• Question: 18. Are we alone? Is there life in space, and if so, how is it similar or different than life here on Earth?

    • Keywords:
      • Search for related information:
      Asked by x.isma.xx to Anais, katy, Lauren, Richard, Stuart on 8 Mar 2016.
      • Photo: Stuart Atkinson

        Stuart Atkinson answered on 8 Mar 2016:

        In the film ‘Contact’ a school child asked an astronomer the same question. She replied by saying ‘If it’s just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.’

        There’s something called the Drake Equation which three astronomers came up with in the 1960s and its used to predict how many civilisations might exist in the Universe. Look that up if you have time.

        When I think about it, there are so many stars and so many galaxies that I can’t even begin to comprehend the size of the universe, so you’d think there must be life out there.

        People have considered what other life might be made of. I think everyone agrees that it’d still have to be carbon based wherever it arose as there’s no other chemistry that will support complex systems. Silicon is the only other element that forms chains, but it’s no where near as good at it as carbon is.

      • Photo: Lauren Laing

        Lauren Laing answered on 8 Mar 2016:

        This question is way beyond my expertise, but don’t you think it would be really cool to research this!!

      • Photo: Anais Kahve

        Anais Kahve answered on 9 Mar 2016:

        Hello, good question. There is no evidence that there is other life in space but the elements that are needed for life to exist have been found. Compounds like water in the form of meteors made out of ice have been discovered and it is thought that the life on Earth came about from an ice meteor crashing down onto Earth. The temperature and the types of elements must have been perfect for life to form on Earth. Like Stuart has said, the Drake equation predicts the probability that there are other planets that contain life. But unfortunately no conclusions have been made from the equation so no one has been able to predict whether there are other life forms in space. This is probably due to many factors, one of them being the fact that we don’t actually know how big the universe is!

    Comments