Are we alone?

It is possible that we don't have to go so far:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/150119-new-ninth-planet-solar-system-space/

I'll tell you what....I think we're getting really close to something amazing.  Finding saltwater on a moon around Saturn is pretty cool but there will be more to come soon I bet

Hopefully it is something amazing....but the realistic take on searching for life in soil samples in the movie Life does raise some eyebrows....i know that movie is fiction but if careful actions are not taken as we search or potentially discover things it could be catastrophic....similar to how actual research on bacteria and virus's at locations like the CDC could possibly create a virus that could eradicate life on earth if not contained.....or what if a crazy accident happens with the collider at CERN if something unexpected happens with dark matter or some other disastrous outcome

I think it would be cool to learn of life out there, but advances in science and understanding sometimes come with a little risk and some slight fear of that discovery opening doors to risks 

hope i explained that correctly

Like Ati stated we might have another life bearing "planet" in our own star system. 

Apart from a ninth planet there are other candidates:

- Europa is said to have a vast ocean under its frozen surface. Heated by Jupiters tidal forces

- Mars could harbor subterranean live. Maybe even on the surface when we consider earths extremophile microorganisms.

- Some scientists even think that life is also possible on Saturn's moon Titan. That however would need a different biochemistry than ours.

On earth life always found a way even under the worst  conditions. So is there life in "space"? My answer; for sure!

Alone? Maybe, or effectively so, and here's why.

Odds of an alien species existing roughly par with our own tech and evolutionary development, at the same time we exist, is pretty small. Chances are life out there is either pretty far behind us, or extremely far ahead of us.

Radio waves are slow, so maybe there's someone transmitting way out there, say 30 thousand light years and they only started ten thousand years ago. Distance, ionized interstellar gas clouds and many other natural phenomena could easily block or muddle such transmissions beyond comprehensibility.
If they are out there, and using very tight-beam laser and maser based communications, the odds of us catching anything of such transmissions is entirely random chance and extremely high odds.

They might have abandoned radio, maser and laser comms thousands of years ago and are using Quantum Entanglement Based comms which simply can not be detected by an external uninvolved listener (eg; SETI).

So, for all intents and purposes we're alone, there could be intelligent, tool-making life out there, but detecting them might prove to be a thin hair's-breadth from impossible.

Well its one of those things.

*Does Intelligent Life Exist elsewhere in the Universe, who knows we cant prove or disprove it but i would safely assume the answer is YES

*Will we ever find such Intelligent Life? i would have to say at the moment very very unlikely we would find them and more likely they would FIND US

*Have they already Found us? I would say this one is down to again everyone's own opinion have we or have we not, i guess Ultimate Proof only comes when we ourselves witness this in Person.

But if this is just the sighting of UFO's then we have to consider how do we know its 100% Alien.

As for non-intelligent lifeforms here in the solar system, I readily admit the possibility and likelihood of such, including the potential of silicon-based life on Venus.
Silicon-based bacteria thrive in the digestive tracts of the extremophile animals that live close to hydrthermal vents, where they perform beneficial actions in symbiosis with the carbon-based lifeform they live within.

STEVEROGERS1973 - No; we are not alone. The very nature of life demands it exist - and propogate. The fundamental value instilled within all living things by Mother Nature is the will to continue; and the only way to continue is through offspring. I do not believe we are unique to the galaxy we call home. However, I do believe sentient species are exceedingly rare. Additionally, I firmly believe in higher powers we cannot, and will not, comprehend. Awareness, your very soul, existed long before the ancient molecules that form your body came together. It will exist after you are no longer their custodian. Ask yourself "When did I begin?" Did you begin as reproductive cells carried by your mother and father? Did you begin as the reproductive cells that created them? Or did you perhaps begin as the basic elements that formed those cells? It all leads back to one thing: the absolute beginning of all things. The atoms which compose each us are countless billions of years old. So, too are the essences which give those atoms will. :)

Here is when i saw a Triangle UFO....

It was 1996 and i went to bed for a nap about 10:30PM maybe 11PM, and my bed was right next to my Window and my view was not blocked as i had a Large Field at the back of my Parents House, anyway i had the Window open and i started to try and nod off and i noticed  something that seemed to cast bit of light through my window or so it seemed i was half asleep a bit, but something made me look though the window and i noticed some lights in the back ground of the sky kind of 3 O'clock, and i laid back down then i decided to have another look at now the object was about 12 o'clock and so i laid my head down and thought Helicopter, then i realized i heard now sound and so had another look and could not see it, so i looked around and now i noticed distinctively at 10 o'clock a triangle of lights with one at the back blinking a Red/Orange the Rest a Amber/White.. And so i laid my head down again and thought "did i just see a UFO" so i looked again and it was gone.


