Our Planet is the only one that supports life!...or maybe not?

[FranklinMichaelV.3]

I've always thought of the Earth as a unique case, because well it has life. Mars doesn't, Venus doesn't, Mercury doesn't.

So far we haven't seen proof of it anywhere else in the Universe.

But then I got to thinking...The universe is really old. Stars explode, black holes form, radiation comes out...we know the fate of our sun, and we know there are other stars out there that fit our suns description.

In Biology we also have learned that majority of the species that have ever existed are extinct.

So I got to thinking, what if the reason we haven't found life in the Universe isn't because life is rare...but because it's already dead.

If this is in the wrong board please move it.

 

[freethinker44]

So I got to thinking, what if the reason we haven't found life in the Universe isn't because life is rare...but because it's already dead.

That, or because we are separated by trillions of miles and, as far as we know, faster than light travel is impossible.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

That, or because we are separated by trillions of miles and, as far as we know, faster than light travel is impossible.

You and your crazy theories.

 

[FranklinMichaelV.3]

That, or because we are separated by trillions of miles and, as far as we know, faster than light travel is impossible.

Well there is that, I'm sorta taking that one off the table. But there was a recent article I found that indicated that at some point Mars had a higher oxygen content than Earth, and there has also been a source of water on Mars at some point too (correct me if I'm wrong),

so life (not necessarily intelligent however you want to describe it), could have existed but then was wiped out. It might never have gotten past the bacterial/sea based life forms Phase.

 

[freethinker44]

Well there is that, I'm sorta taking that one off the table. But there was a recent article I found that indicated that at some point Mars had a higher oxygen content than Earth, and there has also been a source of water on Mars at some point too (correct me if I'm wrong),

so life (not necessarily intelligent however you want to describe it), could have existed but then was wiped out. It might never have gotten past the bacterial/sea based life forms Phase.

I see, I was operating under the assumption you were just talking about intelligent life. In that case, I agree. Except I don't think life died out, I mean I'm sure in some place it thrived and died out, but I think it would be highly improbable to think that Earth is the only place with life in the universe.

 

[FranklinMichaelV.3]

I see, I was operating under the assumption you were just talking about intelligent life. In that case, I agree. Except I don't think life died out, I mean I'm sure in some place it thrived and died out, but I think it would be highly improbable to think that Earth is the only place with life in the universe.

Certainly not, but I think it's odd that people (laymen) ignore the point that billions upon billions of stars have gone Super Nova or just collasped, so it is possible that the planets near them that held life died.

Even if the life was intelligent if it had only gotten as far as we had before its star died, there isn't much they could do about it.

 

[Riverwolf]

I've always thought of the Earth as a unique case, because well it has life. Mars doesn't, Venus doesn't, Mercury doesn't.

So far we haven't seen proof of it anywhere else in the Universe.

But then I got to thinking...The universe is really old. Stars explode, black holes form, radiation comes out...we know the fate of our sun, and we know there are other stars out there that fit our suns description.

In Biology we also have learned that majority of the species that have ever existed are extinct.

So I got to thinking, what if the reason we haven't found life in the Universe isn't because life is rare...but because it's already dead.

If this is in the wrong board please move it.

My pet guess (not even at the level of hypothesis) is because the only kind of life on "nearby" planets/moons (in our solar system, more likely moons like Europa) is single-celled, and probably quite different than anything we've seen here, to the point where we might not recognize it as life right away.

"Already dead" might be the case in Mars, since it used to have plenty of liquid water, and so may have had life at one point, but it no longer is in any condition to support life.

If Venus has life, it's the most extreme of extremophiles and we'll probably not realize it's life at all since, as far as I know, we don't have anything that can land on Venus and not immediately break down.

 

[FranklinMichaelV.3]

My pet guess (not even at the level of hypothesis) is because the only kind of life on "nearby" planets/moons (in our solar system, more likely moons like Europa) is single-celled, and probably quite different than anything we've seen here, to the point where we might not recognize it as life right away.

"Already dead" might be the case in Mars, since it used to have plenty of liquid water, and so may have had life at one point, but it no longer is in any condition to support life.

If Venus has life, it's the most extreme of extremophiles and we'll probably not realize it's life at all since, as far as I know, we don't have anything that can land on Venus and not immediately break down.

I wonder because in some billion odd years if some life on another planet has reached our point, if they will look at our planet (which who knows may no longer be habitable), and wonder if there ever was life there.

 

[Riverwolf]

I wonder because in some billion odd years if some life on another planet has reached our point, if they will look at our planet (which who knows may no longer be habitable), and wonder if there ever was life there.

Probably. It's theorized that by that point, the sun will have gotten so hot that Earth would be inhospitable.

 

[Zanuku]

You should look up Zeta Reticuli, it's just like our planet.

 

[FranklinMichaelV.3]

You should look up Zeta Reticuli, it's just like our planet.

Isn't that a star?

 

[Galen.Iksnudnard]

It's unlikely that Earth is the only planet capable of supporting life, or even that Earth is the only planet with intelligent life. The problem is just that the universe is so big that actually getting to another planet that can support life would take thousands of years at this point. Even to get to mars takes something like twenty years with current technology

 

[LuisDantas]

what if the reason we haven't found life in the Universe isn't because life is rare...but because it's already dead.

Life is almost certainly already finished somewhere out there. And blooming somewhere else.

The universe is big. Real big.

But to hope that we ever find actual examples either way is IMO quite the vain hope. For good or worse, we are pretty much stuck to our solar system, and sci-fi not withstanding, the other solar systems are very many and very, very far away. There is no good reason to expect that we will ever learn much about the presence of life in any other planets, even if it turns out that every planet of every other solar system in the whole universe is fully habitated - and odds are that just a very tiny percentage of them holds any life at all.

 

[FranklinMichaelV.3]

Life is almost certainly already finished somewhere out there. And blooming somewhere else.

The universe is big. Real big.

But to hope that we ever find actual examples either way is IMO quite the vain hope. For good or worse, we are pretty much stuck to our solar system, and sci-fi not withstanding, the other solar systems are very many and very, very far away. There is no good reason to expect that we will ever learn much about the presence of life in any other planets, even if it turns out that every planet of every other solar system in the whole universe is fully habitated - and odds are that just a very tiny percentage of them holds any life at all.

Yeah even in the context of our solar system, I see the possibility of life that existed not quite making it. Life on here only seems lucky from our point of view. As I said before, once we are gone, if another life form was too look at earth, they would wonder if it ever had the potential to hold life.