Is there Life in the Universe?

Posted by admin on March 22nd, 2008 at 08:33am

Clearly there is life in the universe since there’s life on the planet Earth

So the big question for today:

Is there life on another planet some where far far away?

I personally believe anyone who discounts the possibility of life on other planets is an idiot. There are countless stars out there with billions of planets and to believe life can only exist on one of them (our mundane little Earth) is arrogant to say the least.

Even if life is a billion to one shot with so many planets out there the universe is going to be teaming with life, just a matter of time before we can detect it. Which brings me to a story in the NY Times:

Stuff of Life (but Not Life Itself) Is Detected on a Distant Planet

Astronomers reported Wednesday that they had made the first detection of an organic molecule, methane, in the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system and had confirmed the presence of water there, clearing the way for a bright future of inspecting the galaxy for livable planets, for the chemical stuff of life, or even for life itself.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/science/space/20planetw.html?em&ex=1206244800&en=c987ce11a4c0d0b2&ei=5087%0A

I look forward to 2013 when the James Webb Space Telescope is launched. this telescope is far better suited to detecting life on planets than Hubble is.

Just to throw a spanner in the works

For those who believe in God and creationism (which I’m not one of them BTW) if an almighty creator made the Earth and populated it with all this wonderful life for our amusement what the heck did he make all those stars for?

Under Questions