160 Billion Planets in the Milky Way?

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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May 9, 2000
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It seems like just a few years ago scientists were looking for proof of any planets circling stars and now the prognosis is at least 160 Billion planets are out there in the Milky Way. If you were feeling the slightest bit lonely in the galaxy, get over it. :D

"We used to think that the Earth might be unique in our galaxy, but now it seems that there are literally billions of planets with masses similar to Earth orbiting stars in the Milky Way."
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Pretty cool for sure, I'm with a large number of people that thinks we aren't the only intelligent life in this whole massive thing we're in. I don't think anyone has really been abducted like some claim, and I don't think we have alien ships from the Roswell incident, etc. but I do think there is other life out there, and at some point we will make contact with them in our future.

It's nearly impossible for there not to be other life forms out there, even though most religious nuts claim it is. But religions also say there are god where there is no proof, so this is really one in the same I suppose. Haha

Maybe one of these days we will find a way to start trying to send little signals to these planets to see if anyone is actually there, and maybe some day we will find a way to actually get to these planets. That would be pretty nifty, at least in my honest opinion. I hope scientists keep advancing technology to the point that this will be possible.
 
jctusmc03 said:
Pretty cool for sure, I'm with a large number of people that thinks we aren't the only intelligent life in this whole massive thing we're in. I don't think anyone has really been abducted like some claim, and I don't think we have alien ships from the Roswell incident, etc. but I do think there is other life out there, and at some point we will make contact with them in our future.

It's nearly impossible for there not to be other life forms out there, even though most religious nuts claim it is. But religions also say there are god where there is no proof, so this is really one in the same I suppose. Haha

Maybe one of these days we will find a way to start trying to send little signals to these planets to see if anyone is actually there, and maybe some day we will find a way to actually get to these planets. That would be pretty nifty, at least in my honest opinion. I hope scientists keep advancing technology to the point that this will be possible.
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Basically what he said

So many option something must be out there
 
jctusmc03 said:
Pretty cool for sure, I'm with a large number of people that thinks we aren't the only intelligent life in this whole massive thing we're in. I don't think anyone has really been abducted like some claim, and I don't think we have alien ships from the Roswell incident, etc. but I do think there is other life out there, and at some point we will make contact with them in our future.

It's nearly impossible for there not to be other life forms out there, even though most religious nuts claim it is. But religions also say there are god where there is no proof, so this is really one in the same I suppose. Haha

Maybe one of these days we will find a way to start trying to send little signals to these planets to see if anyone is actually there, and maybe some day we will find a way to actually get to these planets. That would be pretty nifty, at least in my honest opinion. I hope scientists keep advancing technology to the point that this will be possible.
Click to expand...

Look up Drake equation. Even with very favorable parameters, the estimates of civilizations in our galaxy are very slim at best and approach close to zero with parameters that are less favorable. So while life might be a whole lot more abundant, I think the general idea is that we should consider ourselves beyond lucky.

As for the mention of God, what does the Big Bang theory state? That there was a point of creation. Well, something must have spawned the point of creation, no? Think about it.
 
krogen said:
Look up Drake equation. Even with very favorable parameters, the estimates of civilizations in our galaxy are very slim at best and approach close to zero with parameters that are less favorable. So while life might be a whole lot more abundant, I think the general idea is that we should consider ourselves beyond lucky.

As for the mention of God, what does the Big Bang theory state? That there was a point of creation. Well, something must have spawned the point of creation, no? Think about it.
Click to expand...

I'd say string theory has surpassed the big bang theory. From my understanding the big bang has all but basically been put aside since cause was never addressed. Then again I'm an armchair physics idiot so who knows. :D
 
krogen said:
Look up Drake equation. Even with very favorable parameters, the estimates of civilizations in our galaxy are very slim at best and approach close to zero with parameters that are less favorable. So while life might be a whole lot more abundant, I think the general idea is that we should consider ourselves beyond lucky.

As for the mention of God, what does the Big Bang theory state? That there was a point of creation. Well, something must have spawned the point of creation, no? Think about it.
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Oh, I consider myself very lucky for sure, don't think that I don't by what I said.

I know that life is a minority in this massive thing we're a part of, and I'm very thankful for it.

The big bang theory states basically that everything that is came from an infinitely small, infinitely dense mass of "something" and gave birth to everything that is in all of space and time basically. As for what caused this, or where it came from I, and all of the scientists trying to figure it out that are much smarter than I have no idea.

