NASA's Voyager 2 Probe Enters Interstellar Space

[Quickstatus]

There may be six billion other earth-like sized planets around in our galaxy going around stars like our sun (i.e nice stars that don't fry the neighbourhood - our sun is in the top 5% of stars by size), but it is highly unlikely that any significant proportion of them will have had their light element surface layer ripped off them to form a huge moon that stabilizes the axis of rotation. On such supposedly earth-like planets which haven't had their surface ripped off them, getting to the essential metals and minerals that is needed for an advanced civilization would be a very much tougher proposition as those metals, being heavier, would be much further down in the ground.

It's kind of difficult to imagine an advanced civilization forming without easy access to bronze and then to iron.
Regards,
Renato

Why assume that aliens need the same conditions as humans. ET looked ... well like ET

 

[JohnK]

Why assume that aliens need the same conditions as humans. ET looked ... well like ET

I was just about to post the same.

Why assume that we need identical conditions to Earth for life to exist. What if other beings are not carbon based?

 

[dajop]

Define aliens? There's every chance we are aliens too.

I am an alien (some of the time). At least when I visit the USA.

 

[Renato1]

Why assume that aliens need the same conditions as humans. ET looked ... well like ET

I was just about to post the same.

Why assume that we need identical conditions to Earth for life to exist. What if other beings are not carbon based?

It's to do with the ability for molecules to first make connections, and eventually for the more complex ones to exchaange information. It definitely occurs where there is liquid water, and may occur on places like Titan where there is liquid methane. But in an ice environment or a gaseous environment - it may happen - but it may well take tens of billions of years for what occurred here in hundreds of millions of years to occur there. (Age of the universe is only 14 billion years).

The only other likely candidate for non-carbon based life forms is silicon-based (next element down on the Periodic Table). Again, scientists are sceptical - it could happen - but it would take many tens of billions of years to get there.

On the other hand, if God created life, he'd have no problem whipping up silicon based life-forms in an instant, as God can do anything.
Regards,
Renato

 

[amaroo]

I'm not interested if there is some other form life ..... I want to know if NASA has worked out Metric Math

When NASA Lost a Spacecraft Due to a Metric Math Mistake | SimScale

 

[Quickstatus]

It's to do with the ability for molecules to first make connections, and eventually for the more complex ones to exchaange information. It definitely occurs where there is liquid water, and may occur on places like Titan where there is liquid methane. But in an ice environment or a gaseous environment - it may happen - but it may well take tens of billions of years for what occurred here in hundreds of millions of years to occur there. (Age of the universe is only 14 billion years).

No wonder aliens have big heads and funky eyes.

 

[JohnK]

The only other likely candidate for non-carbon based life forms is silicon-based (next element down on the Periodic Table). Again, scientists are sceptical - it could happen - but it would take many tens of billions of years to get there.

Scientists speaking from experience?

We only know 1 form of life. Our thinking is very limited and constrained by our beliefs. Yes science without proof is a belief system.

Life can be carbon based, silicon based, titanium based, tin based, gold based or any other base and advanced life forms may have no physical form.

 

[Renato1]

Scientists speaking from experience?

We only know 1 form of life. Our thinking is very limited and constrained by our beliefs. Yes science without proof is a belief system.

Life can be carbon based, silicon based, titanium based, tin based, gold based or any other base and advanced life forms may have no physical form.

Highly unlikley for some, impossibe for others.
Could silicon be the basis for alien life forms, just as carbon is on Earth?

Hypothetical types of biochemistry - Wikipedia

Regards,
Renato

 

[Quickstatus]

Let’s find one and dissect it and see what makes it tick

 

[JohnK]

Highly unlikley for some, impossibe for others.

How about tin with artificial components?

Our existence should be highly unlikely but here we are.

 

[Renato1]

No wonder aliens have big heads and funky eyes.

How about tin with artificial components?

Our existence should be highly unlikely but here we are.

No one's saying there isn't life out there - even the skeptics.
It's just that given the huge adveristies facing such life from the skeptical summary I gave previously, it is more likely to be just plain algae, or not far above it.

And our civilisations only grew due to easy access to bronze and later to iron. When all the easy access dried up, civilization stalled. Pretty hard to imagine advanced civilization without such easy access to metals in the way our ancestors were so lucky to have had (as a result of the planetoid ripping the light surface material off the earth and forming the moon).
Regards,
Renato

 

[Quickstatus]

They got Unobtanium and hyperdrive

 

[JohnK]

And our civilisations only grew due to easy access to bronze and later to iron. When all the easy access dried up, civilization stalled. Pretty hard to imagine advanced civilization without such easy access to metals in the way our ancestors were so lucky to have had (as a result of the planetoid ripping the light surface material off the earth and forming the moon).

What you're saying is the perceived pre-requisites of the growth of our civilisation should also be the pre-requisites of any other civilisation?

We don't know the answer to that question.

 

[Renato1]

What you're saying is the perceived pre-requisites of the growth of our civilisation should also be the pre-requisites of any other civilisation?

We don't know the answer to that question.

 

[Renato1]

What you're saying is the perceived pre-requisites of the growth of our civilisation should also be the pre-requisites of any other civilisation?

We don't know the answer to that question.

We do know that it is impossible to build an advanced civilization without easy access to metals and minerals.
Pretty hard to do it with sand and wood.

And the only reason we're here at this stage of technological civilization is because our ancestors starting in the Middle East had easy access to numerous domesticated animals which they could use for muscle power. The civilizations on continents without that easy access, could only develop so far.
Cheers,
Renato

 

[JohnK]

We do know that it is impossible to build an advanced civilization without easy access to metals and minerals.
Pretty hard to do it with sand and wood.

You're applying the rules civilisation of one tiny backwater against the rules for civilisations everywhere.

Again we don't know what environments are conducive for the successful growth of other civilisations on the other side of the universe.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

I'm awake... is anyone else?

 

[Quickstatus]

The civilizations on continents without that easy access, could only develop so far.
Cheers,
Renato

Unless they had alien visitors who shared their alien technology.
Or embedded their alien technology in the inhabitants' brains
Or the inhabitants were descended from the aliens.
I reckon the Egyptians has alien assistance to build the pyramids.

 

[Quickstatus]

Science is wonderful.

So long as it is not co-opted for politico-social-neoreligious reasons.

 

[Renato1]

You're applying the rules civilisation of one tiny backwater against the rules for civilisations everywhere.

Again we don't know what environments are conducive for the successful growth of other civilisations on the other side of the universe.

There isn't one rule of civilizations on earth, as there are thousands that formed independently - most lost to the time of pre-history. And all had constraints of material resources on them, which set bounds on how far they could ultimately go.

You may say that this is a purely mammalian view of the way things are, and that other places may have had their equivalent of reptiles, dolphins, flocks of birds or a hive mind like ants become the dominant civilisation leading to a very different outcome. Fair enough - but unless they have easy access to the materials that are required for an advanced technological civilisation, and the ability to utilise them, they aren't going to get anywhere beyond their equivalent of hunter gatherers or basic farmers. Nor are they going to eaily get to that stage without being on a planet with a stable axis, which can wreak havoc on their environment every several hundred thousand years.
Regards,
Renato