Will we find life on other planets eventually? Will we find nice, friendly aliens who will help solve our woes? Will we find evil, aggressive aliens who will serve us with a nice chianti? Is it so dangerous, we should just take an isolationist stance and hope they never find us?????

Scott

Man I hope like hell that there is not life on other planets. With all of the problems we have with half the shitbags that live on this planet it would be just our luck to find out that the other planet is inhabited by something worse than moslems.

I don't doubt that there's life on other planets, I just doubt we'll find it before we extinguish life on our own.  Not thru failure to recycle or some crap, just general conditions.

Do you belive in a God?
If god loves life so much, and has the power to create a whole damn universe. Why would he only make one planet with life on it?

Sure, great, agreed.  So what's the odds on us running into other intelligent life at the Celestial Bookie's Office?

When God said that "there is only one God" did he mean there is only one God or only one god for our planet?

there IS intelligent life here on earth.

However, I'm only visiting.[:D]

is there life on this planet, Have you ever thought that you are not alive? If you have then you questioned it, therefore making it a possibility...but the fact that you questioned it makes you alive or just your cells are alive and you are a body for the cells, cells are even alive many hours after YOU die, they reproduce...etc. ARE YOU JUST A VEHICLE FOR THE CELLS?

Life on other planets? maybe. But it probably isnt in a way we would recognise it- being alive. Carbon is only one block on our periodic table(an incomplete table also), Theorize a Silicon based life form, or a Boron Based life form, who realy knows.

I've been awake for 39 hours now, maybe thats why this conversation is FREAKING ME OUT.

Anybody seeen "Waking Life"?

Yea its really good!

Crazy flick.  My fav part is when the guy sets himself on fire.  That def surprised the hell out of my drunk ass.

Or this....

[img]http://www.artbell.com/img/andy.gif[/img]

And did he have an probe?

BIRDS BIRDS BIRDS


Scott

[:D]

Did Earth start out as a penal colony and they come back to check on from time to time?

We will not find IT, IT has already found us. It is called
"IMBROGLIO"!

Ack Ack Ack Ack Ack    Ack Ack !
[img]http://users.pandora.be/peter.hendrickx1/Mvmars_WEB.jpg[/img]

Do not run!  We are your friends!!

BBBBZZZZZZZTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!

Nowhere in the Bible does it, or God, say, "There is only one God".

Depending on which version you use, it says "Thou shalt have no other gods before me", "I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.", or "Thou shalt worship no other god (For the Lord is a jealous god).", thus clearly implying that God is merely one of many gods, of whom God is rather jealous and indicating God would be really pissed if anybody would worship any of the other gods.

Life?  Sure...almost certainly.  Intelligent life?  That's a MUCH harder question.  Intelligent life is such an unlikely development that it might be incredibly rare.  But if we survive as a species I think eventually we will run into SOMEONE out there.  Nowhere close though.

Another cool December night slumber party, everyone is wearing their favorite PJs.  Us guys just got done playing murder in the dark and telling ghost stories, then DScott kicks in with...



[:D]

I believe it is out there but I doubt we will ever find it, hell we can't even get back to the moon. Or did we ever really get to the moon?

Look at this image.  Almost every single point of light is a galaxy or large cluster of stars.  This image takes up the same area of the visible sky as if you were to take a dime and hold it up 75 feet from you...The universe is so huge and so vast, and there are just so many stars, that the only way (IMHO) there is no other intelligent life out the is if God made it that way.  And I don't believe He  did...make us the only ones out there, that is.

[img]http://imgsrc.stsci.edu/op/pubinfo/PR/96/01/PRC9601a.jpg[/img]

Thats a great pic and post!


Now please educate me.
Why are galaxies always swirled? What do the difference in colors of the galaxies mean?

IIRC Galaxies are swirrled because the large, superdense center produces a large gravitational effect, drawing matter towards it.  Any matter that crosses over its event horizon is drawn into a decaying "orbit" around the mass.

Differences in color indicate which direction the galaxy is moving in relation to the observer.  Red is moving away while blue is coming forward.  This is because of the compression of light waves.  As light waves become stretched out (as the source is moving away), the frequency of the wave becomes drawn out. Light waves with longer frequencies move into the red section of the light spectra.  Blue is just the reverse.  As light waves are compressed the frequency becomes squeezed towards the blue.

Is this clear at all??

Yes that clears it up for me,thanks. I must have slept through that class.

And one more question. What family sheild is that on your Sig Pic?

Galaxies are not always "swirled" (or spiral) as far as I recall (there is also elliptical and irregular), but it is a common effect resulting from the rotation around the center - same reason the earth revolves around the sun and the moon revolves around the earth.  Simple Newtonian physics.

