SETI Scientist Believes We Will Find Life in Space This Century


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SETI Scientist Believes We Will Find Life in Space This Century

 

SETI-Astronomer-Believes-We-Will-Find-Li

An artist?s impression of an extra solar planet. Photo credit: David A Hardy, astroart.org

 

The senior astronomer at the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence Institute believes that researchers will find life in space in this century.

Are we alone in the universe? It?s a question that has always fired the human imagination. The more we learn, the more unlikely it seems that Earth is a lone miracle inhabiting life amid galaxies of lifeless planets. Many eminent scientists are positive that it is just a matter of time before we find other life in the universe . But exactly how we?ll encounter our inter-galactic neighbors, and whether they?ll be just a few cells or full-blown ET lookalikes, they are less sure.

?We are going to find life in space in this century,? Dr. Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) said emphatically at last week?s European Commission Innovation Convention. ?There are 150 billion galaxies other than our own, each with a few tens of billions of earth-like planets. If this is the only place in the universe where anything interesting happening then this is a miracle. And 500 years of astronomy has taught us that whenever you believe in a miracle, you?re probably wrong.?

How will discover life in space? Dr Shostak sees it as a ?three-horse race? which will probably be won over the next 25 years. We will either find it nearby, in microbial form, on Mars or one of the moons of Jupiter; we will find evidence for gases produced by living processes (for example photosynthesis) in the atmospheres of planets around other stars; or Dr Shostak and his team at SETI will pick up signals from intelligent life via huge antennas.

Dr. Suzanne Aigrain, Lecturer in Astrophysics at Oxford University, who studies extrasolar planets or exoplanets (planets around other stars than the sun), represents horse number two in the race. Speaking at the Convention, Dr Aigrain noted that, based on her studies, she would also bet that we are not alone. ?We are very close to being able to say with a good degree of certainty that planets like the Earth, what we call habitable planets, are quite common [in the universe] ? That?s why when asked if I believe there?s life on other planets, I raise my hand and I do so as a scientist because the balance of probability is overwhelmingly high.?

Dr. Aigrain, and the groups that she works with, have so far been using light ? electromagnetic radiation ? as their primary tool to look for planets around stars other than the sun. Habitable planets are defined as those that are roughly the size of the earth where the surface temperature is suitable for liquid water to exist on the surface. The life ?biomarkers? that Dr. Aigrain and her colleagues look for are trace gases in the atmospheres of the exoplanets that they think can only be there if they are being produced by a biological source like photosynthesis.

 

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What?

Didn't someone win a pool about finding proof that life existed in some sort of sample brought back to earth (I remember a bookie took a bet that evidence of life would be found off earth before the turn of the century)

Some sort of bacterial life form was found...

 

edit

 

this is the closest thing to what I remember, I only remember it because I remembered some guy cleaned up on the bet....

 

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/life-on-mars-78138144/?no-ist

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We cant find a plane on either and we expect to find life on another planets?

I believe there is life out there too but I cannot prove it so therefore it does not exist.

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I believe there is life out there too but I cannot prove it so therefore it does not exist.

That doesn't make any sense. Not being able to prove something exists is irrelevant to whether it actually exists. I suspect that alien life?in whatever form?does exist but acknowledge that there is no direct evidence to support that.

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It does seem that it's only a matter of time. I'm definitely someone who believes that, looking at the almost infinite number of stars when you look up into the night sky, there HAS to be other life out there somewhere. Statistically it must be more likely that there's other life, than for us to be the only inhabited planet in space. 

 

As to whether we'll ever actually find other life - I guess that's another matter! 

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they need to look at our own planet. I swear some people arent from this planet.

 

especially the super smart people.

 

 

 

my parents even say I am an alien. 

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No !!!  Its not possible !!  The Bible doesnt say anything about it, therefore it didnt happen.... like the fabled dinosaurs...



Honestly,  I think I want to be around to witness it, I guess it depends on the form of life we find/or finds us.

"...didnt work out too well for the native americans.."


they need to look at our own planet. I swear some people arent from this planet.

 

especially the super smart people.

 

 

 

my parents even say I am an alien. 

So you are saying you are "super smart" ?

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That doesn't make any sense. Not being able to prove something exists is irrelevant to whether it actually exists. I suspect that alien life?in whatever form?does exist but acknowledge that there is no direct evidence to support that.

 

Normally i hate that rational since typically that is the argument for a god from religious folk. But, alien life (which is pretty different then a god claim) does seem to have a lot more merit and at least possibility to be true.

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Installing the SETI@home screensaver will greatly accelarate the progress...

 

(I remember seeing every Mac in an Apple centre running this in the early 2000s. G3 power FTW!)

 

Setiathomeversion3point07.JPG

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Normally i hate that rational since typically that is the argument for a god from religious folk. But, alien life (which is pretty different then a god claim) does seem to have a lot more merit and at least possibility to be true.

That's because it's based on sound reasoning. Scientists have calculated that there are billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars, around which revolve billions of planets, many of which will be capable of sustaining life. I don't "believe" in the existence of aliens, I simply think alien life is statistically likely based on our current understanding of the universe. Religion on the otherhand requires no such evidence - in fact most evidence directly contradicts it.

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Didn't someone win a pool about finding proof that life existed in some sort of sample brought back to earth (I remember a bookie took a bet that evidence of life would be found off earth before the turn of the century)

Some sort of bacterial life form was found...

 

edit

 

this is the closest thing to what I remember, I only remember it because I remembered some guy cleaned up on the bet....

 

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/life-on-mars-78138144/?no-ist

 

 

It was never confirmed to be bacterial. As of now, there is no evidence of alien life existing. 

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