We Are Not Alone

[She Mate Me]

We've got this chick to teach us all about what's out there and what might be going on with it all.

Seriously. I learned more **** I had no idea about in 2+ hours from her than any teacher I can remember.

Did you know we discovered helium from looking at the sun in the 1860's before we ever discovered that it was also here on Earth?? Wild.

 

[DawgNsuds]

ok, that settles it, I now know which podcast I'm listening to on my evening run.

 

[onewoof]

quite a crazy exaggeration that the asteroid contained the complete genetic letters for human DNA. That is like stumbling on a pile of lumber in the woods and saying you walked up on a entire neighborhood of houses. The asteroid had carbon and water. Calm down lady.

 

[BoDawg.sixpack]

 

[aTotal360]

For the dolts that think we are alone...

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains about 100–400 billion stars. Since most stars are thought to have planets orbiting them, each star system can be considered a “solar system” (like ours).

So how many solar systems are there?​

• Lower estimate: ~100 billion
• Upper estimate: ~400 billion
• Best guess: hundreds of billions of planetary systems

 

[patdog]

quite a crazy exaggeration that the asteroid contained the complete genetic letters for human DNA. That is like stumbling on a pile of lumber in the woods and saying you walked up on an entire neighborhood of houses. The asteroid had carbon and water. Calm down lady.

Many, maybe most, asteroids do contain amino acids which are the building blocks of life. They do not contain dna or genetic code. DNA is made from amino acids. So more than just carbon & water.

 

[ReverseCowbell]

We've got this chick to teach us all about what's out there and what might be going on with it all.

Seriously. I learned more **** I had no idea about in 2+ hours from her than any teacher I can remember.

Did you know we discovered helium from looking at the sun in the 1860's before we ever discovered that it was also here on Earth?? Wild.

Good share, I’ve seen her on Big Think and a few other YouTube videos. She’s a great teacher.

 

[ReverseCowbell]

This is how I have to look at it:


I am a quark. You cannot see me, even with the best microscope ever made, but I am here. Me and my two buddies Waylon and Willie make up a proton. Sounds impressive until you realize that if our proton were a basketball at center court in Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville, the nearest electron would be orbiting somewhere over Nashville. Drunk and swervy. With nothing around it for hundreds of miles.

Take about 100 trillion atoms and you have a grain of sand. Take about 10 quintillion grains of sand and you have a planet the size of Earth. Take about 1.3 million Earths and you can fill the Sun. Take about 100 billion Suns and you have a galaxy like the Milky Way. Take about 50 galaxies and you have the Local Group. Take about 2,000 galaxies and you have the Virgo Cluster. Take about 100,000 galaxies and you have the Laniakea Supercluster. Take roughly 2 trillion galaxies and you have the Observable Universe.

That is as far as we can see.

What lies beyond it? We don’t know. What lies inside a quark? We don’t know that either.

In both directions, toward the infinitely large and the infinitely small, we arrive at exactly the same place.

The edge of human knowledge.

 

[RocketDawg]

I believe she's an astronomer at Goddard (if she's still there). She's on "How the Universe Works" reruns, mornings on Science Channel.

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

ok, that settles it, I now know which podcast I'm listening to on my evening run.

3 hour run? Impressive!

 

[El Perro Grande]

This is how I have to look at it:


I am a quark. You cannot see me, even with the best microscope ever made, but I am here. Me and my two buddies Waylon and Willie make up a proton. Sounds impressive until you realize that if our proton were a basketball at center court in Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville, the nearest electron would be orbiting somewhere over Nashville. Drunk and swervy. With nothing around it for hundreds of miles.

Take about 100 trillion atoms and you have a grain of sand. Take about 10 quintillion grains of sand and you have a planet the size of Earth. Take about 1.3 million Earths and you can fill the Sun. Take about 100 billion Suns and you have a galaxy like the Milky Way. Take about 50 galaxies and you have the Local Group. Take about 2,000 galaxies and you have the Virgo Cluster. Take about 100,000 galaxies and you have the Laniakea Supercluster. Take roughly 2 trillion galaxies and you have the Observable Universe.

