Astronomer: There may be 100 billion Earth-like planets in Milky Way - Page 2 - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

MrMastodonFarm · 02-25-2009, 01:27 PM

I gotta think it would be silly to NOT think their is life out there beyond this planet.

photon · 02-25-2009, 01:28 PM

I'm never offline!

My webcomics always produce something topical.

Dan02 · 02-25-2009, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

I gotta think it would be silly to NOT think their is life out there beyond this planet.

What kind of life though?

MrMastodonFarm · 02-25-2009, 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan02

What kind of life though?

I gotta think, somewhere, far out out, there is life similar to ours.

JohnnyFlame · 02-25-2009, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Five-hole

On a related note, I'm reading a book by David Deutsch called The Fabric of Reality. He talks about quantum photon interference and posits the existence of a "multiverse" based on the likelyhood of quantum interference from parallel universes. A bit mind-boggling.

Anyway, he claims there are probably 90% more "shadow photons" -- that is, the photons from parallel universes causing the quantum interference -- than there are photons in our observable universe. That ratio sounds an awful lot like the 90/10 dark/real energy split. This is only my hypothesis and I'm the rawest of amateurs but it's interesting nonetheless.

I think this works for us as hockey fans. We check out the Flames lineup in various universe's and go with the one most likely to win the CUP!!!!! Imagine the demand for playoff tickets if we could switch though!!!

troutman · 02-25-2009, 01:47 PM

The Drake equation states that:

where:

N is the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which communication might be possible; and
R* is the average rate of star formation in our galaxy
fp is the fraction of those stars that have planets
ne is the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
fℓ is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life at some point
fi is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop intelligent life
fc is the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space
L is the length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space.

This astronomer is saying ne = 100 billion

cyclone3483 · 02-25-2009, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

I gotta think, somewhere, far out out, there is life similar to ours.

You mean perpetually self-indulgent, actively waste resources and time, obsessed with b00bs, and secretly stalking Jennifer Love Hewitt?

...

or is that just me?

ricosuave · 02-25-2009, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by photon

And ours is just one galaxy out of tens or hundreds of billions. And that's just the visible universe.

and our visible universe might very well be only a small part of the overall universe, and in fact one of may universes in a multiverse...

ugh. my head.

Bertuzzied · 02-25-2009, 02:10 PM

Where does god live?

CaptainCrunch · 02-25-2009, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

Where does god live?

Under your bed junior, and man is he pissed about your night farts.

Dan02 · 02-25-2009, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by troutman

The Drake equation states that:

where:

R* is the average rate of star formation in our galaxy
fp is the fraction of those stars that have planets
ne is the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets

This astronomer is saying ne = 100 billion

call me crazy but i think 100 billion planets per star might be on the high side

I would suggest rather that he is stating that R* x fp x ne = 100 billion

to me the only really relavent number is fi, until we find atleast 1 other civilization I think it's premature to try to assign a value to it.

RougeUnderoos · 02-25-2009, 04:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gozer

We think Dark Matter comprises most of the universe, but we don't know what it does or where it comes from or anything about it, but trust us, we're experts. -TMQ

I think most of these reports come from the Astronomy equivalent of Ehklund, doesn't really understand whats going on but he hears something interesting and then tells other people about it. And unlike hockey no one can call him on any bullspit.

There's a whole group of people who can call him on any bullspit. They are known as "the other astronomers".

DementedReality · 02-25-2009, 04:05 PM

another thread where i need the "over my head" smiley!

pepper24 · 02-25-2009, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

I gotta think it would be silly to NOT think their is life out there beyond this planet.

Maybe it's God?

octothorp · 02-25-2009, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

There's a whole group of people who can call him on any bullspit. They are known as "the other astronomers".

Poster 1: Did you see this! Life on Tau Ceti is an E4!!

Poster 2: Can't we just merge all of these threads?

Chris Lindberg:
The Sun, Tau Ceti, Epsilon Indi
Procyon, 61 Cygni, Van Maanen's Star
Groombridge 34, Groombridge 1618, Gleise 581
51 Pegasus, LaCaille 9352, Hydri

Serius, Alpha Centauri
Ceti, HR4458
Bootis, Reticuli

37 Gem

Poster 3: Chris, get your head out of your ass. You realize Van Maanen's Star is a White Dwarf, right?

Chris Lindberg: It's a white dwarf now, yes. But my lineup is for next season.

Daradon · 02-25-2009, 05:24 PM

This seems far to high/extreme to be possible.

If there were THAT many civilizations on our galaxy alone at least a few would have to have evolved to the point of being able to visit us, or somehow communicate with us.

Or we would see signs of them as they colonize the stars.

His values are FAR too high. It doesn't make logical sense at all.

MJK · 02-25-2009, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daradon

This seems far to high/extreme to be possible.

If there were THAT many civilizations on our galaxy alone at least a few would have to have evolved to the point of being able to visit us, or somehow communicate with us.

Or we would see signs of them as they colonize the stars.

His values are FAR too high. It doesn't make logical sense at all.

Agreed. Unless they are already visiting us and we just don't know it! That's a possibility as well.

Daradon · 02-25-2009, 05:42 PM

^^^ I now that's a popular 'theory' but I don't by that either. Might as well believe in other invisible visitors like Santa, the Easter Bunny and well you know where I'm going with this, lol.

evman150 · 02-25-2009, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daradon

This seems far to high/extreme to be possible.

If there were THAT many civilizations on our galaxy alone at least a few would have to have evolved to the point of being able to visit us, or somehow communicate with us.

Or we would see signs of them as they colonize the stars.

His values are FAR too high. It doesn't make logical sense at all.

The values arent that high. Maybe a little high, but not even by an order.

And just because it doesn`t make logical sense to you, doesn`t mean it doesn`t make logical sense objectively.

Your "logic" is based on ignorance and question begging arguments.

worth · 02-25-2009, 07:58 PM

It takes over 8 minutes for the photons from the Sun to reach earth. The photons travel at the speed of light, obviously. So traveling at the maximum allowable relativistic speed it still takes minutes for them to get here and that's from the nearest star to our planet.

The milky way is 100,000 light years in diameter. It will take you 100,000 years to get from one end to the other traveling at the speed of light. We're talking about one galaxy here. There are over 100 billion galaxies in the universe from estimates. The numbers are too enormous for us to comprehend. The distances are so vast, the possibility of there being hundreds of intelligent life forms in our own galaxy and not run into each other is still plausible.

Also, we're giving ourselves a lot of credit here. Why would an advanced civilization that can travel thousands of light years want to bother with us anyway? To them, we're nothing special. I'm sure they have other concerns to look after. Not one measly tiny planet. If i'm running a galactic civilization, i'm probably gonna be more worried about the Andromedans that are harvesting the energy from black holes to run their super massive collider weapons than the teeny weeny earthlings.