Chances of finding alien life any time soon.

[none123]

What are the chances we might find alien life, even if just microbial life in the next 30-40 year (the number of years I might have left to live  :brick: .

I figure there are a few possibilities: further missions, maybe manned missions to Mars and dig down to find basic life there. Or beneath the ice of Europa, or maybe Seti will actually work.

[hismikeness]

I was watching Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. The episode was titled "How did we get here?" and explained through various theories of how life sparked from chemical to biological.

The last segment focused on the fact that everyone always says, and searches for, life as we know it. One of the contributors is conducting experiments with microbes which can withstand up to hundreds of thousands of times the levels of arsenic that most life can, and perhaps that these microbes are survivors from a different (second) tree of life that sparked here on Earth.

Obviously the implications of this are immense: if life can spark twice (or maybe more) on one planet, then it stands to reason it can spark on other Earth-like planets as well.

It was fascinating.

And that show is really good, if you haven't seen it.

Hismikeness

[Davin]

What, like life out in outer space or something:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100621074446.htm

Close enough imo.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Actually, given that theists accommodated Copernicus and Darwin with no upset to their theologies, I don't think alien life with upset their apple-cart.  They'll merely manufacture another rationalization and press on.

[Tank]

What are the chances we might find alien life, even if just microbial life in the next 30-40 year (the number of years I might have left to live  :brick: .

I figure there are a few possibilities: further missions, maybe manned missions to Mars and dig down to find basic life there. Or beneath the ice of Europa, or maybe Seti will actually work.

There is another possibility. Telescopes may be able to capture sufficient light from extra-solar planets to carry out a sound spectroscopic analysis of their atmospheres. Certain gases like oxygen and methane are associated with life processes while being readily absorbed/sequestered out of the atmosphere by common elements such as iron. If one found a planet with an atmosphere high in 'biologically attributable' gasses it would be a very good indicator of extra-solar life.

[karadan]

Actually, given that theists accommodated Copernicus and Darwin with no upset to their theologies, I don't think alien life with upset their apple-cart.  They'll merely manufacture another rationalization and press on.

Indeed. Most mainstream religion will adapt easily. It has had to for the last four hundred years. A few remain stubborn in the face of reason, though. There wouldn't be creationist museums if that weren't the case.  

I think we are close to finding microbial life in the next 20 years at least. Mars, Europa, Enceladus, to mention a few safe bets. They are continuously refining techniques to resolve smaller exoplanets and they've recently found complex hydrocarbons in the tail of a comet. The search for life will slap us in the face to the point that, in the future, people will laugh at the fact that humans used to even wonder if there might be other life out there when obviously, the universe is teeming with it.

We might be unique in physiology but i strongly disagree that we are unique as life forms. The only reason people might be surprised to find life out there is because humanity has been slowly brainwashed into thinking that we must be special and unique by none other than historical piety.

[Tank]

Alien oceans could be detected by telescopes

The next generation of telescopes could reveal the presence of oceans on planets outside our Solar System.

Detecting water on Earth-like planets offers the tantalising prospect they could sustain life.

Scientists hope the reflection of light, or "glint", from mirror-like ocean surfaces could be picked up by a US space telescope set for launch in 2014...

[Velma]

What are the chances we might find alien life, even if just microbial life in the next 30-40 year (the number of years I might have left to live  :brick: .

I figure there are a few possibilities: further missions, maybe manned missions to Mars and dig down to find basic life there. Or beneath the ice of Europa, or maybe Seti will actually work.

I think it is possible.  Right now both Mars and Europa look rather promising as we have discovered the extremes under which life can thrive here on earth.

Regarding religion, I think it will work out the way it always has with scientific discoveries - some will accept it, some will twist it to fit their theology/dogma, some will deny that it happened.

[Tank]

A distant Earth-like exoplanet 'could have life'

Astronomers have detected an Earth-like exoplanet that may have just the right kind of conditions to support life.

Gliese 581g lies some 20 light-years away in its star's "Goldilocks zone" - a region surface temperatures would allow the presence of liquid water.

Scientists say that the newly found world could also potentially have an atmosphere.

Their findings, made with the Keck telescope in Hawaii, appear in the Astrophysical Journal.

The researchers, from the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, have been studying the movement of the planet's parent star, a red dwarf called Gliese 581, for 11 years.

Their observations have revealed a number of exoplanets spinning around the star...

Added to this thread due to relevance.

[DropLogic]

Yes, we definitely assume we are special.  And frankly, we probably are...If you go back through geologic and galactic history, a LOTTTTTT of stuff had to happen to give us the chance to evolve.  Our solar system configuration.  Deep space is a violent place with explosions of unimaginable power and scale happening at every moment.  The kuiper belt helps to shield the inner solar system from a lot of the energy racing toward us from ancient events.  It also absorbs impacts from hypersonic debris caught in our gravity well from far away galaxies.  Our gas giants do a great job grabbing harmful objects out of the emptiness so that they won't hit us.  Without all these things, extinction level events would happen every few hundred years rather than multi millions of years passing.  This would not allow life to evolve here.  In a way...it does look designed.  Finding a solar system with some, all, or more of these necessary characteristics is akin to finding a needle in a bubble at an unknown depth in the Pacific Ocean while blind folded.

[Will]

I'm so proud of this forum sometimes. Not one person has mentioned the Drake equation.

I don't know how likely it is that we'll find extraterrestrial life, especially consider just how massive the universe is, but I like to think it will happen after we get some of our problems here on earth under control. I'd be embarrassed if we met an advanced alien civilization today.

[DropLogic]

I'm so proud of this forum sometimes. Not one person has mentioned the Drake equation.

I don't know how likely it is that we'll find extraterrestrial life, especially consider just how massive the universe is, but I like to think it will happen after we get some of our problems here on earth under control. I'd be embarrassed if we met an advanced alien civilization today.

The Drake equation is mere speculation at best...granted very well thought out speculation.  The end result is, we still have no idea.  Most agree that intelligent life is incredibly rare, though inevitable, as evidenced by our existence, and the fact that we are aware of our existence.

[Thumpalumpacus]

As Sagan pointed out, the Drake Equation is more a tool for making us think about what the requirements of LAWKI are, and their likelihoods, rather that actually producing an accurate estimate.

It's nothing to be ashamed of, or relied upon.