That is as far as we can see.

What lies beyond it? We don’t know. What lies inside a quark? We don’t know that either.

In both directions, toward the infinitely large and the infinitely small, we arrive at exactly the same place.

The edge of human knowledge.

 

[BossDawg78]

This is how I have to look at it:


I am a quark. You cannot see me, even with the best microscope ever made, but I am here. Me and my two buddies Waylon and Willie make up a proton. Sounds impressive until you realize that if our proton were a basketball at center court in Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville, the nearest electron would be orbiting somewhere over Nashville. Drunk and swervy. With nothing around it for hundreds of miles.

Take about 100 trillion atoms and you have a grain of sand. Take about 10 quintillion grains of sand and you have a planet the size of Earth. Take about 1.3 million Earths and you can fill the Sun. Take about 100 billion Suns and you have a galaxy like the Milky Way. Take about 50 galaxies and you have the Local Group. Take about 2,000 galaxies and you have the Virgo Cluster. Take about 100,000 galaxies and you have the Laniakea Supercluster. Take roughly 2 trillion galaxies and you have the Observable Universe.

That is as far as we can see.

What lies beyond it? We don’t know. What lies inside a quark? We don’t know that either.

In both directions, toward the infinitely large and the infinitely small, we arrive at exactly the same place.

The edge of human knowledge.

I think I just fried my brain reading that. That's absolutely fascinating.

 

[RocketDawg]

This is how I have to look at it:


I am a quark. You cannot see me, even with the best microscope ever made, but I am here. Me and my two buddies Waylon and Willie make up a proton. Sounds impressive until you realize that if our proton were a basketball at center court in Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville, the nearest electron would be orbiting somewhere over Nashville. Drunk and swervy. With nothing around it for hundreds of miles.

Take about 100 trillion atoms and you have a grain of sand. Take about 10 quintillion grains of sand and you have a planet the size of Earth. Take about 1.3 million Earths and you can fill the Sun. Take about 100 billion Suns and you have a galaxy like the Milky Way. Take about 50 galaxies and you have the Local Group. Take about 2,000 galaxies and you have the Virgo Cluster. Take about 100,000 galaxies and you have the Laniakea Supercluster. Take roughly 2 trillion galaxies and you have the Observable Universe.

That is as far as we can see.

What lies beyond it? We don’t know. What lies inside a quark? We don’t know that either.

In both directions, toward the infinitely large and the infinitely small, we arrive at exactly the same place.

The edge of human knowledge.

That's pretty good. Grok?

 

[DawgNsuds]

3 hour run? Impressive!

actually that will be Saturday mornings run. only got through about 30 minutes today

 

[She Mate Me]

For the dolts that think we are alone...

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains about 100–400 billion stars. Since most stars are thought to have planets orbiting them, each star system can be considered a “solar system” (like ours).

So how many solar systems are there?​

• Lower estimate: ~100 billion
• Upper estimate: ~400 billion
• Best guess: hundreds of billions of planetary systems

And that's in our little galaxy. Like Reverse said, current estimate is over 2 trillion galaxies. We can't comprehend the numbers.

 

[TroyMcClure2025]

For the dolts that think we are alone...

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains about 100–400 billion stars. Since most stars are thought to have planets orbiting them, each star system can be considered a “solar system” (like ours).

So how many solar systems are there?​

• Lower estimate: ~100 billion
• Upper estimate: ~400 billion
• Best guess: hundreds of billions of planetary systems

Dolts? When you find something else alive, let me know. Until then, you’re the idiot.

I appreciate the fact you made a 1,500 on the SAT and got into pharmacy school early…until weed got in the way. For now, keep up the patronizing and philosophical cynicism that convinces you of such theories.

Dave Mathews is still touring. Enjoy.

 

[onewoof]

More stars than grains of sands on the beaches.

Each star can contain 1.3 million Earths on average.

 

[She Mate Me]

Looking out there is significantly easier than getting out there...

 

[patdog]

Dolts? When you find something else alive, let me know. Until then, you’re the idiot.