Yes, there is a possibility that there is/are god/s. I'm just a realist and I focus only on what has been proven to be there, if sometime in the future it's proven there is a god I will devote much much more energy to that, but for the time being there isn't one to me based on the evidence I can see, feel, and read about. Hell, I wouldn't believe in wind, or rain if I couldn't feel it. I wouldn't believe we're all floating on super hot magma and the only thing separating us from it is a few miles or earth if I hadn't seen a volcano before. It's just the way my mind has always worked.

But I don't want to turn this into a god thread when this is about planets, so I'll shut my dirty whorish mouth now.

Yay, new planets! ET?! :D
 
jctusmc03 said:
I'm just a realist and I focus only on what has been proven to be there
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The trouble is, the things that we commonly refer to as "true" are not true at all. They have holes. Classical physics does not explain the whole picture. It works "reasonably well" on this planet. The same thing can be said about all laws or theories that came afterwards.

So, if you're a realist, which position do you take if none of the current physical laws truly work?

A certain law might work in case x, y, and z with enough accuracy that we can determine. However, as it always eventually happens, things fall apart in another case which was either unknown or not taken account of in the beginning.

You can't say that you believe in what has been proven. It hasn't.
 
krogen said:
Look up Drake equation. Even with very favorable parameters, the estimates of civilizations in our galaxy are very slim at best and approach close to zero with parameters that are less favorable. So while life might be a whole lot more abundant, I think the general idea is that we should consider ourselves beyond lucky.

As for the mention of God, what does the Big Bang theory state? That there was a point of creation. Well, something must have spawned the point of creation, no? Think about it.
Click to expand...

Using Drakes Equation and plugging in the lowest numbers, i came up with
about 500 total in our galaxy.

Those are tiny needles in a vast haystack.

Check out the calculator.
http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious/Topics/seti/drake_equation.html
 
krogen said:
The trouble is, the things that we commonly refer to as "true" are not true at all. They have holes. Classical physics does not explain the whole picture. It works "reasonably well" on this planet. The same thing can be said about all laws or theories that came afterwards.

So, if you're a realist, which position do you take if none of the current physical laws truly work?

A certain law might work in case x, y, and z with enough accuracy that we can determine. However, as it always eventually happens, things fall apart in another case which was either unknown or not taken account of in the beginning.

You can't say that you believe in what has been proven. It hasn't.
Click to expand...

One can only deal with the knowledge they have at any given time.
 
krogen said:
Look up Drake equation. Even with very favorable parameters, the estimates of civilizations in our galaxy are very slim at best and approach close to zero with parameters that are less favorable. So while life might be a whole lot more abundant, I think the general idea is that we should consider ourselves beyond lucky.

As for the mention of God, what does the Big Bang theory state? That there was a point of creation. Well, something must have spawned the point of creation, no? Think about it.
Click to expand...

Drake's equation is widely considered interesting ..but pure guess work and not a actual good mathematical basis.

Of course there is life out there , there is also complex life. Even if there was only 5-10 advanced civilizations like ours in each galaxy .. that 's (based on the rough estimate of 200 billion Galaxies in the visable Universe) about 1,400,000,000,000 different civilizations possibly. Meaning a vastly endlessly ocean of advanced life forms filling the void.

To believe that we're the only game in town is out right ignorance but until we have facts we can (just for the moment) only wonder.
 
Godmachine said:
Drake's equation is widely considered interesting ..but pure guess work and not a actual good mathematical basis.

Of course there is life out there , there is also complex life. Even if there was only 5-10 advanced civilizations like ours in each galaxy .. that 's (based on the rough estimate of 200 billion Galaxies in the visable Universe) about 1,400,000,000,000 different civilizations possibly. Meaning a vastly endlessly ocean of advanced life forms filling the void.

To believe that we're the only game in town is out right ignorance but until we have facts we can (just for the moment) only wonder.
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Everything is guesswork, when it comes to the universe.
 
I blame Einstein, assuming his theories hold, and are 'the truth' then in a sense, we are screwed, unless we find neighbors real, real close, (and I think the closest things are quite far) even communication with light would have a 'ping' measured in years, hundreds, thousands.
A visit is out of the question, unless its a flying city, capable of traveling thousands of years.
I mean we really need to change a lot has a society to become space explorers, not saying we can't, but it would be a totally different outlook for humanity that would have to last thousands upon thousands of years.
 
