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Asked by alexiareixach to Anais on 9 Mar 2016. This question was also asked by Adam Stand-on Joe.
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Anais Kahve answered on 9 Mar 2016:
I think that the probability that there is life on other planets is very slim. That’s because the conditions needed to support life have to be very specific. But that doesn’t mean that life can’t exist! I personally don’t think that there are human beings like us on other planets, but I do think that there could be other life forms that are at a much earlier stage of evolution than us, and probably life forms that are much more advanced than us humans. What do you think?
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Comments
Stuart commented on :
Probably not much chance within the solar system, although there may have been primitive life on Mars – it shows signs of ancient river beds, long-since dried up.
Anais is right is that the conditions on a planet have to be specific. Not too hot, not too cold, not too far from the star and not too far away. Scientists call this zone around a star the ‘Goldilocks Zone’ because it has to be just right.
Even if simple life does take hold, there are so many things going against it: solar radiation frying the surface; cometary impacts; volcanic eruptions…it’s amazing that life got so far on Earth!
Given the size of the visible universe – literally billions of galaxies each containing billions of stars, if only a tiny tiny percentage had life, that would still be loads of planets.
The big question is could we ever make contact. The distances between inhabited planets are likely to be absolutely enormous, so it seems the likelihood of detecting them is small.
The film ‘Contact’ (1997) is all about discovering an extraterrestrial civilisation. It was written by the astronomer who designed the ‘greetings’ plaques attached to the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft in case they should be found by aliens.
Stuart commented on :
Sorry I just realised that question wasn’t meant for me – aaargh!