Webb Telescope news

[Slothead56]

From this mornings 1440 news summation:
“James Webb Space Telescope snaps images of a water plume ejecting from Saturn's moon Enceladus; researchers speculate such activity could transport the ingredients for life farther into space.”
Does any one believe, in the vastness of the Universe, that there isn’t life out there somewhere? I cannot fathom that “we’re it”?

[hubcapsc]

Does any one believe, in the vastness of the Universe, that there isn’t life out there somewhere?

Yes.

-Mike

[ozzman]

Its fun to imagine other life somewhere out there but,But if I had to bet the farm? I'm gonna say nope,this is it.

[TBman]

There's life out there.

There's no doubt millions of civilizations out there at various stages of development. We are all so far apart from each other that lacking any Star Trek sort of warp drive, we're never going to meet any of them.

The sheer number of galaxies is really beyond comprehension and then the number of stars in each galaxy.......

But....

What difference does it make? Doesn't pay my bills

[Merak]

Maybe, maybe not. The odds are probably for it. Personally I think its just a distraction to keep us from looking at our current situation here on earth.

[Aimelie]

Originally Posted by Slothead56

From this mornings 1440 news summation:
“James Webb Space Telescope snaps images of a water plume ejecting from Saturn's moon Enceladus; researchers speculate such activity could transport the ingredients for life farther into space.”
Does any one believe, in the vastness of the Universe, that there isn’t life out there somewhere? I cannot fathom that “we’re it”?

It’s my opinion that we are no more alone than the Earth was flat way back when people were absolutely convinced it was. At the time, it was inconceivable to believe otherwise — likewise now, quite simply.

One day proof will come even if only upon light reflected so distantly in the past that life there might even have been extinguished since. (Something others in a galaxy far, far away might say about us and the evidence in reflection, for better or worse, we leave behind long after we ourselves are gone.)

[DCCougar]

Originally Posted by TBman

There's life out there.... There's no doubt millions of civilizations out there at various stages of development.... The sheer number of galaxies is really beyond comprehension and then the number of stars in each galaxy.......

Exactly. And as demonstrated by Stuart Kaufman (see At Home in the Universe), it looks like the development of primitive life is just a matter of a sufficiently diverse population of molecules undergoing autocatalysis.

But really, the universe is beyond "big." In fact, "...the entire universe is expected to be at least 10^23 times larger than the observed universe! ...if [Guth's] inflationary theory is correct, then the observed universe is only a minute speck in a universe that is many orders of magnitude larger."

And then there's TIME. Fourteen billion years is A LOT of time!

[Jamolay]

Originally Posted by DCCougar

Exactly. And as demonstrated by Stuart Kaufman (see At Home in the Universe), it looks like the development of primitive life is just a matter of a sufficiently diverse population of molecules undergoing autocatalysis.

But really, the universe is beyond "big." In fact, "...the entire universe is expected to be at least 10^23 times larger than the observed universe! ...if [Guth's] inflationary theory is correct, then the observed universe is only a minute speck in a universe that is many orders of magnitude larger."

And then there's TIME. Fourteen billion years is A LOT of time!

And what is time? We only age the universe at 14 billion years because that is what we can see with our amazing, but very limited tools. We really have no idea what is out there and what it is all about.

I am pretty sure, though, that if we do encounter extraterrestrial life, it won’t fit our anthropomorphized image of it.

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by Slothead56

From this mornings 1440 news summation:
“James Webb Space Telescope snaps images of a water plume ejecting from Saturn's moon Enceladus; researchers speculate such activity could transport the ingredients for life farther into space.”
Does any one believe, in the vastness of the Universe, that there isn’t life out there somewhere? I cannot fathom that “we’re it”?

Well given the near incomprehensible number of planetary systems, it sure seems unlikely that this planet has the only instance, and it's not just the vastness of space, but the vastness of time to consider. 14-odd billion years is more than plenty of time for life to emerge and disappear in innumerable places. Maybe more multiple times in the same place.

