• Question: Is there any evidence of other life forms in the universe.

    Asked by anon-276207 on 13 Jan 2021. This question was also asked by anon-278676, anon-278725.
    • Photo: Manuel Kober-Czerny

      Manuel Kober-Czerny answered on 13 Jan 2021:

      A lot of people believe that there must be life somewhere else in the Universe, but so far we have not found any of it. The most exciting thing that was found was I think some underground water with a few bacteria in it. But nothing like you see in the movies yet.
      Would you like to meet some Aliens?

    • Photo: William Smith

      William Smith answered on 13 Jan 2021:

      Even if we have no direct evidence of alien life yet, we can start to accumulate indirect evidence. For example, we know that life managed to arise on Earth. So, if we can find other planets like Earth (similar temperature, lots of water, similar size and gravity etc) they could potentially also have life. As we discover new planets further and further away, we can ask how many of them are “Earth-like”. If being Earth-like is not that unusual, it will mean there are many Earth-like planets elsewhere in the universe and this increases the chances that there are other life forms elsewhere.

    • Photo: Graham Shields

      Graham Shields answered on 13 Jan 2021:

      The short answer to that big question is no. All life on Earth seems to have had a singular origin, and there is no good evidence yet for other forms of life anywhere else.

    • Photo: Michael Nolan

      Michael Nolan answered on 13 Jan 2021:

      We have not found any direct evidence of life elsewhere in the universe, but that does not stop us looking. One thing to be aware of is if you are thinking simply in terms of life such as that on Earth, while there is no reason why there could not be life based around other phenomena (hyrdrogen based life on Jupiter [Arthur C. Clarke] or liquid copper or silicon instead of carbon)

      – there was water on Mars. The evidence is the finding of hematite, which is iron oxide and forms in the presence of water and air
      – we are looking for signals of water on exo-planets which would be a good sign.
      – radio wave emissions, similar to ours, could suggest life that got to the point where it can broadcast information using radio waves

      My opinion is there is other life, but given the randomness of the Universe, it is likely that most of that life is simple, single-celled or similar.

Comments