could be a mistake announcing "here we are" lest a predatory species gets the message....and is looking for an inferior planet to pillage....