The farthest galaxy we can see (2013) is 13.2 billion light years away. A light year is 5.8 trillion miles. The distance from the Sun to Pluto is about 13 light hours. How do you feel looking at the stars? I used to be bewildered, feel small, insignificant yet a part of the universe. Now it is just incomprehensible. Does space end? What's on the other side? There has to be alien life. "There are stars located even further away than the unaided eye can see. Thanks to the Hubble telescope we can not only see distant supernovas but even more distant galaxies. A galaxy is a system of stars, gas and dust held together by gravity. Over the past 10 years Hubble has been looking deep into space into the constellation of Fornax in the Southern hemisphere and has discovered thousands of galaxies. The latest image assembled by images captured by Hubble is the eXtreme Deep Field (XDF). This has allowed astronomers to discover the most distant object UDFj-39546284, an early forming galaxy at over 13.2 billion light years away when the Universe was still developing into the form we see today. Other space-based telescopes planned in the next few years like the James Webb Space telescope will be able to use infrared imaging to see beyond the spectrum of visible light from the Universe to hopefully discover even more distant objects." http://www.armaghplanet.com/blog/how-far-away-is-the-farthest-star.html
I would stake my life on there being not only life out there but ubiquitous life. Based on the scales you noted above we haven't even began looking for life. If it happened here there is nothing preventing it from occurring elsewhere and most likely life did not start here anyways, it was most likely seeded from the comets that impacted our planet. If that's true then life has evolved virtually everywhere. The sheer size of the Universe that we can observe is too large for the human mind to grasp. The odds that we are the only oasis of life in Hubbles view is 0. I would also bet the farm on there being life on Europa.
Yes...likely on Europa and Titan as well. Who is to say that liquid methane cannot be the solvent of life.
Question please? How can a man-made device stay in orbit for two years around something which is hurtling through space at 300 miles a second, repeat a second? I refer to Rosetta. I'll elaborate on that by adding supplementary questions: what is the method of propulsion of the device, and how is it manipulated, ie what is the means of its guidance?
"This is the end of the Rosetta mission. Thank you and goodbye, the spacecraft operations manger Sylvain Lodiot announced over the communications ring. And with that, he took off his headset and walked away to embrace colleagues." Oh the pathos! You'd need to have a heart of stone not to laugh? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37529049 Yes, it's a BBC link!
You will find answers here, to all of your questions. http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Life_and_survival_in_deep_space
Liquid methane can be solvent. But the speed of chemical reactions exponential depends on temperature. Decrease in temperature to liquefaction of methane reduces the speed of chemical reactions a million times. Life — chemical process. Evolution speed directly depends on the speed of chemical reactions. Reduction in the rate of reactions a million times reduces evolution speed too a million times. Therefore on "metane clocks" to our Solar system only about 4.5 thousand years. It isn't enough for emergence and development of life. There is one more argument against. Life has to arise in places with a big and extensive stream of energy. On Earth it is a sunlight. On far-out cold planets of the power engineering specialist much less active and more equilibrium. It will strongly complicate emergence of life too. I once too hoped for a possibility of other life forms, even non-carbon. But studying of physical chemistry didn't leave to such illusions almost any chance As it is sad from monotony, but proteinaceous life forms on water solvent is almost only opportunity. All other options are very non-optimal or absolutely impossible.
If you say 99% then this implies a finite amount of stuff out there...why not an infinite amount of stuff out there?
Maximum velocity of comet is 84,000 mph. 300 miles per second is about 1+ million mph. Spacecraft can do about the same speed as comet... - - - Updated - - - My question was about finite and infinity...
I don't read propaganda from 'the industry', I'd rather someone tell me in terms that I can understand. Why don't you?