So yeah, seems unlikely that this is the only place it's happened, but "believe"? I guess I'm more careful with that word. There's no evidence for it so far, so I don't know how I can believe it's the case. I believe in things for which I've seen compelling evidence.

Certainly I'm very open to the possibility, and it seems a worthy thing to investigate as best we can in our quest for knowledge and our understanding of the universe.

[TBman]

The distance light travels in one year is called a "light year" This is 5.88 TRILLION miles. (short scale I believe). A trillion is a thousand billions.

How big is a billion? Well, a million seconds is 11.57 days. A billion seconds is 31.71 YEARS.

Yeah. We're not bumping into little green men anytime soon. No one is stopping by for coffee and cake.

List of Potentially Habitable Exoplanets

(feel free to correct my research/math or add to it)

[Silurian]

I think life has/does exist elsewhere.

How often life has evolved to the stage of intelligent technological civilisations capable of communicating with other civilisations is a different question though.

[Gitfiddlemann]

Originally Posted by Jamolay

We only age the universe at 14 billion years because that is what we can see with our amazing, but very limited tools. We really have no idea what is out there and what it is all about.

True, but I think that is the main reason they launched the Webb telescope, i.e. to shed more light on the origins of the universe. So, to that end, it's a much better tool than what we've had so far. And it's just started. It's exciting to see what it finds. Exoplanets that have life would be a nice bonus.
Personally, I don't think we're alone, but we may never know for sure in our lifetime. And with the advent of AI, as well as general mayhem and craziness, we may ourselves be living on borrowed time.

[Earl49]

Originally Posted by Silurian

I think life has/does exist elsewhere. How often life has evolved to the stage of intelligent technological civilisations capable of communicating with other civilisations is a different question though.

I can agree with this. The universe is a very, very, very big place and there must be other life, just from the pure math. Have those lifeforms evolved to the point where they can reach out either by physical travel or by electromagnetic communication? And were WE at the point where we could hear the transmission? Are we now? Consider that if there were only two people on the entire planet right now, what are the odds that you would wander around randomly and meet the other? I'm sure that the math applicable to the whole universe is a much lower percentage.

Watching a Nova program on geology last year, the host pointed out that geologically the Rockies have formed up and worn away at least six times, according to the currently available evidence. It's astounding to think of that. What chance is there that any cultural artifacts or evidence remain from some possible human or human-like society from 4 million years ago? The pyramids in Egypt are only around 4,000 years old and apparently are a worn down shadow of their original selves. Even rock does not last forever. For all we know there have been dozens of human evolutions that have come and gone over eons, leaving no discernable footprint. Now multiply that time span by several orders of magnitude. And that is just on this one little ball of rock orbiting around a minor league star in the backwoods of one galaxy, out of literally billions of galaxies. It's all above my pay grade.

I recall first hearing that physicist Stephen Hawking had passed away. My first thought was, "Gee, I bet he finally understands all of those mysteries of physics that baffled him in this limited existence". And I was glad for him.

[Dirk Hofman]

Originally Posted by Jamolay

And what is time? We only age the universe at 14 billion years because that is what we can see with our amazing, but very limited tools. We really have no idea what is out there and what it is all about.

It's true that is one of the ways the age has been determined. We're also able to estimate it by measuring the rate of expansion of the universe, and extrapolating backwards. This apparently helps confirm the 14 billion year estimate. At least that's my understanding, and since I'm pretty far out of my range of expertise here, I'm happy to be corrected.

Originally Posted by Jamolay

I am pretty sure, though, that if we do encounter extraterrestrial life, it won’t fit our anthropomorphized image of it.

Indeed, and as others have mentioned, surely if there is life out there, some/much/most would likely be non technological life. I mean we've found microbes estimated as having lived 3.7 billion years ago on earth. So 3.699999 (no, I didn't do the math) billion years of that time life here was non technological....

[12barBill]

Moderators, this is NOT to interject "religion" into this thread topic. This is simply an aside to contemplate.

How did this universe have an origin?

Was there a creator?

What if we are all there is and the unimaginable vastness and unending wonder of the rest of the universe exists to give us some small comprehension and beholding as to the size and majesty of the creator?