Is there any life out there? Well, recent conservative estimates say that there could be ~300 trillion planets in the known universe (300 trillion = 1 million x 1 million x 300). That’s a lot of planets.
However, life on this planet does not always do well in understanding our universe. But at least its entertaining!
Why We Need To Teach Astronomy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG8SwAFQFuU
https://youtu.be/fG8SwAFQFuU?feature=shared
Is there any life out there? Well, recent conservative estimates say that there could be ~300 trillion planets in the known universe (300 trillion = 1 million x 1 million x 300). That’s a lot of planets.
However, life on this planet does not always do well in understanding our universe. But at least its entertaining!
Why We Need To Teach Astronomy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG8SwAFQFuU
https://youtu.be/...FQFuU?feature=shared
Well obviously the Moon is bigger than the Sun which is a star. Otherwise we wouldn’t have an eclipse. And since the eclipse only occurs over a small area our planet is much bigger than the Moon.
Lol good one. Here’s my favorite: “I never wash my towels. When I exit the shower I’m the cleanest object in the house therefore each time I use a towel it gets cleaner and cleaner.”
We know there are trillions of planets. The real question is where is everyone? SETI has been listening for 60 years. There’s nothing.
Been listening to a recent Sean Carroll’s Mindscape podcast with a planetary scientist talking about what’s inside planets. Pretty cool stuff, much of which I don’t think I had heard before. Just amazing how we figure this stuff out.
We know there are trillions of planets. The real question is where is everyone? SETI has been listening for 60 years. There’s nothing.
There are 4 dimensions plus another limitation that separate life. Time and space divide life, and these are gaps are incomprehensibly large (both in distance and in time). Plus, there is technology. Likely, 99.999% of lifeforms do not have access to any technology capable of super long distance 1-way, or 2-way, communication.
We know there are trillions of planets. The real question is where is everyone? SETI has been listening for 60 years. There’s nothing.
My guess is that we are far overestimating the probability of human like intelligence evolving, or lasting very long if it does. There are just a number of contingencies that needed to happen for us to evolve that appear to be pretty rare, if not unique, in the natural world. We could be a 1 in trillion planet phenomenon.
If life on Earth is indicative of what’s normal it’s that life in the Universe is most likely to be single celled and when multicellularity evolves it’s going to produce “dumb” beings.
We know there are trillions of planets. The real question is where is everyone? SETI has been listening for 60 years. There’s nothing.
There are 4 dimensions plus another limitation that separate life. Time and space divide life, and these are gaps are incomprehensibly large (both in distance and in time). Plus, there is technology. Likely, 99.999% of lifeforms do not have access to any technology capable of super long distance 1-way, or 2-way, communication.
Yes that’s all known. There could be primitive life that will never discover EM. There could be intelligent life but aquatic, or lacking limbs with which to build radio transmitters. There could have been civilizations capable of transmitting narrow-band EM but a billion years ago. And so on.
However consider that if one intelligent species managed to develop a spacefaring civilization like ours, just one in this galaxy. They would have the ability to colonize many habitable worlds across the galaxy. Even travelling at sublight 100,000 LY is a short distance considering the deep timescales involved. Compare that to Polynesians who left Taiwan and colonized the entire Pacific with nothing but canoes. That’s what would have happened in the galaxy, and probably a long time ago.
So where is everyone?
I’m in the camp that believes that all technological societies are destined to destroy themselves. Obviously that’s mere speculation. We don’t know. Earth is a sample of one. At this point it’d be terribly exciting if we detect primitive life elsewhere. I’m hopeful for Europa or Titan, or maybe JWST or successors find metabolites in an extra-solar planet’s atmosphere.
In their defense, they are not astrology majors.
The real question is where is everyone? SETI has been listening for 60 years. There’s nothing.
They got our texts years ago (unasked for, BTW) and left us on “Read”
We’re not worth their time. Apparently
The real question is where is everyone? SETI has been listening for 60 years. There’s nothing.
They got our texts years ago (unasked for, BTW) and left us on “Read”
We’re not worth their time. Apparently
Given humanity’s general behavior to date, I think you might be on to something.
My guess is that we are far overestimating the probability of human like intelligence evolving, or lasting very long if it does.
We also overestimate how “long” human intelligence has lasted. 60 years of listening to a specific type of communications is less than nothing on a speck of nothing in the timeline of existence.
Also how “fast” are these communications going out?
In the TV show “the expanse” It would take around 10 mins for communications from between earth and mars. TV shows like Star Trek dont even go to different galaxies.
So with “noise”, technology, and even time delays what is the likelihood someone could receive the communications? Up until 100 years ago we wouldnt have been able to receive our own signal we are putting out.
In their defense, they are not astrology majors.
You’re under-appreciated sometimes
.
The last variable in the Drake Equation is L, the mean length of time that civilizations can communicate. That has always led to the ominous thought that advanced civilizations are expected to destroy themselves. But it should probably be rewritten as the mean length of time that civilizations use communications techniques that we can detect. As communications become more advanced, they also become much more efficient and more difficult to detect from large distances.
My guess is that we are far overestimating the probability of human like intelligence evolving, or lasting very long if it does.
We also overestimate how “long” human intelligence has lasted. 60 years of listening to a specific type of communications is less than nothing on a speck of nothing in the timeline of existence.
Google fu says our radio waves have only traveled something like 120 light years from earth at this point. So we are still practically invisible to anyone out there trying to pick up our signals.
Seems like we think modern humans evolved roughly 200k years ago, who knows if Neandertals or Denisovans were just as smart as, but if we take that as the point at which a species existed that could look out into the Universe, it still took 200k years to develop the cultural knowledge to do so. Again with contingencies that maybe would have never happened and we could blissfully still be living a hunter/gatherer lifestyle like our ancestors had done for maybe close to 2 millions years.