Scientists have already found something that is FTL so who knows what *May* be possible? Lets assume there are only 5 intelligent civilizations in our galaxy. Now lets ponder "What IF" 1 of those Civ's managed to avoid 2-3 planetary resets (think civ ending meteors, untimely ice ages etc). That civ could easily be several hundred million years old by now, thus they could have some pretty high end tech. They could also have visited quite a number of places in this galaxy. Now I am not saying I agree we have examples of their tech! I will say that I would be pretty suprised if they had not dropped by and looked us over on a few occasions. Pure speculation of course, but still interesting.
 
krogen said:
The trouble is, the things that we commonly refer to as "true" are not true at all. They have holes. Classical physics does not explain the whole picture. It works "reasonably well" on this planet. The same thing can be said about all laws or theories that came afterwards.

So, if you're a realist, which position do you take if none of the current physical laws truly work?

A certain law might work in case x, y, and z with enough accuracy that we can determine. However, as it always eventually happens, things fall apart in another case which was either unknown or not taken account of in the beginning.

You can't say that you believe in what has been proven. It hasn't.
Click to expand...

Everything has holes in it, just like my dad's condom when he got my mom pregnant. :p

Yeah, physics doesn't cover everything, but our civilization is also still learning. I mean, just in the past 200 years look what we've learned and accomplished. Those all came from educated guess work that came from knowledge that we've learned over time, that knowledge was learned from trial and error. The future of our race will continue to do far into the future, of that I'm certain. Nothing is ever for sure in this life, at least in what I've learned in my short time on this earth thus far. There is a hole in nearly everything out there, even the stuff we have learned and think is 100% solid and constant. At some time in the future someone will find a way to get around it, or disprove it. It's the same thing that's been happening throughout our entire existence. We used to think flying like birds was impossible, we used to think the ocean just led to the end of the earth and you fell off, we used to think mechanized horses were impossible, etc. As as there is a crazy scientist somewhere who is willing to devote his entire life to proving something wrong, or to making something better there is always a way. In my honest opinion, nothing is impossible in this world, it's just not possible with the knowledge and technology you have at that time, give it a few hundred years or even less and watch what will happen to that impossibility. ;)
 
jctusmc03 said:
Yes, there is a possibility that there is/are god/s. I'm just a realist and I focus only on what has been proven to be there, if sometime in the future it's proven there is a god I will devote much much more energy to that, but for the time being there isn't one to me based on the evidence I can see, feel, and read about. Hell, I wouldn't believe in wind, or rain if I couldn't feel it. I wouldn't believe we're all floating on super hot magma and the only thing separating us from it is a few miles or earth if I hadn't seen a volcano before. It's just the way my mind has always worked.
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Even if there are beings out there with 'god-like' powers, it would just be considered as an advanced species and not in any way be classified as a 'god' in any religious definition. Think of 'Q' in star trek. Is he an all powerful omnicient being? yes. Is he a god? Philosophically, yes. Is he Yahweh/Allah/Zeus? Hardly.
 
One thing I never understood about all the estimates about there being life or not is why does it always have to be about an environment similar to ours? Planets that could sustain human life could most likely house other creatures. In any case, even though we don't have proof of life out there, the odds are too massive to believe we are alone.
 
A some point in the scheme of time, one planet must have been the first to develop intelligent life. It's entirely possible we are the first.
 
krogen said:
Look up Drake equation. Even with very favorable parameters, the estimates of civilizations in our galaxy are very slim at best and approach close to zero with parameters that are less favorable. So while life might be a whole lot more abundant, I think the general idea is that we should consider ourselves beyond lucky.

As for the mention of God, what does the Big Bang theory state? That there was a point of creation. Well, something must have spawned the point of creation, no? Think about it.
Click to expand...

And something(one) had to create god.
 
Ehren8879 said:
A some point in the scheme of time, one planet must have been the first to develop intelligent life. It's entirely possible we are the first.
Click to expand...

There's also the matter of chronological perspective. Any equation will give you a finite number of possible sentient producing environments. But considering that earth's total existence wouldn't even be classified as a 'blink' in the cosmic timeline. Do the numbers given off by those equations apply to just this very instant? Or does it apply to all time? Because there would be a lot more non-human sentient species if you think about all that time before we humans came about.
 