I appreciate the fact you made a 1,500 on the SAT and got into pharmacy school early…until weed got in the way. For now, keep up the patronizing and philosophical cynicism that convinces you of such theories.

Dave Mathews is still touring. Enjoy.

I strongly suspect there’s simple life all over the universe. And good chance intelligent life in an extremely rare number of planets. But with a sample size of 1, the only honest answer is we just don’t know if it’s unique or not. When we started finding exoplanets we just assumed we’d find a lot of earth twins out there. We’ve found thousands of planets & planetary systems but none anything close to like our solar system or another earth. That’s been a huge shock. And lends some credibility to the possibility we are unique.

 

[Pookieray]

Whether there are space monkeys or not I still gotta go to work and pay taxes. So, I suppose it doesn't matter.

Now, if there's a Bigfeets on the other hand, I'd kinda like to know.

 

[L4Dawg]

If there was an intelligent technological capable civilization, say around 200 or less light years in, we would know about now. That’s about it. I keep writing a sci-fi epic, when I can’t sleep, about a MSU grad/professor who invents an antigravity drive, that evolves into a faster than light warp drive. It helps me to sleep…I’m well into it, but I’m no writer.

 

[Maroon Eagle]

I strongly suspect there’s simple life all over the universe.

Jones County is proof of that… **

 

[patdog]

Jones County is proof of that… **

I will point out that most of the craziness is SOUTH Jones county.

 

[The Cooterpoot]

There are two things I've always wondered about:
1. If there's intelligent life in the universe, how are we so stupid?
2. Why don't lesbians use cooter shaped sex toys instead of pecker shaped dildos?

 

[patdog]

There are two things I've always wondered about:
1. If there's intelligent life in the universe, how are we so stupid?
2. Why don't lesbians use cooter shaped sex toys instead of pecker shaped dildos?

Apparently even lesbians want the D.

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

Where are those flat-earth people at?

 

[ReverseCowbell]

I think I just fried my brain reading that. That's absolutely fascinating.

That's pretty good. Grok?

Mostly me actually. I did get some help with the numbers. This was fascinating to me while Claude was doing math:

1 million seconds is about 12 days
1 billion seconds is about 32 years.
1 Trillion seconds is almost 32,000 years, so far back it’s pre-agriculture. No cities, no pyramids, nothing.

The difference in a billion and a trillion is similar to the difference in the Geico caveman and an actual caveman.

just mindblowing

 

[Dawgzilla2]

What many people overlook in these discussions about the vastness of the Universe is time.

We are incapable of really understanding how vast our own galaxy is, let alone the entire universe...and we are also incapable of understanding how old it is.

An intelligent species could have evolved, developed interstellar travel, and gone extinct long before our Earth was even formed. And it could happen again on a planet that hasn't formed yet.

If we assume that life can, in fact, spontaneously appear, then the probability of life existing somewhere else in the Universe becomes pretty high. But I believe any intelligent species are so far removed from us in both space and time that their existence is nothing more than a thought experiment for us.

But Im keeping an open mind. If Disclosure Day provides proof of contact with alien species, well, I knew it all along.

 

[ReverseCowbell]

Dolts? When you find something else alive, let me know. Until then, you’re the idiot.

I appreciate the fact you made a 1,500 on the SAT and got into pharmacy school early…until weed got in the way. For now, keep up the patronizing and philosophical cynicism that convinces you of such theories.

Dave Mathews is still touring. Enjoy.

Lots of folks agree with you. Have you thought about what level of proof is required? I’m genuinely curious (as you can tell) and I’m sure it will be different for each person.

For me, the James Webb is opening up a ton of possibilities for life signatures, but nothing definitive yet. There is a telescope coming online in Chile by 2028 or so that has nearly 40-meter mirrors (JWST’s are about 6 meters). It will be able to super-zoom in on the atmospheres of the planets that JWST identifies as possibly hosting life. If it sees competing gases in those atmospheres (oxygen and methane most likely) then we may be able to assume something there is replenishing those gases, or else one would eliminate the other. The most likely candidate that we know of for that replenishment is life.

