• Question: What is the possibility that another planet in the universe would contain life forms?

    Asked by pigsflyoverthemoon to Davie, Gemma, James P, James V, Nuala on 29 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 29 Jun 2012:

      Hi pigsflyoverthemoon,

      With the huge vastness of the universe I can not believe that there isn’t at least 1 other planet out there with life on it like ours, so I reckon the possibility of life on other planets is really high!

      I’d wager that there are aliens, sitting on their planet asking the same questions and looking for us (aliens to them!) as hard as we are looking for them. We will find each other one day, just sadly not in my lifetime I expect!

    • Photo: James Verdon

      James Verdon answered on 1 Jul 2012:

      hi pigsfly,

      Life does seem to be fairly uncommon – we need to have the right conditions for it to develop. However, space is so huge, with so many stars and planets out there, that it seems likely that there must be others that have the right conditions for life.

      However, I’m not as certain as James P that that life would be intelligent and capable of building spaceships or anything. There’s nothing in the theory of evolution that says life that is intelligent like us must evolve. So while I think there will be planets with life on, that life may not be intelligent.

      It’ll be really interesting to see when we first discover life of any kind (even simple, singled celled bacteria) on another planet! I hope it happens in my lifetime, but I’m not sure it will.

    • Photo: Nuala Carson

      Nuala Carson answered on 2 Jul 2012:

      hey pigsflyoverthemoon,

      Yes this is a very real possibility. The universe is so big that there is always the possibility that somewhere else has the right conditions to support some form of life. I don’t think you will find another life form like humans but more along the lines of simple organisms or bacteria.

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