The big question about life on other planets: 1000000000000000000000 planets in the universe

[sealybobo]

Not sure what you're getting at regarding zero-sum energy. Please elaborate. Thanks.

Me neither. Way above my pay grade. I’m just wondering what we would do if we found life on another planet. Right off the bat we should wonder if they are edible. Maybe that’s why we fear an alien who’s smarter than us. We eat everything not as smart as us.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

I've never seen that in any physics book

You would and will, if you read about gravitational fields.

The gravitational potential in the field has to be negative, because of conservation of energy.

The energy in the closed system must remain constant. Consider a system of two objects. As one object is accelerated toward the other, it gains kinetic energy. That energy has to be balanced out. So, when this happens the magnitude of the gravitational potential increases, and that energy is necessarily negative.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

There is nothing to suggest such an event,

You just commemted on how all of our observations and theory all point to the occurrence of such an event.

Yet still, scientists don't insist with any real certainty that the Universe started as a singularity.

We only know that there was rapid inflation from an earlier, ultradense state. And no, the evidence is not just theoretical. We took a picture of it.

 

[Ringtone]

Me neither. Way above my pay grade. I’m just wondering what we would do if we found life on another planet. Right off the bat we should wonder if they are edible. Maybe that’s why we fear an alien who’s smarter than us. We eat everything not as smart as us.

I don't think life on other planets is very likely, but. . . .

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Actually there’s slightly more matter than anti matter.

One of the biggest mysteries of cosmology.

Like...why?

 

[ding]

Which is why scientists don't insist with anyreal certainty that the Universe started as a singularity.

You should stop using that term. You don't know what it means.

A singularity is a region of space where the curvature of spacetime becomes infinite as determined by mathematical equations.

If you are trying to imply anything more than it is the limit of the equations, you are wrong.

 

[bripat9643]

You would and will, if you read about gravitational fields.

The gravitational potential in the field has to be negative, because of conservation of energy.

Produce a link to that or shut the fuck up.

The energy in the closed system must remain constant. Consider a system of two objects. As one object is accelerated toward the other, it gains kinetic energy. That energy has to be balanced out. So, when this happens the magnitude of the gravitational potential increases, and that energy is necessarily negative.

There is no such thing as "gravitational energy." There is something called potential energy, but that's not what you are implying it is.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Produce a link to that

I already did. Follow the links in there. Or look up gravitational fields, or gravitational potential energy.

It's not something you can get around. It just is what it is. Gravitational potential is negative. And it is a form of energy.

I gave you the simplest explanation and example, too. Two body system.

 

[bripat9643]

I already did. Follow the links in there. Or look up gravitational fields, or gravitational potential energy.

It's not something you can get around. It just is what it is. Gravitational potential is negative. And it is a form of energy.

I gave you the simplest explanation and example, too. Two body system.

You did no such thing.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

You did no such thing.

Well, you just failed the quiz for this part of the semester, I guess.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

bripat9643

Furthermore, this concept is key to the eventual fate of the universe. If the net energy of the universe is negative, it will eventually collapse in on itself in the Big Crunch. If the net energy of the universe is positive, it will eventually fly apart in the Big Rip.

 

[ding]

Oh brother

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

You should stop using that term. You don't know what it means.

A singularity is a region of space where the curvature of spacetime becomes infinite as determined by mathematical equations.

If you are trying to imply anything more than it is the limit of the equations, you are wrong.

Ah. So IF I eventually say something wrong, it will be wrong. That's deep, man.

 

[Mushroom]

I don't think life on other planets is very likely, but. . . .

Actually, I tend to believe the reverse and that is at least at one point or another in the history of a planet very possible if it is possible.

However, odds are likely that it only lasts for a certain period of time, and rarely evolved much more than "pond scum" before going extinct.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Actually, I tend to believe the reverse and that is at least at one point or another in the history of a planet very possible if it is possible.

However, odds are likely that it only lasts for a certain period of time, and rarely evolved much more than "pond scum" before going extinct.

Same. One strong bit of support for this is how quickly life formed on Earth, once conditions were not prohibitive.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

Basic "life" should just always form, if there is liquid water and organic compounds and their building blocks around, and if it is given enough time to do so.

That's the nature of the concept of selection. It's a form of bias built right into our universe, caused by the laws of the universe.

Selection will "select for" persistence of more stable molecules. Of stable models like membranes. It "selects for " persistence of replicating models, on the scale of life.

So, now we have to try to define "life". It's harder than you think. Try it.

 

[sealybobo]

I don't think life on other planets is very likely, but. . . .

That’s thinking very small. There’s so much we don’t know. There’s probably life in europa. There was probably life on Mars at one time. Long before there was life on earth.

If any of that is true, life is probably surrounding every star. Maybe not at this very minute. Maybe 1 billion years ago. Maybe one billion years from now.

But to say you don’t think there is any life other than here in the entire universe, is pretty damn ignorant and small thinking.

The odds are there is lots. Jus because we can’t see it doesn’t mean shit.

Do you kno there may be another planet in our solar system? So far out beyond Pluto in the dark and we can’t see it. Way out at the edge of our solar system. And we don’t even know it.

The ignorance to suggest we are the only life. Stunning.

 

[Ringtone]

Actually, I tend to believe the reverse and that is at least at one point or another in the history of a planet very possible if it is possible.

However, odds are likely that it only lasts for a certain period of time, and rarely evolved much more than "pond scum" before going extinct.

There is zero chance that chemical evolution (abiogenesis) has ever occurred anywhere in the Universe in the first place, but I suppose it's possible that God may have created microorganismal foundations elsewhere, though, for theological reasons, I think it highly unlikely.

 

[Mushroom]

Same. One strong bit of support for this is how quickly life formed on Earth, once conditions were not prohibitive.

Exactly, and we have been seeing possible indicators on Mars for years.

However, this is a case that shows what happened to most of it did evolve. As of the three outer rocky planets (Venus, Earth, Mars), we live on the only one that still has an active core creating a magnetic field. There is ample evidence Mars once had liquid water, a sizeable atmosphere, and everything else needed for life. But at about the time that life on our planet was evolving past the single cell phase their core died and along with it eventually all life that might have evolved.

Other than possible extremophiles that live deep underground. That is likely the fact for what happens to "life" on most exoplanets. And it may have evolved on some of the moons in our solar system, especially on moons where they still have a core kept active not by the core itself but gravity stress from their parent planet. Life is probably very easy to form I believe, but you need something more to enable it to go from simple bacteria and since celled organisms to "life" as most recognize it. And odds are that is damned rare in the universe. We know for a fact it only exists in one place in our solar system, and has not been found yet anywhere else we have found planets.

 

[Mushroom]

I suppose, that God may have created microorganismal foundations elsewhere, though I think it highly unlikely for theological reasons.

Therefore that is a theological claim, and does not really belong in a "science" debate thread.