The new study, he added, proves that complex prebiotic molecules are coming from the subsurface ocean of Enceladus. “That means we now have all elements required for Enceladus to harbour life – liquid water, energy and complex prebiotic molecules,” Helbert said. “This makes it so timely to send a mission that searches for signs of life.”
This is coming off the heels of the discovery of mineral formations on Mars that look a lot like they were created by microbes in the past, and in fact are a potential definite signal if we can...
This is coming off the heels of the discovery of mineral formations on Mars that look a lot like they were created by microbes in the past, and in fact are a potential definite signal if we can get them to Earth. Exciting times: it's looking increasingly likely that, within a decade or so, we will have concrete evidence of alien life in the Solar System, at least in the past, and possibly in the present.
The fact that we know life exists in the universe should already lead you to conclude that life is relatively common in the universe. Iirc the mathematics I've seen about it in the past show it...
The fact that we know life exists in the universe should already lead you to conclude that life is relatively common in the universe. Iirc the mathematics I've seen about it in the past show it would either be never or often; the chance of it happening just once is wildly improbable on a universal scale.
I do acknowledge that knowing is different than guessing!
The Anthropic Principal says "not so fast". Our existence is a selection effect. We can only observe from a planet where life exists, so the fact that life exists here is not evidence that life is...
The fact that we know life exists in the universe should already lead you to conclude that life is relatively common in the universe.
The Anthropic Principal says "not so fast".
Our existence is a selection effect. We can only observe from a planet where life exists, so the fact that life exists here is not evidence that life is common elsewhere — it’s just necessary for us to be here to notice. That observation is like saying ‘I won the lottery’ and concluding the lottery must sell lots of tickets: you don’t get information about the ticket-sales from the fact that the winner exists.
I think it’s useful to distinguish between simple and complex life. I strongly suspect prokaryotic forms are quite common, cf. the extremophiles on earth that can survive in highly radioactive and...
I think it’s useful to distinguish between simple and complex life. I strongly suspect prokaryotic forms are quite common, cf. the extremophiles on earth that can survive in highly radioactive and thermally hot environments. But eukaryotes, and especially specialized animal-like forms are probably a lot less common. Finding microbial life outside of Earth these days would probably be in the news for a few days at most. First contact with alien humanoids would still be quite significant and take up a lot of news time, however.
Professor Kipping provides some compelling arguments, backed by objective Bayesian analysis, about why we may be a lone intelligence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QZc9vUXWlk...
Professor Kipping provides some compelling arguments, backed by objective Bayesian analysis, about why we may be a lone intelligence:
Life outside of Earth in our solar system can either be an entirely separate tree of life or cross contamination from matter ejected from earth by an ancient meteor impact. Either way would be one...
Life outside of Earth in our solar system can either be an entirely separate tree of life or cross contamination from matter ejected from earth by an ancient meteor impact. Either way would be one of the most significant scientific discoveries of all time. And yet proving an independent genesis event is 1000x more interesting.
Edit: I should update the rankings
Earth seeded life to other local celestial bodies - 1x coolness
Other local celestial bodies seeded life to Earth - 10x coolness
Life originated separately across multiple local celestial bodies - 1000x coolness
Celestial bodies from other solar systems, lightyears away, seeded our solar system - infinity coolness
This is pretty exciting! It would be fabulous to find even just microbes in our own solar system.
This is coming off the heels of the discovery of mineral formations on Mars that look a lot like they were created by microbes in the past, and in fact are a potential definite signal if we can get them to Earth. Exciting times: it's looking increasingly likely that, within a decade or so, we will have concrete evidence of alien life in the Solar System, at least in the past, and possibly in the present.
It would somehow make things seem a lot better if I learned that life in the universe was fairly common.
The fact that we know life exists in the universe should already lead you to conclude that life is relatively common in the universe. Iirc the mathematics I've seen about it in the past show it would either be never or often; the chance of it happening just once is wildly improbable on a universal scale.
I do acknowledge that knowing is different than guessing!
The Anthropic Principal says "not so fast".
Our existence is a selection effect. We can only observe from a planet where life exists, so the fact that life exists here is not evidence that life is common elsewhere — it’s just necessary for us to be here to notice. That observation is like saying ‘I won the lottery’ and concluding the lottery must sell lots of tickets: you don’t get information about the ticket-sales from the fact that the winner exists.
SpaceTime just did a great video about all this.
I think it’s useful to distinguish between simple and complex life. I strongly suspect prokaryotic forms are quite common, cf. the extremophiles on earth that can survive in highly radioactive and thermally hot environments. But eukaryotes, and especially specialized animal-like forms are probably a lot less common. Finding microbial life outside of Earth these days would probably be in the news for a few days at most. First contact with alien humanoids would still be quite significant and take up a lot of news time, however.
Thank you I look forward to checking this out later.
Professor Kipping provides some compelling arguments, backed by objective Bayesian analysis, about why we may be a lone intelligence:
I can agree about intelligent life - I firmly believe there is other life out there though.
Life outside of Earth in our solar system can either be an entirely separate tree of life or cross contamination from matter ejected from earth by an ancient meteor impact. Either way would be one of the most significant scientific discoveries of all time. And yet proving an independent genesis event is 1000x more interesting.
Edit: I should update the rankings