• Question: Do you think there is life on other planets?

    Asked by klbkelly to Freya, Katy, Louise, Pamela on 16 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Louise Pendry

      Louise Pendry answered on 16 Mar 2010:

      I’d say never say never. We haven’t explored even a tiny fraction of what’s out there – if the conditions on earth are such that life forms could exist why couldn’t there be another planet out there with similar conditions and life forms living on it? It would be great if scientists found out in my life time!

    • Photo: Freya Harrison

      Freya Harrison answered on 16 Mar 2010:

      I think that given the sheer number of stars and planets in the universe, it would be suprising if only Earth had produced life. But I’m not sure whether we would recognise alien creatures as living beings if we came across them – they could be so radically different from life on Earth, or perhaps even be so tiny or so huge compared with us that we might not see them as living creatures. And then life might have existed and gone extinct long before humans evolved – nor might not evolve on another planet until after we’ve gone extinct.

    • Photo: Pamela Docherty

      Pamela Docherty answered on 16 Mar 2010:

      Sure – probability-wise, it’s pretty unlikely that Earth is the only planet in the universe that has the correct conditions to support life.

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 16 Mar 2010:

      Yes, absolutely. I’ve seen you teacher!!

      Seriously, there are billions and billions of planets out there and I do not believe that we (humans) are the only accident! Whether we will ever meet any extra-terretrial life in our life-time is another question, but who knows, maybe.

    • Photo: Katy Milne

      Katy Milne answered on 16 Mar 2010:

      I think it is very likely given the size of the universe. However, everything is so far apart! When we look across the universe we are also looking back in time. Light takes time to travel. We are seeing the sun eight minutes ago and the nearest stars a few hours ago. If we look at the nearest planet with life, we might be seeing it several million years ago. That means that what we see might no longer exist there. If they looked at us, they might see cave men – or even dinosaurs! These kinds of problems would make it very difficult to travel to other worlds or to communicate with one another. Maybe one day it will be possible.

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