Probability of Life Outside this Planet
Hubble observing a tiny patch of sky seeing approximately 10,000 galaxies.
Life Outside Planet Earth:
“Based on what we think the odds are for life starting on this planet, and based on what we know about the abundance of galaxies in outer space, the probability of life existing outside this planet is greater than the probability of life existing on this planet.” [Chuck Zukowski]
In 1961 Frank Drake an astronomer and UFO enthusiast, developed a comprehensive equation called “The Drake Equation” to determine the probability life could exist outside this planet. His equation consisted of the following:
- R*: How fast stars form in our galaxy.
- fp: The percentage of stars that have planets.
- ne: The number of earthlike planets around each star that has planets.
- fl: The percentage of earthlike planets that develop life.
- fi: The percentage of planets with life that develop intelligent life.
- fc: The percentage of intelligent species that go on to create technology that could be detected by an outside civilization like ours. One example of this is radio signals.
- L: The average number of years the advanced civilizations release detectable signals.
Today using what information we know about our current galaxy the Milky Way, Drake’s Equation gives us about 140,000 species like us living in our galaxy alone! In a 2014 article from Space.com, Mario Livio an astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore stated there are 100 billion galaxies that we know of, and with better telescopes, we’ll probably see 100 billion more.
Out of all the galaxies, our galaxy is the most typical with hundreds of billions of stars, and enough dust particles and gas to make billions more. Two-thirds of the known galaxies like our Milky Way galaxy have a spiral shape, other galaxies have elliptical shapes and some have a multitude of unusual shapes, but the spiral shape is the most common.
The most common galaxy could harbor over 140,000 species.
If the most common is at least 51% out of all known galaxies, then 51 billion galaxies out of the 100 billion that we know of, could each harbor at least 100,400 species based on the Drake Equation. Even if they don’t and may only harbor 1% life, then we’re still looking at 1000 species multiplied by 51 billion galaxies or 1 Trillion similar species living in galaxies that we are aware of.
Space Travel:
Wikipedia: A wormhole or Einstein-Rosen Bridge is a hypothetical topological feature that would fundamentally be a shortcut connecting two separate points in space-time. A wormhole, in theory, might be able to connect extremely far distances such as a billion light years or more, short distances such as a few feet, different universes, and different points in time. A wormhole is much like a tunnel with two ends, each at separate points in space-time.
Science says it’s highly unlikely, yet possible to use a wormhole for travel, but as we get smarter and science matures, we may find a way. Scientist James Flynn, PhD, of the University of Otago in New Zealand had discovered that over the past 100 years, Americans’ average IQ has been on a steady climb. Between 1900 and 2012, American’s IQ have rose nearly 30 points, which means the average person back in 2012 had a higher IQ than 95 percent of the population in 1900.
Today technology like laptops, cell phones, and other advanced electronics will most likely boost our IQ even quicker, which will get us that much closer to understanding the use of Wormholes for travel, or folding space or other forms of travel.
The speed of light:
For the past few decades and even today, some scientists are allowing themselves to be bound to the “Speed of Light’ rule at 186,000 miles per second for space travel. Everything currently on this planet that pertains to travel uses the thought process that, “To go from point A to point B, it will take you X amount of time traveling at Y speed”. That’s OK for Earth travel, but what about space travel?
The “Speed of Light” measures distance, but the “Light Year” measures both time and distance. The “Light Year” measures the distance light can travel in one Earth year. The closest star system to Earth is Alpha Centauri which is 4.22 light years away. If you remember the TV show, “Lost in Space”, the Robinson Family mission was to establish a colony on a planet orbiting one of the stars in the Alpha Centauri system until Dr. Smith screwed things up. (But that’s another story.)
This year NASA reported after working off fours years’ worth of data from the Kepler space telescope, researchers from NASA, the SETI Institute and several universities, announced the findings of a new exoplanet along with 12 possible habitable other exoplanets and 500 new candidates. The new planet, named Kepler 452b is the closest twin to Earth found yet nicknamed, “Earth 2.0”. About 1,400 light years away, it lies in a habitable zone the same distance to its sun as we are to ours. It’s sun compared to ours is 1.5 billion years older, which means this planet has been around a lot longer that ours. So if humans have been on this planet for about 200,000 years and within the last century we’ve been able to increase our IQs by 30 points, then what about Earth 2.0 that’s been around longer? If intelligent life exists there, what’s their IQ now?
Remember their intelligent life wouldn’t have gone through the same social evolutionary process as ours. Instead of focusing on chastising those in the past with new and wonderful ideas like we did, they may have embraced those like Copernicus or Da Vinci and given them the support needed to expand on their ideas. And instead of investing so much energy and resources on war-like projects for battle, they could have focused their energy on research and exploration. Where would we be now if we did that back in the 1600s?
Intelligent life exists outside this planet there’s no denying that, the question is, “Could they be visiting us?” High technology crafts have been seen throughout history and are still being seen today flying around while defying modern physics as we know it. Who and what are they and where are they coming from? Some researchers/investigators say from other planets, some say from our future, some say its military top secret technology, but our Native Americans say different, they say Star Travelers have been seen for centuries.
Now the Speed of Light may be our constant, but speed may not be the only form of travel. Wormhole Travel, or some-type of “Star Gate” apparatuses may exist that solves the distances issue, and it will only take time until our species matures enough to understand it. Remember compared to the dinosaurs who lived on this planet for at least 135 million years, we are the adolescents with only 200,000 years and still in the learning phase. If other planet’s human-like creatures got a jump on us, then they could be at the point of technology where they can see long distances and travel from star system to star system. It’s not voodoo, its just science.
So the next time you look through a telescope at the stars, stop for a moment and think, is there someone looking back at me, and if so, are they looking at me from their planet, or from their space ship?
References:
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-drake-equation-exoplanets-and-alien-life-2015-1 http://www.space.com/25303-how-many-galaxies-are-in-the-universe.html
http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-are-galaxies/
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2013/03/smarter.aspx
Category: In the News, The Z-Files
