NASA Kepler telescope data suggests billions of Earth-like planets closer than imagined

[Tom-The-Great]

Alien life is, at this point, something completely made up in our imagination. We have no proof of it whatsoever.

[Donky]

According to the article it says the nearest possibility of an Earth-like planet is only 13 light years..."practically next door"....like that is nothing. The fact remains that 13 light years is actually 122989496143550 km. OR in other words completely impossible for humans to travel to without a massive leap in technology. And that is just the nearest Earth-like planet. That doesn't make it a viable planet for humans. Just one that is a possible. As far as a space-faring planet goes, we are in our infancy.

[canucks since 77]

that ancient alien guy needs a hair cut holy crap therees probably alien life hiding in his hair haha

[canucks since 77]

According to the article it says the nearest possibility of an Earth-like planet is only 13 light years..."practically next door"....like that is nothing. The fact remains that 13 light years is actually 122989496143550 km. OR in other words completely impossible for humans to travel to without a massive leap in technology. And that is just the nearest Earth-like planet. That doesn't make it a viable planet for humans. Just one that is a possible. As far as a space-faring planet goes, we are in our infancy.

[D-Money]

We do, however, have the mathematical equasions that make it near virtually impossible for there not to be extraterrestrial life. Anything's possible, so there is a slight chance that we're the only ones, but that slight chance is so incredibly slim. All it takes is one trace of one bacteria on one rock on one other planet anywhere in the universe, and alien life is confirmed.

[Niloc009]

All of these equations are based on the supposition that it is entirely possible for life to spontaneously form out of non-living matter...which, also, has never been proven either.

[Donky]

All of these equations are based on the supposition that it is entirely possible for life to spontaneously form out of non-living matter...which, also, has never been proven either.

[coleman26]

It's already happened once, so yes it has been proven.

[Ghostsof1915]

It all depends on the variables....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

[coleman26]

I based most of my response with the Drake equation in mind, but as we get closer to finding out the variables = we know that the amount of red dwarf stars to be around 75B and the amount of 'Earth like' planets to be around 4.5B. So what is the estimate going forward? If life is a longshot (roughly 1/10236 estimated that life would arise from non-living matter) then you can guess there's around 440,000 planets that, at one time, had life. Then you have to consider civilizations that either rose and died out, or never made it past single strand organisms, or whatever. Then you have to factor in the unfathomable depth of space. Maybe, in the history of the Universe, there have been 44,000 planets on which life arose to near intelligent levels. And that's very, very gracious. If that's the case, since the beginning of time, organic life would have to form only once every 320,000 years, somewhere in the Galaxy. Then try and find that planet. If we say even 1% of planets with 'life' - intelligent or otherwise - are still around today and didn't die out in the last 13.76B years, we're still looking for about 4,400 planets and haven't yet put a man on the tiny one next to us. I was considering the equation, and not trying to be a dick, because this is very interesting to me. I just can't believe that the odds of contacting are dismal. at most, if what I said is right, we're looking at roughly 1/1.7m Earth like planets. That's not total planets, just the ones we believe could hold life, because the only way we understand life is through Earth. Some of these starts might have 9-13 planets around them, and 1 that supports life, and we have to find exactly which star, and exactly which planet, and hope to God that when we send people to it, we're not wrong. It's a longshot, and an impossibility in my time, short of a miracle where an alien civilization happens to catch our broadcasts.

[MANGO]

Alien life is, at this point, something completely made up in our imagination. We have no proof of it whatsoever.

[RUPERTKBD]

Alien life is, at this point, something completely made up in our imagination. We have no proof of it whatsoever.

[D-Money]

It's already happened once, so yes it has been proven.

[Niloc009]

That's no better of an argument than "life is here, so that proves God exists."

In fact, given the insane amount of mathematical improbability/impossibility, it's an even worse argument.

[D-Money]

Except for the fact that one has a basis in science, and the other is based on a 2000 year old book.

And its not an insane amount of improbability. Its insane to think we'll find other lifeforms in the near future. But with the number of planets and stars in the universe, and the billions of years the universe has been around, its insane to think we're the only ones now, and the only ones ever.