Btw - out galaxy is on course to collide with another galaxy (Andromeda I think?) as we hurtle towards a larger cluster of galaxies.  When our two galaxies collide, they will pass thorugh each other, and the gravitational forces will completely warp the present shapes of our galaxy from the nice neat spriral it is today.  At that point we will become an irregular galaxy, most likely.

I think the numbers are something like they estimate there are 100 billion stars in the average galaxy, and at least 100 billion galaxies. That's a whole lotta stars.  There is certainly life elsewhere in the universe, and I htink purely based on random error and the large sample size, there's bound to be intelligent life elsewhere.

This thread made me think of the movie.Invasion Of The Bodysnatchers.
The scene when the aliens are carring the wrapped bodies at night to trucks to be collected,really creeped me out when I was a kid.My mom never did figure out why her houseplants kept dying!!!

Don't get too caught up in the colors of the galaxies.  Typically the images are composite images that involve UV,IR,Visible,Radio, etc.  The "authors" of the images use false color to represent different types or intensities that wouldn't normally be visible to the nekked eye.
Having said that, [b]MIerinMD[/b] was completely correct in his description of the Doppler shift regarding object speed in relation to our own.  That was how Edwin Hubble was able to show that the universe is in fact expanding, which has led to the modern theory of the Big Bang.  The amount the spectrum of light is shifted towards either red or blue is an indication of how fast the object is moving away or towards us, much like the sound of a sirien is shifted.  Doppler radar uses the exact same principle.
There are 3 or 4 basic types of Galaxies, with a myriad of subtypes, and those that exhibit properties of 2 or more types...

Spiral Galaxies, just like to milky way.  Generally they contain a disk of "dust" and arms which contain stars.  The rotation is pretty obvious based on the shape
Eliptical- These galaxies contain mostly stars and little dust.  
Irregular - These have some sort of gravational anomolies which break up the normal shapes.  This can include "extra" black holes not in the center, some sort of collision of 2 or more galaxies, etc.
Also, don't get the term Event Horizon confused, as it really pertains to black holes.  The Event Horizon is the point at which gravity will overcome even light, after which nothing can escape...
Also, the Milky Way is one of the larger spiral galaxies, numbering an estimated 200 Billion stars...!
 

Some of you are posting that a few galaxies are coming towards each other. Is this possible?

The reason Im asking this is that the "Big Bang" theorists are always stating that EVERY galaxy is moving outward at an exponential rate form the theoretical center.

This means that the objects at the outermost skin of the universe are moving away from the center FASTER than the objects, say, half-way to the center.

Then again, IF the "Big Bang" were true (which it isnt), there would be no ojects "half-way to the center" because the "big bang" was a one-time event and everything would be at the "outer skin" of the universe.

Imagine it this way. You start with a balloon. On the balloon are a bunch of dots (galaxies). As the ballon is blown-up (the big bang), the dots get exponentially farther apart. However, if this were the case, there would be no galaxies INSIDE the balloon as they are all on the "outer skin" of it.

God works in mysterious ways [:)]

We come as friends and desire to help the earth and set up reciprocal visits to my planet. We have noticed that the earth is plagued by both natural and un-natural calamities and are only wish is to help. We have a new power source, an end to famine, and a force field to be used as a defense shield. We wish only that you simply trust us.

[img]http://www.thetzsite.com/images/season3/089_04.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.thetzsite.com/images/season3/089_08.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.thetzsite.com/images/season3/089_18.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.thetzsite.com/images/season3/089_14.jpg[/img]

Actually there is nothing inconstent with the Big Band (yet) in the expansion and density of the universe, but because of local conditions (galactic formation, galactic superclusters, etc.), gravity has differentially affected things in the ever-expanding universe.

However, you'd really have to read up a lot on that to get a good grip on it, and it's been way too long since I took cosmology classes to even try to explain (or understand) it myself.

A) Yes, it is possible that galaxies can/will collide.  It's happened in the past, and there are many examples of these collisions
B) One of the tenents of modern BB theory is that the universe is not homogeneous, i.e., there was lots of "clumping" of material.  Thus, different densities of material and differing gravitational pulls can cause bits to hit each other.  When a bomb explodes, there's lots of interaction between fragments...
C) The balloon demonstration only shows the outer edge of the universe as it pertains to the furthest distance matter has travelled.  See the above regarding densities and whatnot.  
D) The universe is vast beyond belief.  Analogies that may be valid on small scales are not necessarily valid at the macroscopic level, and vice versa...look at quantum physics!

Star systems number in the billions, and there's a good chance that there are other solar systems with planets that may provide an environment that can sustain life.  I can fathom that.

