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THIS is fascinating - it's rather dazzling

to see it presented this way.







I CERTAINLY THOUGHT THIS WAS ENLIGHTENING.

BEYOND OUR SUN IT'S A BIG UNIVERSE.





ANTARES IS THE 15 TH BRIGHTEST STAR IN THE SKY.

IT IS MORE THAN 1000 LIGHT YEARS AWAY.

NOW, HOW BIG ARE YOU?


NOW, TRY TO WRAP YOUR MIND AROUND THIS...

THIS IS A HUBBLE TELESCOPE ULTRA DEEP FIELD

INFRARED VIEW OF COUNTLESS 'ENTIRE' GALAXIES

BILLIONS OF LIGHT-YEARS AWAY.



BELOW IS A CLOSE-UP OF ONE

OF THE DARKEST REGIONS OF THE PHOTO ABOVE.





Courtesy of Dat.

Well I was looking at the second picture and I thought to myself, wow, Jupiter is BIG!

Definately interesting stuff!

Seen this before - but it serves as a good reminder as to just how small and insignificant we really are ...........

It's such a wonderful universe, and we are, literally, nothing. What a lovely, Zen feeling.

"Look," said the Rabbi to the Cantor, pointing at the Shamus. "Look who thinks he's nothing".

This is why I have no doubt in my mind that we are not the only intelligent life in the universe. People, myself included, have no clue whatsoever as to the unimaginable numbers of stars and planets out there. I find it arrogant in the extreme to think that we are alone.

I believe that it's been calculated that it's an impossibility that we're the only intelligent life (by our own standards of evolution) in the galaxy.

dat8962 wrote:I believe that it's been calculated that it's an impossibility that we're the only intelligent life (by our own standards of evolution) in the galaxy.

Yup. That'll be the Drake equation.

Fantastic images. I will be showing them to my kids tomorrow.
On the question of intelligent life out there, the science is clear that it is probable that life arose frequently throughout the universe. But evolution is a complex process, with many end points. A species can become dominant in its own niche without developing intelligence. Look at sharks which have not changed in 200 million years, because they are perfect for their environment.
The universe probably abounds in life, but we know as a matter of certainty that there is no technological civilisations near us. If any civilisation was using radio signals we would be picking them up on our radio telescopes. We would not necessarily be able to interpret them, but we could identify them as coming from an intelligent souce as opposed to a natural source.
The tragedy is that if there are intelligent beings out there (and the chances are that there are) the distances between us and them preclude any contact. What a shame.

I remember being shown these images in physics not that long ago. Quite a strange feeling knowing how small we really are. I also remember being told that it would take around 2.5 million light years to travel to the nearest galaxy or some strange amount like that. And even then we'd need an infinite amount of energy. So there really must be other life out there somewhere, but as Tony said the chances of contact are nearly non existent.

Tomo wrote:

dat8962 wrote:I believe that it's been calculated that it's an impossibility that we're the only intelligent life (by our own standards of evolution) in the galaxy.

Yup. That'll be the Drake equation.

But as the Drake Equation is just a string of guesses multiplied together it's still feasible that we are the only life out here! it's not likely... but it's possible (as a visualisation think of your own mass divided by that of that bit star up there, something like that, it could be about that possible)

Lawrence wrote:But as the Drake Equation is just a string of guesses multiplied together it's still feasible that we are the only life out here! it's not likely... but it's possible (as a visualisation think of your own mass divided by that of that bit star up there, something like that, it could be about that possible)

Ah. Very true. Then again, the Miller-Urey experiment shows that from a very simple collection of gasses and a source of energy, amino acids readily evolve.

Tomo wrote:

dat8962 wrote:I believe that it's been calculated that it's an impossibility that we're the only intelligent life (by our own standards of evolution) in the galaxy.

Yup. That'll be the Drake equation.

I wonder if the other life forms classify us as intelligent...

I think at this point this is the most apt thing I can add:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqtdpuZxvk


and how sciences knowledge about the universe needs to be used accurately:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21iUUe-W8L4

Ted wrote:I wonder if the other life forms classify us as intelligent...

Maybe they're avoiding us...

The Drake equation is interesting but due to the massive amount of unknowns in it, depending on what estimated value is used you get an insane range of results.

The most awkward unknown is what percentage of life evolves into intelligent life. Microbes and bacteria and other single and small celled organisms are most likely going to be by far the most common life in the universe. It may well be that we are the only 'sentient' life in the universe, the rest ranging from microbes to cleverish dogs but never making the leap to full consciousness, we just don't have a clue! There may be life Jim, just not as we know it...