PDA

View Full Version : Life on other planets

KathleenStand
03-08-2006, 05:50 PM
To me it seems obvious there must be life on other planets. What the really interesting question is, what form will that life take? Will it be carbon based? Will it evolve? Is natural selection a must for life? In what ways could it be different? How would it be socially? Would it be social? Would it die?
billygrippo
03-08-2006, 05:54 PM
if you have seen cosmos, Sagen talks about life forms that he suspects could live on a gas giant.

some info here (http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/J/Jupiterlife.html) .

also that web site is really cool. i found myself reading it for hours.
CORed
03-08-2006, 06:14 PM
[ QUOTE ]
To me it seems obvious there must be life on other planets. What the really interesting question is, what form will that life take? Will it be carbon based? Will it evolve? Is natural selection a must for life? In what ways could it be different? How would it be socially? Would it be social? Would it die?

[/ QUOTE ]

I seems highly unlikely to me that the Earth is the only place in the entire universe where life has arisen. However, all questions about life in other places (I am intentionally not limiting this to planets) bring us back to a fundamental problem. Insufficient sample size. So far, the only place that we know of that has life is our planet. This makes it difficult to answer questions about what other forms of life might be possible. However, I think, once life develops, natural selection and evolution must operate. However, if the life in some other place has a genetic system that is less prone to mutation than ours, it might evolve more slowly.
bunny
03-08-2006, 06:14 PM
[ QUOTE ]
To me it seems obvious there must be life on other planets. What the really interesting question is, what form will that life take? Will it be carbon based? Will it evolve? Is natural selection a must for life? In what ways could it be different? How would it be socially? Would it be social? Would it die?

[/ QUOTE ]
It doesnt seem obvious to me - in fact I doubt there is life on other planets. If there were I think it wouldnt necessarily be carbon based, it would evolve, natural selection would have to occur, it could be different in uncountable ways (including possibly being social) and it would die.