• Question: do you believe that there are more creatures to be discovered in the whole entire universe????

    Asked by anon-217582 to Joanna on 10 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: Joanna Huang

      Joanna Huang answered on 10 Jun 2019:

      Yes absolutely. I think that there are other creatures living in some far, far away galaxy, that we probably won’t come into contact with because the universe is just WAY too big! Humans also haven’t existed for very long, so even if we were to someday discover them (or be discovered) it’s very unlikely that it would be so soon. There is an actual equation calculation the probability of us running into another intelligent species (called the Drake Equation), and the chances are super super low.

Comments

  • Photo: Harrison

    Harrison commented on :

    Yes! There are a 100 billion stars in the Milky Way. And, now, we know that a large fraction of them have planetary systems. There are at least a 100 billion galaxies in the known universe. That’s perhaps, 10,000 billion billion stars. Let’s say only 1 in 100,000 billion stars have Earth-like planets around them. Then, if my arithmetic is correct, we have a 100 million Earth’s out there. I find it inconceivable that only one of these “Earths” harbour life. If so, we need to make sure we don’t destroy ourselves so that we can reach out to our fellow creatures out there, who are likely to be as isolated as we are and are wondering if they are alone. If, on the other hand, Earth is the only place with life in the known universe, it would be monstrous crime against Nature for us to destroy ourselves since we are so extraordinarily precious.

  • Photo: Edoardo

    Edoardo commented on :

    Yes, why not?
    Adding to the answers above, life could well be in different forms than that on Earth. We are essentially a big chain of carbon atoms that contains litres and litres of water. As such, we adapt to live at a certain temperature, pressure and air. You can imagine another chemistry based on silicon chains and liquid ammonia that prefers a different environment, for instance deep underground instead of the planet’s surface.
    Even more, will you call artificial intelligence a sort of life? Living beings tend to keep a certain order inside and give birth to similar creatures. If you like this definition, then maybe there exist civilisations of robots that are based on electricity rather than water and food. Instead of having DNA — the part of cells that carry information in humans, animals and plants — they may carry a sort of hard disk like our computers.
    As you see, there is plenty of possibilities that make alien life — in whatever form — more credible.