Possibility of Life in the Known Universe

Astronomers at Australian National University have estimated the number in the visiable known univers at 70 sextillion. 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars(7 with 22 zeros). (How many stars are in the universe? | Space)This is just an estimate, but you can call it a very educated guess. Scientists reach that number by basicaly taking a sample of the number of stars in a strip of the sky, in this case it was 10,000 galaxies. They determined the amount of stars in each of the 10,000 galaxies, by taking the brightness of the galaxy and use that for the judge of how many stars are in it. After adding up the number of stars in each of the 10,000 galaxies, "that sample was then multiplied by the number of similar sized strips needed to cover the entire sky, and then multiplied again out to the edge of the visible universe. A pedestrian measure of this edge-to-edge distance is sometimes given as 234 sextillion miles." quote from : (http://www.astrobio.net...)
{Shortened display form of URL, to restore page width to normal - Adminnemooseus}70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 possible stars. (its just an estimate)
For arguments sake lets say 1% of those stars are sun like.
-70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 x .01 = 700,000,000,000,000,000,000 sun like stars
Now lets say 1% of those can have an Earth like planetor a planet that could support life
-700,000,000,000,000,000,000 x .01 = 7,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets
and there is a 1:1,000,000,000,000 chance of any life to form
-7,000,000,000,000,000,000/1,000,000,000,000 = 7,000,000 Possibilities for any life. That includes single cell organisms as well. Now lets say there is .5% chance of any of that life being "intellegent", in that they have roughly our knowledge. -7,000,000 x .005 = 35,000 chances of intelligent life.
That we will be able to reach or another intelligent race to reach us has or will ever happend is another debate altogether, but I will say its sure possible but it as our technology stands its not possible to travel very far with out developing new technology. Who is to say what the future will hold, only time will tell. (for more on the search for life elsewhere check out http://www.seti-inst.edu/)Granted this is really only speculation at this point, but it can give one a good look at the chances of life out there and I find this fascinating, and I hope you do also.------------------
--ignorance is humankinds worst enemy--[This message has been edited by Adminnemooseus, 07-27-2003]

You are offering a form of the Drake equation
see
404Your numbers don't tell us anything until we have a better idea of what each parameter might actually be.Otherwise all we can say is that the universe is very big and even unlikely events have a chance of happening a number of times. It doen't really mean much to take all the stars in the universe anyway. Basically for it to be interesting to us we need to have some sentient life close enough to us. A big streach would be to accept any where in our galaxy as being "close enough". That brings us down to "only" about 100 billion stars as a starting point.I for one really do hope that we are not alone. However, to go from there to concluding that "the answer is out there" is a streach.

It was mearly a look at the numbers to show how much life could be possible

well indeed that we can't go there now and most likely won't be able to at all according to many theories(extremely well excepted ones) in order to travel such distance we would need to travel the Speed of Light faster or Right Below however there are Draw backs here. Traveling at such speeds makes time a REAL problem. this the speed of light or just below. You should be able to get anywhere within 2 years HOWEVER the Universe will age ALOT. lets say you go on a trip to another galaxy it takes you alittle over 4 years the Problem is when you return to earth over 4 million years will have past on earth. (or something like that). However it is thought faster time would Go backwards so you would go backwards and you may come home to see people haven't evolved yet or an earth Inhabited by dinosaurs. there is still (another theory) if you combine the 2 travel there slower and come back faster. you might Split universes meaning that you will return home and you will see your family and friends however there is now another Universe now that you didn't return(weird but could very well be true)[This message has been edited by DC85, 07-27-2003]

Where did you get those backwards time and split results ideas?I think they are a little "speculative" to be as polite as possible.

I'd bet that there are some alien life-form out there. And they would be none other than... bacteria. Not Klingons or Wookiee.Or plants, or some kind of marine animal-like life. At any rate I would not speculate about the existence of humanoids, or even intelligence.

I'd bet with you that most life-form are bacteria-ish-- just like here on Earth. I would bet on intelligence, assuming we manage to sample several million planets. Humanoids have got to be out there, but certainly not in the quantities found on TV.------------------
No webpage found at provided URL: www.hells-handmaiden.com

this site here is about time travel but it should explain what I was touching on please have a look http://freespace.virgin.net/steve.preston/Time.html this site explain physics and math of it check it out[This message has been edited by DC85, 07-28-2003]

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Where did you get those backwards time and split results ideas?

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In not to sure what your asking but I hope this clears it up.
redirectThis place has some nice graphics to show how the Relativistic time dilation occurs. I will be happy to try to answer any other questions you may have. If interested in learning more about physics and our universe I suggest finding the book:
"The Universe in a Nutshell" by Stephen Hawkings
or for more on time
"A Brief History of Time" also by Stephen HawkingsBoth of these books are written in a clear and easy to understand format set up for people who want to find out more but dont have the background in science.------------------
--ignorance is humankind's worst enemy--

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You should be able to get anywhere within 2 years...

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Our galaxy is about 90,000 light years across. Now, one would think that a 'light-year' is the distance light will travel in one of our years, appr. So if light takes 90,000 years to get from one side of the Milky Way to the other, how is it that you, travelling just under the speed of light, can get anywhere within 2 years? Anywhere, that is, that isn't less than 2 light-years distance?------------------
No webpage found at provided URL: www.hells-handmaiden.com

As much as I love the good Doctor, that site is sad.------------------
No webpage found at provided URL: www.hells-handmaiden.com

one would think so.. but its not the way it works or is thought to work. sorry but I am just going by what other great men have come up with. this is based on Einstein's theory which anyone would be hard pressed to disprove

and just when you site gets to the part that involves useful time travel we have It is all wild eyed speculation I'm afraid. This is in areas that we don't have all nailed down by any means. But don't hold your breath.

I understand time dilation which allows a jump to the future. However, into the past is another matter. There are suggestions for using black holes for this, but they are pretty uncertain as yet.

2 years subjective time, or time local to the space craft