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Aliens Are Almost Definitely Out There, SETI Astronomers Tell Congress

There are creatures on THIS planet that could survive a journey through space. By that measure alone, I believe in life outside of this solar system.

What is water? It's two parts hydrogen (the most abundant element in the universe) and one part oxygen (more rare, but not overly so). How is it formed?

Do we really believe these circumstances are so rare that our entire universe has failed to produce more than one example of it?

There's some pretty loooooong odds on that...
 
shrubnose said:
That's your opinion which you are entitled to and I agree with, and which a lot of 'born again', flat earth losers on the right will ignore.

Sorry, but that's just the way that it is.
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I so wish we were in the basement. Your broad claims are baseless, as are most of your posts.
 
We shouldn't try and find them. Columbus and the Indians springs to mind.
 
Because the galaxy is so vast and theoretically infinite as long as it keeps expanding, there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that there is other life out there.

Its a fact that cannot be escaped.

What form it takes, well thats a question barring us destroying ourselves we'll be asking for a few more centuries.

An interesting theory by Tyson is that it's possible life already came, saw what we were and decided we weren't worth the effort.
 
Microbial life???

Microbes are transmitting with radio waves? Nonsense, it seems to me.

This congressional testimony sounds only like an effort to keep the budget for SETI.
 
Higgins86 said:
We shouldn't try and find them. Columbus and the Indians springs to mind.
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I hear you.

If we should find them and they learn what happened to the Native Americans, we might not like what happens to us.




"All of the problems that we face in the USA today can be traced to an unenlightened immigration policy on the part of the American Indian." ~ Pat Paulsen
 
Kal'Stang said:
With all that we know of microbial life extremophiles etc etc I would find it extremely hard to belief that there isn't at the very least microbial life out there. If they can carry a microbe out into space with it being exposed directly to space, and it living through several days of that there has got to be other life out there in better conditions than space itself. The only question in my mind is if there is other intelligent life out there.

This planet has had millions of different kinds of life forms living on it for millions of years and in many different types of environments, from extreme cold and low oxygen content to temperate climate and higher oxygen content than what we have now. Even types of life that are alien to what we have now. To think that there isn't other life forms out there is just arrogant imo.

As for the whole bible/god thing...nothing about the bible indicates that we are the ONLY life forms that were ever made. No true scientist would even attempt to claim such. And imo doing so would discredit anyone that claimed such.
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I think it's certainly probable that something "living" may exist at some point in infinite time in an infinite universe but the infinite nature of space and time seems to make it pretty probable that we'll never be close enough in time or space to find it.

I tend to be on the fence for these things. I think space exploration is something the United States government should be funding but I'm not sure the SETI project actually needs governmental funding. It seems to me that these guys could probably get all the funding they needed privately, especially being based so close to Silicon Valley.
 
And some of them will likely have Death Stars and be ready to use them.

In an infinite universe almost anything is possible.
 
The human race has been sending substantial radio signals out to our galactic neighbors for about 100 years. While that is enough time for our signal to have reached hundreds of stars, only 8 of those stars contain planets capable of sustaining life. Outside those 8 planets there is no reason to believe that any intelligent life has heard from us yet, if it exists.

Ruling out those closest 8 planets, the next closest (and also happens to be the most like Earth) is 472 light years away. They won't be receiving our earliest radio signals until the year 2386, and we couldn't expect a reply until the year 2858.

For this reason a SETI like program seems to be entirely useless unless we make some dramatic discovery in faster than light communication.

SETI appears to be driven by the Sagan dream of tapping into some centuries old alien signal that, when decoded, teaches us how to contact them. In other words, it is more a matter of faith than of science.
 
votemout said:
Think if they told congress yea there is no life out there congress would give them more funding?

They have found ZERO evidence there is life off this planet, mars has produced nothing.

Man they are working so hard to find life out there just so they can prove there is no God, but the darn evidence just seems to elude them.
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An omnipotent God could create any kind of universe that She wanted to create, including one with millions of inhabited planets.
 
votemout said:
I did not say it would disprove I said they would claim.
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What would it take for you to believe those claims?

How strong is your belief in an Omnipotent God who is happy to let many millions of children die from hunger without raising Her finger?
 
votemout said:
Think if they told congress yea there is no life out there congress would give them more funding?

They have found ZERO evidence there is life off this planet, mars has produced nothing.

