Do you ever wonder if there is life on other planets?
It’s a subject that has fascinated me for as long as I can remember, and today I came across a couple of articles that make extraterrestrial life seem more likely:
- A fascinating article at New Scientist headlines why the universe may be teeming with aliens. Turns out that distance from its star is not the only factor that influences whether a planet could be conducive to life. Size matters. (Ah, but you already knew that, didn’t you … ) For example, because the Earth is about twice the size of Mars, Earth could have almost the same orbit as Mars (many more millions of miles from the Sun) and still have life. Size determines, for example, how much of a planet’s heat is generated internally … if a good bit is generated, there is less need for heat from the Sun, hence less need to be closer to it.
- An article on Physics World (paid subscription required) headlines: water confirmed on distant planet. Now I don’t have a subscription to this site, but the headline says enough, doesn’t it?
I recently saw an article that claimed that our galaxy probably has at least 32,000 planets that have civilizations more advanced than ours. (I didn’t save the link and have not found it again.) Can you imagine? 32,000 in this galaxy alone. Given that there are at least 100 billion galaxies in the universe, that suggests that there may be 3,200,000,000,000,000 planets with civilizations more advanced than ours. The number with civilizations not as evolved as ours could be even larger.
And that, of course, is for this universe, and, as we have discussed before, there could be many more universes.
If there really is that much life “out there” (or even smaller numbers), does that make you feel small in anyway? I hope it doesn’t, and my intention is not for us to think of ourselves as smaller or less valuable in the context of all this.
In fact, my intent is the opposite: to make us feel bigger, by opening up our minds to the vastness and robustness of creation, and how great it is to be a part of it. Even if life is as abundant as it seems it may be, life is still precious. Every second of it.
Comments?
The prospect of life in other solar systems and civilizations more advanced than ours does not make me feel smaller, just more humble. We as humans tend to think that the universe rotates around us, that we’re unique and exceptional, and that we are the very pinnacle of creation. The possibility — probability — of there being other civilizations is upsetting to many because it shakes that human-centric notion.
Great post! Thanks.
Thank you, Mike. Yes, humbling is a good word for it, isn’t it? But, as you point out, so many think the universe rotates around us. Makes me wonder about the extraterrestrial life that is not as “advance” as us … if we encounter them someday, would we tend to try to dominate them, as we have done with other life on this planet?
Anyway, thanks for the comments. I appreciate you.
If that’s the case, where are they?
I’ve always believed that we would find some sort of life out there. At least intelligent life. But as I get older and no evidence has been forthcoming I’m beginning to get this nagging doubt way down in the bottom of my brain.
And it has occured to me that maybe we ARE alone and it’s our destiny to populate the Cosmos.
Ah, good question, John. I suppose they could be wondering the same. Unless some extraterrestrial civilization has found ways to break the speed of light barrier, we’re not going to see them … the distances between us are simply too astronomical, pun intended of course. And, even if they have figured out how to get around the speed of light problem, why would a civilization more advanced than ours care to visit or communicate with us?
The possibility of parallel universes fascinates me even more, but we can probably never know whether they exist … the distances are too great even for our best telescopes, and indeed, because we are limited by the speed of light from seeing beyond 13billion light years, we could never have a powerful enough telescope, ever.
Fascinating stuff, though.
It has always fascinated me that society, and even scientists, have largely doubted the possibility of advanced civilizations within our galaxy, and in the countless other galaxies. I’ll conclude that their doubt is fear motivated.
I’m being kind here as the only other motivators would be: egocentric thinking, or a lack of intelligence and vision.
This reminds me of the link you included in your comment on my article on the auto industry bailout. You linked to “A Unified Theory of the Brain.” I agreed that their findings seem accurate; that our brains predicts probability scenarios based on current reference points and past experience, then chooses the most likely.
But I personally feel that we also include the “vision” or “what could be” variable into the mix — some of us more than others.
When we look at how our brains work, I find it difficult to rationalize society’s denial of alien civilizations. The numbers alone should be sufficient to trigger probability scenarios that point to the likelihood of other advanced civilizations.
Lets just take a breath and a quiet moment, to recall Carl Sagan’s description of the “billions” of galaxies, that contain “billions” of solar systems. How is it possible that our brains do not calculate the extremely high probability of “millions” of advanced civilizations scattered throughout the small portion of the universe that our telescopes can map?
In thinking about this, I went back to the site you linked to, and found this statement:
Does that explain why the bulk of humanity has denied the obvious? Is it such a leap to consider that intelligent life has evolved elsewhere? Must we actually “experience” their presence before we include them in our probability data?
I suppose this is so if it is true that our “vision,” and our sense of “what could be,” is not hardwired into our brain’s function. But I think “vision” is hardwired into our brain’s functioning.
So I find the denial difficult to accept. Is our fear that strong that we override our reasoning?
Some of us know that advanced civilizations exist elsewhere in the cosmos through the mixed blessing of experience. I say “mixed blessing” for good reasons!
Best,
John
John Rocheleau
Good comments my friend. You are right of course that our estimates of probabilities depend on our experience. I had an article recently, getting people to understand, which also pointed out that our common-sense intuitions are based on our experiences, and that this is one reason so many people do not understand general relativity and quantum mechanics (setting the math aside : the “counterintuitive” results from these branches of physics are that way because they go beyond the limits of our experience).
Fear is a powerful motivator, and a powerful inhibitor as well. Perhaps fear does keep some from believing we are not alone. I also think that, at least here in the States, it is also because our education system is so pathetic.
Thanks for stopping by.