It must have covered good 20-25 Miles in less than a Minute, then about 8 Minutes latter i heard Helicopter noises and then there was 3 distant Helicopters they sounded louder than normal ones and i would think they was about 3 Miles away, all following in Formation which broke a bit, until they disappeared into the distance, now these Helicopters took good 6-7 Minutes to cover the same area of sky but the Triangle Object i saw had covered it much faster and seemed more distant.

The Next day i said to my Friend you never get what i saw last night.... he stopped me and said dont tell me a UFO, i said yeah why did you see it.... he said NO but it was on the News Today and spotted few weeks back over the Dudley/Bridge North areas.

I cant say for sure if its a UFO, it was Silent and i would say it was maybe a Secret Military Aircraft, as there is a Military Air Base 25 Miles away thats one of the UK's Main Bases  (RAF Cosford) and a Place they Often more than others do Air Shows as its the UK Museum of Aircraft... I wander what else they have STORED there ;)

Years latter this Object has Coined the Nickname the Dudley Dorito and is one of the More Common Seen UFO's in the UK and not only in this Area but throughout the UK.

Here is what it looked like, just Triangle of 3 Amber/White Lights and a Red/Orange Light that Blinked On/Off but sometimes not appear at all.

Here is the Map of were i saw it from, the Orange Arrow is my Field of View looking ahead, the Circles A-D are the positions i saw the Object in and the Arrows are the Path the Military Choppers (I assume) had taken, and Labled AB in the Top Left Corner is the RAF Cosford Airbase.

Some Videos of Similar to what i saw, it was Dark and so i could not make out a Shape so i cant say it was Invisble at all.  The reports in the News Paper of another sighting Months latter in Day-light claimed it was a Black Triangle that just hovered in the Sky then it Sped off 2-3X as fast as a Airplane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XUlDXKiXMA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv2jVMoYhh0

BIGDAVE - How very incredible! I can only imagine the emotions and thoughts that swam through you during that instance! :)

BigDave

I do envy you the experience!! :)

UFOs, I'm just not sure about.
Do they exist? Yes, too much evidence to state otherwise.
Where do they come from?
I'm of the mind they're Test Vehicles from Military/Corporate projects.

Also our universe may not be the only universe as is the case of multi-dimensionality already a case study among astro-physicists around the world.

BigDave and Blackwinter-witch, yes too much evidence from antiquity up to present day, i have seen some aerial phenomena at night that has me scratching my noggin, they could be drone operaters as drone use has proliferated over the past few years or military projects, but we won't know until some sort of official disclosure(probably never happen) or they make world wide contact(probably never happen either).

MOON:

Created image showing the object and the pipe and the dish in the background:

airshaft_surprise

As always, we will see, what we see, when we see it.
But never say 'never'. ;)

@ATI

Indeed there have been some other things in images of the Moons and Mars, but i guess we may never really know for sure.

I have seen many strange thing in the sky, if you find a clear night and its better in the Winter and Clear and get to area with little or no Light Pollution so say in the Country and then just sit and watch the Stars, better with Binoculars and if you watch for 5 hours you are bound to see some strange things moving that are faster than Planes and Higher.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjWVTFAs9IM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRG6LQghYFw

I have seen often similar to these Videos... but they could be Satellites as we have many of them in Space, but i have now and again seen them like Move, Stop, Change Direction, Stop go in the opposite direction and Speed Off.

Which i guess rules out Satellites... But thats not to say they are UFO's

I have TWO Videos of unidentified things i can share if i find a site thats good to Share Stuff  (Not Youtube lol)

The Phobos Incident - 1989

/We are before the time of the Internet and the hoax factories.../

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4LArNlspjg

2014 - the Curiosity Rover on Mars sees this roughly for ten minutes: 

Yeah, there's a lot of oddities out there that shrug off simplistic explanation.
The thing I think that might be the real issue as to 'why they haven't contacted us' is perhaps they KNOW that when a more advanced civilization makes contact with a lesser-advanced civilization, it's VERY dangerous for the lesser-advanced or 'Juniour' civilization.

BLACKWINTER-WITCH - Much in the same way as Christopher Columbus and the Meso-Americans. :)

There is no way we're alone, the universe is way to big for that to be possible.

Something Real

Indeed. Also the Spanish in regards to Central and South America.
Speaking as a Native American, contact with a significantly more-advanced civilization is not a good thing.
So, in regards to wishing for First Contact with interstellar-capable civilizations, no matter how benign they might be, it will have some very serious and grave consequences for Humanity.
Case in point the 'Cargo Cult' islanders who considered aircraft and cargoplanes as gods or avatars of such.

