There may be 100 billion Earth-like planets in the Milky Way, or one for every sun-type star in the galaxy, said Alan Boss, an astronomer with the Carnegie Institution and author of the new book “The Crowded Universe: The Search for Living Planets.”
He made the prediction based on the number of “super-Earths” — planets several times the mass of the Earth, but smaller than gas giants like Jupiter — discovered so far circling stars outside the solar system.
Boss said that if any of the billions of Earth-like worlds he believes exist in the Milky Way have liquid water, they are likely to be home to some type of life.
“Now that’s not saying that they’re all going to be crawling with intelligent human beings or even dinosaurs,” he said.
“But I would suspect that the great majority of them at least will have some sort of primitive life, like bacteria or some of the multicellular creatures that populated our Earth for the first 3 billion years of its existence.”
It reminds me of a line in the movie Contact, where our main-character-as-a-child asks her father, played by David Morse, if he believes there is life on other planets. He looks up at the night sky, and says “It’d be an awful waste of space if there isn’t.”
Good line.
Comment by nessa — February 25, 2009 @ 10:33 am
We are merely ‘flea’s’ in a huge huge cosmos. Too think we are the only species is arrogant.
Comment by Michael — February 25, 2009 @ 12:11 pm
All too easy:
-What is the purpose of a star? To put off heat to warm things that live and light so those things can see. Of course there is life out there.
-What do the Laws of Thermodynamics prove? It is impossible for something to come from nothing. Of course there is a God.
-Who has this upset? The atheist and religious. Absoutley there is a God and he has created life throughout the universe.
Comment by empire — February 25, 2009 @ 1:22 pm
You know maybe that civilizations come and go, maybe because they may have not earned the the rights to the gates to the heavens. The ones that do will find the ultimate technology that will at one time give them the power to descover one another.
Comment by BKSARTS — February 25, 2009 @ 1:49 pm
What or who came before God? Why start arbitrarily with a human created concept?
Comment by bally — February 25, 2009 @ 2:16 pm
“For all the speculation about the possibility of other civilizations in the universe, the question remains: If the rise of life on Earth isn’t unique and aliens are common, why haven’t they shown up or contacted us?”
Like Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell and Gordon Cooper have said– they have shown up! I think the evidence is overwhelming now they have shown up (astronaut and cosmonaut testimony, radar evidence of jets ordered to chase ufos, pilot testimony,disclosure project, etc.– this would hold up in any court of law). The US military is keeping it secret for some reason or another, although we can only speculate if they’ve made contact or not.
Comment by Alejandro — February 25, 2009 @ 3:10 pm
Denial of potential of life outside of that on Earth is based in fear and arrogance. The universe has billions of galaxies and given the sheer tenacity of lifeforms — including lifeforms in completely unexpected forms and locations — should indicate that life in the universe is not an unusual event, but quite the opposite. Humans are bound by their physical limitations to observe life without tools and their fear of survival, so denial is the first recourse.
Comment by Pete — February 25, 2009 @ 3:42 pm
Empire, I have a different view of the relationship between science and religion.
What is the purpose of a star?
By the laws of physics alone, it has none. I agree with you that it is a manifestation of God’s glory, but that is outside science.
What do the Laws of Thermodynamics prove? It is impossible for something to come from nothing. Of course there is a God.
Thermodynamics proves no such thing. All forms of life as we know it do a fabulous job of decreasing entropy (randomness, disorder) locally in their environment and themselves, but this does not violate the laws of thermodynamics. (This is probably the most fundamental competitive advantage that first powered evolution.)
Similarly, I have not found, and I believe you will never find, physical proofs or measurements that prove the existence of God. Physics is too small and God is too big to be caught by the leg like that. The field of physics is a gift from God, enabled by an astoundingly law-abiding universe.
Comment by Charley — February 25, 2009 @ 7:07 pm
Of course there is other earth beside the one we live in. Did you think that God was dum enough to create one earth in that universe?. The answer is no. And I believe that every shining star we see at night is but another earth waiting probably to be visited. Look at ours from their side, they will see our earth shining as well.
Comment by Joe Fattal — February 25, 2009 @ 7:24 pm
Empire wrote:
“It is impossible for something to come from nothing. Of course there is a God.”
That is a circular (and illogical) argument, which is commonly employed by religious people in an attempt to “prove” there is a God. It is illogical because if your premise is true (that it is impossible for something to come from nothing), then there can be no God, either.
Are we all imaginary, then? No. But there’s a good chance God is. Just because the origins of the universe are unknown, doesn’t mean it was created by a god. Just as people once believed that the Earth was the center of the universe or the sun went ’round the Earth, we now know these to be false beliefs.
I recommend reading “The God Delusion” by Dawkins. The book does a great job of explaining how it is that life came about (without a god) and also at explaining what we don’t know about the universe.
You don’t have to look to an imaginary god to explain mankind’s existence.
Comment by Daniel — February 25, 2009 @ 9:40 pm
[...] those curious, the hits are coming from CNN via my trackback to the article I linked to here. Here’s what my sitemeter looked like at [...]
Pingback by Malnurtured Snay » Traffic — February 25, 2009 @ 10:11 pm