Man they are working so hard to find life out there just so they can prove there is no God, but the darn evidence just seems to elude them.
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The reason they have found zero evidence is that we have barely touched other worlds. We have a ridiculously vast amount of universe to explore and have barely taken a glance at it. An analogy is landing in Cairo and getting off the plane for 5 minutes then claiming we found no evidence that there are no elephants in Africa.

Mars has in fact produced something. The first unmanned craft landing on MArs had seperate tests for microbial life in the martian soil. The first gave a positive result which was determined as inconclusive. In other words it may have found life or it may have found an unusual chemical reaction. The second test found nothing and gave a negative result. It was only years later that they discovered the equipment used for the second test often fails to find life here on Earth where we know it exists. In fact the failure rate is 50% or more, this of course makes the testing on Mars with this specific method very unreliable.

As a result of this many experts in the field are pushing for funding for better tests to be used on Mars in the future. Basically Mars is back in the unknown category we can neither confirm it nor rule it out. We also need to look harder at Jupiter and Europa. Jupiter, Europa and Mars look more and more as though they COULD support life as time goes by and learn more about them. They are also tantalizingly close enough to reach.

I have no idea why you tie religion into this. Finding life on other worlds does not constitute proof that there is no god. In fact one can find no such proof anywhere in the known universe because one cannot prove a negative. SETI has nothing to do with God or religion one way or the other.
 
Buck Ewer said:
Sorry ecofarm but that is distorted logic.
With the evidence we now have, the probability is that life here is unique .
If I find a grain of gold on a huge beach of billions of grains of sand I can not assert any probability that I will find another ... no matter how numerous the possibilities are. If I find another gold grain within say a nine square meter section I can assign a probability of finding a third on that beach. But with evidence of only one I can not, no matter how big the beach is.
Many possibilities does not indicate any change in probabilities.
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Zero possibilities indicates to me that the probability is nil.
 
votemout said:
Think if they told congress yea there is no life out there congress would give them more funding?

They have found ZERO evidence there is life off this planet, mars has produced nothing.

Man they are working so hard to find life out there just so they can prove there is no God, but the darn evidence just seems to elude them.
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What is the point of a vast universe then?

If we are "it", why create anything but our solar system?
 
ecofarm said:
It would be against logic and reason to presume you found the only existing grain of gold. Nothing else is unique. Why would the grain of gold, or earth life, be.

You might not find another, and presuming to find one is without support, but assuming no others exist is just dumb.
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Never assume anything.

Not a good idea. Better to check and verify.
 
fmw said:
A very long time indeed. The chance of finding other life forms in this solar system are about zero. The next solar system is over 4 light years away. It would take us 30,000 years to get there using current technology. If that fails, the next one is, well............
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Science proves you quite wrong there is a high chance of finding life right here in the solar system
 
fmw said:
A very long time indeed. The chance of finding other life forms in this solar system are about zero. The next solar system is over 4 light years away.
It would take us 30,000 years to get there using current technology.
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 If that fails, the next one is, well............
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So we better start planning our trip now, eh?
 
"almost definitely"

nearly certain

mostly positive

close, but no cigar shaped UFO

approaching true

just a hair from actuality

There are "almost definitely other forms of life in the universe".

To this I can agree, partially indubitably.
 
ecofarm said:
The existence of a billion planets like ours is evidence of life outside the earth. As is the existence of water all over the place. It's indirect evidence, or at least "supports the notion".

You claimed "a profound lack of any kind of evidence that supports that notion." That's a false statement, as it ignores indirect evidence pointing toward a near certainty of alien life of some kind.
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The volcanic vent ecosystems, which are not based on photosynthesis, demonstrate that life is likely ubiquitous.

I suspect we will eventually find evidence of a second "tree of life" here. They thought they had a couple years ago, but it turned out to be an extreme adaptation.
 
fmw said:
I'm anxious to see the proof.
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Pay more attention to science more such proof is being published every day.

For example in only the last 2 decades we have found life all over this planet in every environment imaginable. It exists in every place we can look where we once thought it could never survive. The deepest holes, the oldest ice, the highest altitudes and the deepest water. None of this proves life exists elsewhere but the extreme environments in which we are finding life increases the odds of it existing elsewhere. The enormous variety and diversity of life also increases the odds.

The more we learn about the environments on other worlds the more we realize that they are often more benign and habitable than the places we find life here on earth.
 
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