• Question: is there other life in the universe

    Asked by mlricketts to Charlie, Eoin, Jemma, Julian, Steve on 20 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Jemma Ransom

      Jemma Ransom answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      I’d like to say yes, since the universe is infinite, it seems silly to me to suggest that Earth is the only planetary body capable of supporting life. However, since there is no evidence of life similar to what we see on Earth anywhere else in the universe as of yet, i gues my answer would have to be no.

    • Photo: Julian Rayner

      Julian Rayner answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Pretty sure there is bound to be. Bacteria in particular have been found living in some of the most extreme environments on our planet (in hot springs miles under water for example), so they can adapt to just about anything. My money would be on them.

    • Photo: Stephen Moss

      Stephen Moss answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Hi Mlricketts

      This is such a great question, and one that I think everyone on our planet would like an answer to. I think the sheer massive scale of the Universe must mean that there is certainly the possibility. But whether it would be ‘intelligent’ life, or just something simple like slime, who knows?

    • Photo: Eoin Lettice

      Eoin Lettice answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      This is a really big debate in science!
      I think there probably is some sort of other life in the universe apart from that on earth. It might not be what we think of as life and it almost certainly isn’t the type of aliens we see in films and on TV. It may well be some sort of bacterial life form.
      The universe is so large, that I think there must be another form of life out there. Maybe we’ll find it someday.

      Eoin

    • Photo: Charlie Ryan

      Charlie Ryan answered on 20 Mar 2011:

      hi mlrickets i think i’ve answerred this question (from someone else) already but i’ll reply to you aswell! But sorry if it sounds as if i’m repeating myself!
      I strongly believe that there is life out there in the universe apart from ourselves. Twenty years ago this would have been just a belief, but it now seems that evidence is growing that life could be relatively common out there.
      One such bit bit of evidence is the discovery of planets around other stars – which have the pretty cool name ‘exoplanets’! The first such planets was discovered in 1995, and in 15 years many hundreds of planets have been found. And that’s with the detection being extremely difficult – most planets discovered orbit their star very closely, and their star is quite close to our sun on the galactic scale. So we have only just started our exoplanet hunt!
      Currently estimates put the number of exoplanets in our galaxy at about 20 billion!! But these won’t all be good for life (as we know it!), but still some should be good holiday destinations! Out of the 500 confirmed exoplanets, none are like earth, but this is because earth-like planets are difficult to detect using the detection techniques. Even so the leading scientists in this field reckon an earth like planet (i.e. similar size, distance from its star as earth) will be discovered in about five years!! It may though be a lot longer before we detect life on it!

      So there is a high likelihood that there are many planets suitable for life. So in my view life is likely to exist elsewhere in the universe.

      Any further questions on this topic ask away! I really find it fascinating even though it isn’t the area that i research!

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