In this thread, let us talk about the amazing things out there in the cosmos.
My mind melts just thinking about it.
We can share videos, pictures, information, and findings in this thread. Here are some to get us started:
Here is a picture of Earth.
Quote:
It started out as a simple experiment, a shot in the dark if you will (pun intended). The plan was to point the Hubble Space Telescope at a completely dark patch in the sky (covering the area of about a pinhead held at arm's length) for an exposure of just under a million seconds across ~two weeks. Every dot, spot, and wedge in that picture is a galaxy - 10,000 of them in all! Keep in mind that the average galaxy has between 10,000,000 and 1,000,000,000,000 stars.
Is there life out there? advanced life? in our galaxy or another? Will humans ever travel the stars? etc etc
Discuss!
Last edited by JurassicTunga12; 07-29-2012 at 04:31 PM.
It is a mathamatical certainty there is all kinds of life out there.
"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."
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Stephen Hawking's babbled about this from time to time. He figures that it's nearly impossible that there is not extraterrestrial life out there in some form, and likely in many forms (interestingly enough, he also advises that we avoid contact with any such life).
The chance of actually encountering intelligent life from another solar system/galaxy seems so immensely remote. With higher intelligence come more varied and advanced methods of self-destruction; on this planet alone we already deal with nuclear bombs, bio-weapons, etc. and yet haven't even begun to scratch the surface of exploration outside our own planetary realm. A hypothetical species of intelligent beings from elsewhere who could actually reach us before we reach them could very well be a near impossibility if for no other reason than the fact that they'd likely have destroyed themselves already somewhere upon the path of advancement, as we already almost have on so many occasions.
Also, for anyone who's indulged in the Mass Effect series on 360 or PS3...that's how I'm hoping this whole thing plays out. We just have to get someone to Mars to discover the Prothean ruins so we can get the ball rolling...
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Also, for anyone who's indulged in the Mass Effect series on 360 or PS3...that's how I'm hoping this whole thing plays out. We just have to get someone to Mars to discover the Prothean ruins so we can get the ball rolling...
Stephen Hawking's babbled about this from time to time. He figures that it's nearly impossible that there is not extraterrestrial life out there in some form, and likely in many forms (interestingly enough, he also advises that we avoid contact with any such life).
The chance of actually encountering intelligent life from another solar system/galaxy seems so immensely remote. With higher intelligence come more varied and advanced methods of self-destruction; on this planet alone we already deal with nuclear bombs, bio-weapons, etc. and yet haven't even begun to scratch the surface of exploration outside our own planetary realm. A hypothetical species of intelligent beings from elsewhere who could actually reach us before we reach them could very well be a near impossibility if for no other reason than the fact that they'd likely have destroyed themselves already somewhere upon the path of advancement, as we already almost have on so many occasions.
Fun conjecture, though...
You are making the assumption that other forms of intelligent life would have the same human nature to destroy eachother. That is a human trait, highly unlikely all other forms of life out there would share that trait.
You are making the assumption that other forms of intelligent life would have the same human nature to destroy eachother. That is a human trait, highly unlikely all other forms of life out there would share that trait.
True, and I don't necessarily aim to make that assumption, but our limited scope of understanding on the development/advancement of life revolves around evolution and competition on our own planet thus far. If a different form of life on a different planet and in a different solar system/galaxy has managed to develop amid an environment devoid of such conflict (or have transcended it over the course of their own evolution), it does seem quite possible that they'd have a better shot of reaching the nether-regions of space before we could, but who knows?
In any case, if they found us before we found them, we'd be forced in to an interface whether we liked it or not. I'm undecided as to whether or not this could ever be a good thing (assuming even that they lacked "human-esque" flaws). Hawking, as mentioned, seems to toe a fairly pessimistic line on the matter.
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Last edited by Max Cow Disease; 07-29-2012 at 07:17 PM.
Mars newest rover Curiosity is on schedule to land on August 5, 2012 10:31 PM PDT. Check out this interesting clip just to get a glimps of all the problems that the engineers countered.
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You are making the assumption that other forms of intelligent life would have the same human nature to destroy eachother. That is a human trait, highly unlikely all other forms of life out there would share that trait.
Why highly unlikely?
Even on earth, humans are hardly alone in waging war on others of their own species or other species.
Mankind has only been around for ~50,000 years. Earth is 4.5 billion. The Universe is 13.5 billion...
So...we have been on Earth for 0.001% of the time.
If the question is..."is there life out there?", the answer is a most definite "yes". The question is whether or not this life is out there at this exact point in time when we are alive...
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Mankind has only been around for ~50,000 years. Earth is 4.5 billion. The Universe is 13.5 billion...
So...we have been on Earth for 0.001% of the time.
If the question is..."is there life out there?", the answer is a most definite "yes". The question is whether or not this life is out there at this exact point in time when we are alive...
Depends how far away they are and what direction you're moving in.
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You are making the assumption that other forms of intelligent life would have the same human nature to destroy eachother. That is a human trait, highly unlikely all other forms of life out there would share that trait.
i actually think it's a fair assumption. Evolution would have caused the creation of species and longevity of the species. Foundationally that means survival of the fittest and thereby some level of genetic competition. Unless a environment reaches a point of being completely static, and at a point of equilibrium where this competition within each species is gone, i think hawking's ascertion makes sense. As long as there are intra-species competition for resources/survival, there exists a chance for a species to cannablize off itself.
I think for humans existence has been very cyclic. Humans progress, then every few thousand years some sort of devastating natural phenomenon (ice age, global warming, meteor, etc) wipes out most of the population and the cycle starts again.
So forget species beating themselves to death before progressing to the point they are competant enough to build the technology to travel such massive distances in a lifetime. They are also having to live through never-ending natural catastrophe which i think we can assume is apparent in every nook/cranny of the ever changing universe.
You are making the assumption that other forms of intelligent life would have the same human nature to destroy eachother. That is a human trait, highly unlikely all other forms of life out there would share that trait.
The Universe Thread