However, I doubt that any are close enough for us to visit, or to receive visitors from anytime.  If we were to receive visitors that recognize us as an intelligent form of life, I doubt they would make some of the amateurish mistakes we commonly associate with little green men attempting to study man.  I think it's a case of when we entered the jet age and split the atom, we envisioned it is possible to visit other worlds.  The possibility of advanced visitors became very likely at that time.

A question on the colliding galaxies...

When this happens to our Milky Way galaxy, will we even notice, besides the fact that on clear nights there is a new band of dust in the sky.  With the amount of space between individual stars, it seems feasible that we could pass right through and out the other side with very little effect bar some heightened meteoric activity.  As long as our individual solar system isn't disrupted, why should we worry?

   - Nw -

I completely agree with you!  The sheer distances involved pretty much rule out any sort of "meaningful" contact without a non-conventional type drive.  Even travelling at the speed of light, it's [b]YEARS[/b] of travel to get to the next star.  Granted, the subjective time to the traveller would be less than a the actual time in transit (time dialation and all), but valid, timely communications between different planets would be problametic, at best.  Take the exploration of the world in the 16th and 17th centuries, and multiply that by orders of magnitude.  Now, if there were some way to travel faster than light...



We would certainly notice, as the Andromeda got larger and larger.  The question is would we survive, and the answer is I don't know.  Scientific America had a great article a year ago talking about how inhospitibal most of the rest of the universe is (with the sidebar that the "hospitable" zones for life were quite narrow in a typical spiral galaxy.  The big issue wouldn't be would another star actually come in contact with the earth, but with all the thousands (millions?) of star collisions, the amount of lethal high energy particles from the ensuing cataclism could be quite large and deadly to us.  Some of the jets of high energy gamma and x-rays extends hindreds or thousands of light years from a supernova or black hole formation...bottom line, I think we be toast...but our sun would have gone nova before then.

Again going from memory, I don't think our sun's position in the main sequence makes it a candidate for nove - as it runs out of fusion fuel, it will expand into a red giant, engulfing the earth, and then will gradually diminish into a brown dwarf.

We better either be extinct or have figured out space travel by the time we end up inside the sun's atmosphere  [;)]

Btw - Andromeda will be very visible in the night sky when it collides with our galaxy.  depdending on how close Andromenda's core is to our end of the spiral arm, we might either be relatively unaffected, thrown out in the inter-galactic empty space, or destroyed by rediation.

Luckily is it millions (billions?) of years in the future, so I'm not going to worry about it too much. [:)]

Assuming that the Universe is infinite (and all evidence indicates that it is), and that there is a CHANCE that other life exists, then the existence of there being life other than our own is not only possible but inevitable.

Within an infinite universe, all possibilities will come to be eventually.

Personally, I hope they're like those things from "Signs."

Yet again, correct!

Well, it's a pretty safe bet that life is an anomaly in the universe due to the stringent conditions necessary for its existence.
And wherever there is life, intelligence is probably anomalous for pretty much the same reasons.
And if intelligence does spring forth in some part of the universe, the jury is still out if this experiment of natural selection's is viable and sustainable.  Intelligence may very well end up being an evolutionary dead-end like the [s]Edsel[/s] giant wombat.
If intelligent life is capable of succesfully propagating itself, then we come to the next problem:
Studies in island biogeography have shown that ecosystems experiencing long-term isolation are extremely susceptible to catastrophic disruptions due to influxes of non-native organisms.  Every time that an island is discovered and colonized, mass extinctions of native life invariably follow.  The upshot is that pretty much any island ecosystem is doomed because such systems cannot remain isolated forever.
It can be easily argued that the Earth is nothing more than a huge, isolated island whizzing through space and if there is intelligent life capable of reaching us, we're probably as doomed as an Oahu 'akepa.  

"The surest sign that there is intelligent life in the universe is that none of it has come here"

Calvin and Hobbes

Putting the religious views aside for a moment.

I believe that life can happened if the right "stuff" comes together.  As large as the universe is it is likely that the stuff has come together other places.  How many other places we have no ideas.  It could be very common or very rare.  Even if it is rare there still could be hundred of millions (if not billions)of planets with life on it.

Intelligent life brings another level of luck.  Life has to evolve to intelligence.  That means things have to be stable on a planet for a while.  No comets or massive upheavals.  Maybe it take a lot of luck to make that happen.

Will we ever run across life?  Possibly if it exists in our solar system.  Probably be a low level of life.  Will we ever be able to go to other solar systems?  Only if the technology curve continues and there is no absolute speed limit.  We also have to have the will and the resources.  Just think how expensive it was to go to the moon and how much will we had to continue the exploration.  