I've always thought about life outside our solar system as follows:

We're at a point where soon on the astrological scale, we will almost certainly know whether we are alone or not. Scientist are already capable of knowing whether a planet is in the hospitable zone of a solar system, and are very close to having technology, and in some cases already do, that can tell if an atmosphere is rich in water, which is a requirement for intelligent life as we know it.

If there are other intelligent civilizations out there that are even a few thousand years more advanced that we are, they probably already know we are here. That be the case, if they were capable of coming here and were set to destroy us, it likely would of happened already.

Now, if they were here secretly visiting, we wouldn't know it. If they had the technology to travel light years through space, they have the technology to be invisible to us. I highly doubt any technology of traveling between stars level of sophistication goes through bouts of operation errors, making them appear to humans, and on the cover of World Weekly News, right next to the headline "Kim Kardashians Butt Explodes".

To close, I know it sounds silly but in Star Trek they have what is called "The Prime Directive", which prevents interfering with civilizations that are not yet capable of detecting life outside their planet, and space travel. I wouldn't be surprised if something like that really is happening if there are others out there watching us.
 
next-Jin said:
I'd say string theory has surpassed the big bang theory. From my understanding the big bang has all but basically been put aside since cause was never addressed. Then again I'm an armchair physics idiot so who knows. :D
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No. Firstly, string theory is not a replacement for the big bang. Secondly, the big bang theory has made testable predictions, string theory has not.

Signed,
The Astrophysicist
 
Wake up people, there are no aliens.

If there were then God would have sent his son to save their people as well. The Bible doesn't say anything like that so we can infer that there are no aliens. The universe was created solely for us.
 
If there are intelligent beings out there more advanced then us, I hope we never meet them. Think of all the nasty shit we've done to "primitives" on this planet....now imagine what would happen if our galactic big brother stopped by for a visit. If we had something they wanted, there would be no hope.
I'm sure there are plenty of resources out in the universe, so its not like they would want our oil. However one thing that this planet does have that seems to be lacking in the rest of space is biological diversity. So who knows, maybe they would classify earth as a nature preserve of some sort. Either way, if E.T. shows up at our doorstep it would be a serious game changer; whether that is a good or a bad thing depends entirely on E.T.

BUT...
Advanced technology brings along with it many dangers. Weapons of mass destruction, antibiotic resistant bacteria, crazy new viruses, A.I., and etc. All this provides plenty of ways for a civilization to off themselves unintentionally. So my personal view is that right around the time a species gets advanced enough to seriously consider exploring space, they get waxed by their own creation. Because unless they can unite as a species, all it takes is one fanatical nut-job to get his hands on a W.M.D and send everyone back into the stone age. Not to mention all the "natural" dangers that lurk in space (comets, meteors, gamma-bursts, solar flares, etc etc). Over the course of the thousands of years required for a species to advance they could easily encounter some extinction level disaster. Just think of the dinosaurs, and all the extinction events we've had on our own planet.

Do I think intelligent life exists? Absolutely. Do I think more then one intelligent species exists at the same time? Well, that's the real question, because the window of "contact", where two species technologies coincide could be very very short if you factor in the above.
 
Vathral said:
One thing I never understood about all the estimates about there being life or not is why does it always have to be about an environment similar to ours? Planets that could sustain human life could most likely house other creatures. In any case, even though we don't have proof of life out there, the odds are too massive to believe we are alone.
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I too have thought this, we have even on our own earth species that live in environments that humans would easily perish in, so it's very possible there could be other species out there that live in and thrive in a much worse environments than we are used to living in.

Ehren8879 said:
A some point in the scheme of time, one planet must have been the first to develop intelligent life. It's entirely possible we are the first.
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Definitely possible. What if other species out there are stuck technology wise where we were 100's if not thousands of years ago and are not advancing from that point because they aren't smart enough or just don't have the resources on their planets for it. This is entirely possible.

Lebowski said:
And something(one) had to create god.
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No, god just came to be, silly.

tacosareveryyummy said:
Wake up people, there are no aliens.

If there were then God would have sent his son to save their people as well. The Bible doesn't say anything like that so we can infer that there are no aliens. The universe was created solely for us.
Click to expand...

