• Question: Wow! Loads of scientists! I was wondering, does anyone think there is other life out there?

    Asked by Manga_Fox on 19 May 2020.
    • Photo: Sonia Lenehan

      Sonia Lenehan answered on 19 May 2020:

      Hi Manga_Fox! Yes I think there may be life out there but it may be in the form of bacteria or other micro organisms! It is interesting and there is loads still to explore.

    • Photo: Jean O'Dwyer

      Jean O'Dwyer answered on 19 May 2020:

      I definitely do anyway! The universe is so unimaginably big that it would an awful waste of space if we were the only lifeforms hanging around

    • Photo: Mark Kennedy

      Mark Kennedy answered on 19 May 2020: last edited 19 May 2020 2:44 pm

      Yeah, I think there probably is. However, I have no idea how advanced that life might be. There’s a lot of research going on in this area, from trying to look for signs of intelligent life using radio telescopes (google SETI) to theoreticians and statisticians trying to make arguments about how likely it is that a civilisation could survive long enough to develop the required technology to contact other solar systems (let alone trying to develop interstellar travel).

      The main problem is that there are many arguments you can make which will say “life does not exist other than on Earth” such as the supernova rate in galaxies is high enough that life is wiped off of planets very quickly, or massive meteor impacts keep resetting the biological clock (we’re overdue one of these of course), and there are just as many arguments which suggest life should exist such as there are so many planets, we statistically cannot be the only one. Truth is, until we make contact, they make contact, or we confirm that every planet in every solar system is uninhabited, we’ll never be able to say for certain.

      But I believe.

    • Photo: Aruna Chandrasekar

      Aruna Chandrasekar answered on 19 May 2020:

      Yes! I do believe that the universe is so vast that there is definitely life outside of earth. I hope to meet them sometime 🙂

    • Photo: Simon Spichak

      Simon Spichak answered on 19 May 2020:

      I think the probability is in favour of other life in the universe, though it may end up being microscopic or in another form that we may even have trouble recognizing! I mean until 1977, we didn’t even know that there another Kingdom of Life here on Earth – Archaebacteria (https://www.the-scientist.com/foundations/discovering-archaea-1977-37878). I don’t know if we will find other intelligent life, we tend to underestimate living things around us. I mean, who would have thought that a goofy looking sea creature could be incredibly smart (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-mind-of-an-octopus/)?

    • Photo: Jun Lin

      Jun Lin answered on 20 May 2020:

      I do believe there is other life somewhere in the universe, even some smarter beings out there.

    • Photo: Aisling Ryan

      Aisling Ryan answered on 20 May 2020:

      Great question and a very popular topic! I definitely believe there is life outside of Earth. I think there are lots of things that we are completely unaware of- science is so diverse and complicated. Anything is possible until proven not possible, and even then it still counts as a discovery!
      Something I find fascinating is that although scientists have discovered around 1.7 million species of plants, they believe that there are still over 5 million species of plants that we still haven’t discovered! I think that is crazy. Medicine is often derived from parts of plants, so imagine if the treatments for a lot of diseases are just waiting to be discovered among these 5 MILLION undiscovered plant species! I think the same can be said for life outside of Earth. Trying to get this sort of ‘undiscovered’ information outside of our planet is a lot trickier so I think it is definitely possible that life outside Earth exists, it is just very difficult, expensive and time consuming to gather such evidence! The proof that life can exist on Mars is just the beginning of a lot of possible future discoveries!

    • Photo: Fiona Malone

      Fiona Malone answered on 21 May 2020:

      Think there probably is… it’s hard to think we are the only lifeforms out there.

    • Photo: Roisin Jones

      Roisin Jones answered on 29 May 2020:

      I think it’s definitely possible! The universe is absolute massive (beyond our ability to comprehend really) and the conditions for life are sure to exist out there somewhere. Whether there’s other sentient life is something I can’t make up my mind on….maybe someday we’ll find out

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