The technology curve continuing is a big question mark.  A worldwide disease or war could slow things down. Weather changes or political upheaval could also screw us up.

Don't ever count on that question being answered in our lifetimes.  It may not ever be answered.  It is likely that mankind will end without ever having that question answered.  

The number of planets which have intelligent life which have developed technology to the point where we can detect them is estimated by the [url=http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious/Topics/SETI/drake_equation.html]Drake Equation[/url]

(BTW: I've met [url=http://www.ucolick.org/~board/faculty/drake.html]Frank Drake[/url] before he retired from UCSC)

I find this to be a very interesting question,to the point where I am an active participant in [url=http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/]SETI@Home[/url]

You can also participate by downloading a [url=http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/unix.html]command line[/url] program to run on your computer. And then join the [url=http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/stats/team/team_127231.html]AR15.com[/url] SETI Group!

I am seriously thinking about constructing my own [url=http://www.radiosky.com/startme.html]Radio Telescope[/url] and becoming an [url=http://ezinfo.ucs.indiana.edu/~foxd/home-seti.html]Amatuer Seti Observor[/url] to detect signals in the microwave range

"Now please educate me.
Why are galaxies always swirled? What do the difference in colors of the galaxies mean?"

Galaxies almost always take on a swirled form because they're constantly being flushed!  [;D]

Seriously, it IS a whirlpool effect but it's a gravitational one.  As you get nearer the center of mass, all objects orbit more rapidly around it, and they orbit more slowly toward the rim...though the actual velocity of the outermost objects is greater.   But they have a lot more distance to travel, too.

As for colors,  that's just individual variation in the average age and composition of the visible stars in the galaxies.   It'd be stranger still if they were all identical, don't you think?

[img]http://www.strangecosmos.com/images/picturejokes/6204.jpg[/img]

Not all of them are classic whirlpool galaxies, too.   Note this one.


And this one of a galaxy exploding:

[img]http://www.strangecosmos.com/images/picturejokes/5925.jpg[/img]
 
    GALACTIC EXPLOSION - CENTAURUS A GALAXY

Chandra's composite image of the Centaurus A galaxy

A composite X-ray (blue), radio (pink and green), and optical (orange and yellow) image of the galaxy Centaurus A presents a stunning tableau of a galaxy in turmoil. A broad band of dust and cold gas is bisected at an angle by opposing jets of high-energy particles blasting away from the supermassive black hole in the nucleus. Two large arcs of X-ray emitting hot gas were discovered in the outskirts of the galaxy on a plane perpendicular to the jets.

The arcs of multimillion-degree gas appear to be part of a projected ring 25,000 light years in diameter. The size and location of the ring indicates that it may have been produced in a titanic explosion that occurred about ten million years ago.

Such an explosion would have produced the high-energy jets, and a galaxy-sized shock wave moving outward at speeds of a million miles per hour. The age of 10 million years for the outburst is consistent with optical and infrared observations that indicate that the rate of star formation in the galaxy increased dramatically at about that time.

Scientists have suggested that all this activity may have begun with the merger of a small spiral galaxy and Centaurus A about 100 million years ago. Such a merger could eventually trigger both the burst of star formation and the violent activity in the nucleus of the galaxy. The tremendous energy released when a galaxy becomes "active" can have a profound influence on the subsequent evolution of the galaxy and its neighbors. The mass of the central black hole can increase, the gas reservoir for the next generation of stars can be expelled, and the space between the galaxies can be enriched with heavier elements.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program. Image Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/M. Karovska et al. Optical: Digital Sky Survey/U.K. Schmidt Image/STScI 21-cm Radio: NRAO/VLA/Schiminovich et al. Contiuum Radio: NRAO/VLA/J. Condon et al.


As for the question of life...in a universe this big, bet on it!  I'm completely sure that there is intelligent, spacefaring life out there that does everything you've seen in any Star Trek series or movie include bad acting!


CJ

I disagree. Life, [b]as we know it[/b], does have stringent conditions necessary for its existence. But the fact is, in the grand scheme of things, we know nothing. We've only been exploring space for the last 50 years, and we've only been studying space with any reasonable ability to do so for what, 100 years? We've only had about a dozen or so people on our own moon which isn't even a hop skip and a jump away! We've had zero exploration out of our own solar system which isn't even a spec on the universal map.

To say that we actually understand anything about anything is ridiculous. In the grand scheme of things we are idiots floating around on a rock that we barely understand. To say that we understand anything about life and the universe at all, I believe is a huge overstatement.

In a universe that is billions of years old we are a stem cell.