We know there are trillions of planets. The real question is where is everyone? SETI has been listening for 60 years. There’s nothing.
My guess is that we are far overestimating the probability of human like intelligence evolving, or lasting very long if it does. There are just a number of contingencies that needed to happen for us to evolve that appear to be pretty rare, if not unique, in the natural world. We could be a 1 in trillion planet phenomenon.
If life on Earth is indicative of what’s normal it’s that life in the Universe is most likely to be single celled and when multicellularity evolves it’s going to produce “dumb” beings.
There’s the Drake equation:
N = R* x f(p) x n(e) x f(1) x f(i) x f(c) x L
R* is the rate of star formation in the galaxy
f(p) is the fraction/rate of those stars that have planets
n(e) is the average number of planets that can support life per star that has planets
f(1) is the fraction of planets that CAN support life WILL support life
f(i) is the fraction of life that is intelligent
f(c) is the fraction of intelligent life that develop technology that releases signs into space
L is the length of time those civilizations release signals into space
If we have a number of planets, we’d have to modify the equation to drop R* and f(p) (total of that is 300 trillion for this purpose). The Keppler mission estimates there are up to 40B planets that could support life in the Milky Way with 100B stars in the galaxy, making n(e) = 0.4.
300T x 0.4 x f(1) x f(i) x f(c) x L
A lot of really smart people say f(1) = 1, noting that Mars, Europa, Titan, and Enceladus (Saturn moon) all developed independent life.
f(i) is the first really hard one. Some people say it should be 1. Other people say Earth is very, very rare. If we take the solar system as a model, f(i) = 0.2. SETI proposes f(i) = 0.002
f(c)???
L. A couple theorists say either 304 or 420 years - the average Earth civilization: 420 for 60 historic civilizations, 304 if you just measure 28 civilizations since Rome. Others have theorized L could equal millions of years, that once a civilization advances past it’s self destruction, it’s indefinite. Sagan used Drake’s equation as a basis for environmental protection and nuclear proliferation.
But f(c) and L are if we find them/they find us. Without f(c) and L, we could estimate how many intelligent civilizations have existed in the Universe.
300T (3x10^12) x 0.4 x 1 x 0.2 x ? x ? = 2.4 x 10^11. 24 trillion civilizations
300T x 0.4 x 1 x 0.002 x ? x ? = 2,400,000,000 civilizations. 2.4B
OK, so 2.4 billion, that’s a lot. BUT the universe is about 13.78 billion years old. And the universe is big, we can see a 8.8 x 10^26 m diameter (608.2 x 10^51 m^2 ). That’s a lot of places to hide.
Then do they want to talk to us? Can we hear them if they did? Are they all dead? Have they not existed yet?
The problem is not where we are looking, buy when we are looking.
We know there are trillions of planets. The real question is where is everyone? SETI has been listening for 60 years. There’s nothing.
My guess is that we are far overestimating the probability of human like intelligence evolving, or lasting very long if it does. There are just a number of contingencies that needed to happen for us to evolve that appear to be pretty rare, if not unique, in the natural world. We could be a 1 in trillion planet phenomenon.
If life on Earth is indicative of what’s normal it’s that life in the Universe is most likely to be single celled and when multicellularity evolves it’s going to produce “dumb” beings.
I suspect you are more correct than other theories and if there was other life out there, we should have some knowledge of it by now. Perhaps we do and the govt just won’t let us know with all the UFO stuff folks claim goes on behind closed doors but as for common accepted knowledge of other life forms, we don’t have it.
The fact we don’t know of other life forms in all the trillions of planets we are aware of, helps to support the argument for a God that made our planet and life forms. If we are here, simply by good chance ( 1 in a trillion you say) that may suggest we were a little more than just dumb luck. Why is there no other form of life anywhere that was also just dumb luck like us? Why only our planet, our solar system, our sun, our gravity, our atmosphere, our evolution and all things that needed to be perfect for us to evolve like we have? Humanity should indeed go by some lottery tickets if we are that lucky.
I am not claiming any sort of GOD, god, Buda, Allah, or any other deity, but sure makes you wonder some times.
I suspect you are more correct than other theories and if there was other life out there, we should have some knowledge of it by now. Perhaps we do and the govt just won’t let us know with all the UFO stuff folks claim goes on behind closed doors but as for common accepted knowledge of other life forms, we don’t have it.
The fact we don’t know of other life forms in all the trillions of planets we are aware of, helps to support the argument for a God that made our planet and life forms. If we are here, simply by good chance ( 1 in a trillion you say) that may suggest we were a little more than just dumb luck. Why is there no other form of life anywhere that was also just dumb luck like us? Why only our planet, our solar system, our sun, our gravity, our atmosphere, our evolution and all things that needed to be perfect for us to evolve like we have? Humanity should indeed go by some lottery tickets if we are that lucky.
Ok, so if some kind of fairly basic form of life was discovered in a few years on a planet or moon within our solar system, does that mean that the converse of your statement (bolded above) is also true?
The fact we don’t know of other life forms in all the trillions of planets we are aware of, helps to support the argument for a God that made our planet and life forms.
No. The absence of detection doesn’t prove it’s not there, much less prove that we’re somehow special.
Why is there no other form of life anywhere that was also just dumb luck like us?
We don’t know that there isn’t.
Why only our planet, our solar system, our sun, our gravity, our atmosphere, our evolution and all things that needed to be perfect for us to evolve like we have?
Again, we don’t know that “only” our solar system and planet worked out this way. And it’s not necessarily that they were perfect for us to evolve this way, so much as they were how they are, and what evolved just happened to evolve.
Humanity should indeed go by some lottery tickets if we are that lucky.
You say that as if it’s lucky to exist.