:D
 
krogen said:
As for the mention of God, what does the Big Bang theory state? That there was a point of creation. Well, something must have spawned the point of creation, no? Think about it.
Click to expand...
Please, we don't need obvious fallacy floating around here. What created god? Same question with a different name.
 
tacosareveryyummy said:
Wake up people, there are no aliens.

If there were then God would have sent his son to save their people as well. The Bible doesn't say anything like that so we can infer that there are no aliens. The universe was created solely for us.
Click to expand...


The existence of God doesn't imply we are alone. A being like that would exist outside of time and space, allowing infinite opportunity to seed other species. Don't forget the Bible is a book written by and tailored for our species. Alien species would most certainly have their own book with their own accounts. We could very well be the only beings in this reality, but that doesn't mean there aren't other beings in other realities all with the same God.
Also, implying he only has one son is a bit narrow. You're looking at it from a human perspective where one item can be in only one place at any given time....but a God could exist everywhere at the same time. Jesus could have many names on many planets all throughout the universe in the future and in the past all while still being the only "son" of God, and all while still being "one" entity.
 
I like to think a few of those planets have animals flying space ships fighters with guns.

snin_2_dsc_0319_r.jpg
 
Planets with similar mass to ours does not equate to life.
There are many, many, many conditions that need to be met just for the conditions of life to exist, let alone spontaneous generation occurring. (Which hasn't ever been demonstrated.)
 
Goty said:
No. Firstly, string theory is not a replacement for the big bang. Secondly, the big bang theory has made testable predictions, string theory has not.

Signed,
The Astrophysicist
Click to expand...
^THIS

Enthropy > Gravity = Expansion
Enthropy < Gravity = Contraction

Result?

The Universe always has been, always will be... constantly in a flux of rebirth, growth, contraction, death and repeat (or so one Theory says).
 
What most people know colloquially as the Big Bang Theory has evolved in to something called inflation. Quantum cosmology does not replace it.

There are literally billions of different combinations of living conditions in our galaxy alone, and I think the 160 billion planet estimate is a pretty low one. Estimates put the number of stars at 200-400 billion, and it's not exactly uncommon for stars to have several planets to themselves. So there's a mind bogglingly large number of environmental combinations, and if you know some basic biochem you'll realize that the primary components of organic chemistry (nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen and carbon) are all on the top 10 most abundant elements in the universe. Not hard to imagine that they'll start combining in to organic compounds on one of the 21489153913148913 possible planet setups out there. Organic compounds form, then become very basic cell/virus setups, and over time develop in to ever increasingly complex biological machines.
 
jctusmc03 said:
Pretty cool for sure, I'm with a large number of people that thinks we aren't the only intelligent life in this whole massive thing we're in. I don't think anyone has really been abducted like some claim, and I don't think we have alien ships from the Roswell incident, etc. but I do think there is other life out there, and at some point we will make contact with them in our future.

It's nearly impossible for there not to be other life forms out there, even though most religious nuts claim it is. But religions also say there are god where there is no proof, so this is really one in the same I suppose. Haha

Maybe one of these days we will find a way to start trying to send little signals to these planets to see if anyone is actually there, and maybe some day we will find a way to actually get to these planets. That would be pretty nifty, at least in my honest opinion. I hope scientists keep advancing technology to the point that this will be possible.
Click to expand...

From a mathematical perspective, intelligent life outside of ours (though some would debate said intelligence) is a virtual certainty.
 
I'm certain there are other planets with humans and dinosaurs (not living at the same time necessarily). If there are other planets like Earth then those planets would have similar evolutionary favoritism towards mammals and reptiles just like Earth did. I think the emergence of dinosaurs, apes and eventually humans is unavoidable, assuming there is no extinction event. That's simply how evolution on Earth type planets goes, it doesn't change how it works just because you move the planet to another location.
 
TheWeazmeister said:
From a mathematical perspective, intelligent life outside of ours (though some would debate said intelligence) is a virtual certainty.
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Yep, I agree. But I've always leaned towards something not being there until I've seen believable proof of it. Maybe in my lifetime I will, maybe not...I cannot really say for sure.

ir0nw0lf said:
...and any inhabited ones are already tired of Snooky. :eek:
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Isn't every living thing?
 
It gives you a hope of a great civilization out there than can vastly improve our lives the way Europeans improved the lives of native Americans after alien Europeans discovered America. Here comes civilization!
 
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