So, maybe, they're trying to be as careful with us as they can be to avoid seriously disrupting our civilization??

BigDave That is an interesting story. In the early 90s I was outside on a break at work around 0230 and it was dark and quiet. I happened to look one way and a massive bright circular or spherical light flew almost directly overhead in a linear direction. I guessed it was well less than 1000 feet above and thought it was a helicopter with a huge spotlight but it was much faster, and like you said, there was no sound. I lost sight of it through some trees and waited around to hear something but nothing else happened. It sounds boring as an anecdote but was a strange experience trying to figure out what was seen. Not hearing it was the strangest part.

it's a fascinating subject and i have read all your comments with enjoyment. my father primed with me a lot of golden age UFO books when i was growing up in the late 70s/80s. i have nowhere near the level of obsession he had but i keep an eye on the sky now and then. being lucky enough to have spent a lot of time out bush in Australia when i worked there for a few years i saw some epic night skies without the light pollution. no UFOs i am aware of. maybe some of those shooting stars were something else.

personally, i find the idea plausible. it is supreme human arrogance to think we are alone in the universe(s). whether any advanced alien species would want anything to do with us is another matter. if i was an alien i think i would be more interested in hanging out with indigenous people who are in harmony with their environment. us 'advanced' people are turning into the Harkonens out of Dune.

How can we possibly be the Universe's only expression of self-awareness?

Endless space and boundless time imprison us. But I believe we will, as a species, "solve the problem of gravity" (as Dr Brandt says in Interstellar), and harness the power to bend spacetime, to take us anywhence in the Universe.

Of course, the natural question then is: if all that were possible, how comes no other beings have done it -- assuming the Universe is teeming with life?

Beats me!

not sure whats scarier. the thought of such an advanced species arriving on earth (which most scientists agree would be bad for us) or the fact that the chances are the first transmission they received from earth was an address by hitler

NASA seems to be announcing new discoveries at a pretty solid pace of late. 

We do not dedicate enough resources into exploring space.  Imagine what we could achieve if the all the nations of the world dedicated 1% of GDP to exploring space?  

Well the closeted we can get to traveling far is the same as Time Travel... Time Travel is not so far away once we master the Technology in the Alien Franchise..

What am i on about? 

Cryo-Sleep lol... yep if we can invent that where we can enter a Sleep Pod and Set the Timer and Wake up say in 200 years time, provided it can slow our aging down etc.. we could wake up in 200 years time not having aged much, only to us seeming like we also have only had a Nights Sleep yet wake up in 200 years time.... Technically thus a kind of Time Travel.

And so i think Cryo-sleep and renewable Energy are the most likely keys to Mankind Traveling into Deep Space, as opposed to breaking the Speed of Light.

But there are Theories, and if indeed we can break Mathematical Improbabilities and Laws of Psychics as we know, then indeed who knows what would be possible then.

I think you're right, the likelihood of there being more intelligent life in the universe is fairly high.  And I think you're also right that they most likely haven't been able to find us due to the fairly short time we've been apart of this universe.  And they probably never will.  We are pretty secluded in terms of intelligent life surrounding our galaxy.  Even if we could travel near the speed of light, we would most likely die before we could get to anywhere with intelligent life.  So until some alien race invents light speed/near light speed travel and can preserve themselves long enough to reach us, we will probably never find intelligent life.  We also have to take into account that it took billions of years for us to evolve from single called organisms into humans... nearly 1/3 of the age of the universe.  So it's possible that somewhere in the universe, an intelligent alien species got big head starts in terms of evolution.  Yet they're still not here.  When you add in the fact that an earth-like planet most likely has the highest chance of spawning life, it's looking more and more like whatever alien species is out there somewhere, they're probably in a similar position as us, in that it took them billions of years to evolve into a species that has fairly basic space travel technology.

Or unless either us or some alien race discovers the secret to immortality, we will probably never meet intelligent life.  Contact is a different case, and has a substantially higher chance of happening.

Maybe we are alone for a good reason:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSZkh8cCpgI

@Dirtwolf

Indeed that is a good point, there could have been for example Life similar to our own say 100LY or so away that was there Billions of Years ago but is not there no more.. There World could now be as Baron as the Moon and been like this for say Over a Billion years before Life Began on Earth.

Or such Worlds could be destroyed by their Sun's going Super Nova.

In  say a 500 Million Years who knows what the Earth would be like, it could be a Baron World too, certainly as we get closer to a Billion years in the future and so indeed Life could start some place else after Life on Earth is long gone.

@DK

;)