It’s not little gray men but it’s something else out there. JWST did detect a planet that looks like it has carbon dioxide and methane in its atmosphere, as well as dimethyl sulfide. The dimethyl sulfide is cool because it’s produced by the microorganisms in our oceans and it actually has a big influence on clouds and weather. Also, we don’t know of any way nature produces it other than through life.

Pretty fascinating stuff. We are literally coming out of the dark ages.

 

[Hugh's Burner Phone]

Scale of the Universe: Discover the vast ranges of our visible and invisible world.

Scale of Universe is an interactive experience to inspire people to learn about the vast ranges of the visible and invisible world.

scaleofuniverse.com

 

[leeinator]

Always remember that God's time in the realm of Heaven (where he resides with Jesus, the Archangels, and Angels) is not equivalent to our time here on earth. The Bible says he created the earth in 6 days and rested on the 7th (The Sabbath).....ever wonder how he did it that fast?.........Of course, he is the almighty creator of the Heavens and the Universe, and nothing is impossible with him. However, consider this...........

2 Peter 3:8 (ESV):
“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

 

[Anon947643]

Always remember that God's time in the realm of Heaven (where he resides with Jesus, the Archangels, and Angels) is not equivalent to our time here on earth. The Bible says he created the earth in 6 days and rested on the 7th (The Sabbath).....ever wonder how he did it that fast?.........Of course, he is the almighty creator of the Heavens and the Universe, and nothing is impossible with him. However, consider this...........

2 Peter 3:8 (ESV):
“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

I absolutely agree with you, nothing is impossible with him but I think using verse 8 to support this claim is a bit out of context. Peter did not give some prophetic formula, saying that a prophetic day somehow equals a thousand years. He instead communicated a general principle regarding how we see time and how God sees time. It’s an idea he quoted from psalm 90:4.

 

[Hotdiggydawg]

They exist and they exist to serve man. However it's a recipe book.

 

[ZombieKissinger]

We could’ve been seeded on Earth to grow as alien food or characters on a reality TV game show. It’s like you guys haven’t read Dungeon Crawler Carl or watched Laserhawk with Mark Hamill, Melissa Galianos, and the kid from Free Willy

 

[champdawg.sixpack]

Where are those flat-earth people

Where are those flat-earth people at?

I wonder if these aliens end sentences with a preposition too?

 

[ReverseCowbell]

They exist and they exist to serve man. However it's a recipe book.

SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!

 

[vhdawg]

This is how I have to look at it:


I am a quark. You cannot see me, even with the best microscope ever made, but I am here. Me and my two buddies Waylon and Willie make up a proton. Sounds impressive until you realize that if our proton were a basketball at center court in Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville, the nearest electron would be orbiting somewhere over Nashville. Drunk and swervy. With nothing around it for hundreds of miles.

Take about 100 trillion atoms and you have a grain of sand. Take about 10 quintillion grains of sand and you have a planet the size of Earth. Take about 1.3 million Earths and you can fill the Sun. Take about 100 billion Suns and you have a galaxy like the Milky Way. Take about 50 galaxies and you have the Local Group. Take about 2,000 galaxies and you have the Virgo Cluster. Take about 100,000 galaxies and you have the Laniakea Supercluster. Take roughly 2 trillion galaxies and you have the Observable Universe.

That is as far as we can see.

What lies beyond it? We don’t know. What lies inside a quark? We don’t know that either.

In both directions, toward the infinitely large and the infinitely small, we arrive at exactly the same place.

The edge of human knowledge.

 

[ReverseCowbell]

Ha, I’ve never seen that before but it’s fantastic

 

[patdog]

If we assume that life can, in fact, spontaneously appear, then the probability of life existing somewhere else in the Universe becomes pretty high. But I believe any intelligent species are so far removed from us in both space and time that their existence is nothing more than a thought experiment for us.

I agree. Life may be common. But intelligent life is almost certainly so rare and so far away (in both space and time) we’ll never detect it.

 

[patdog]

Lots of folks agree with you. Have you thought about what level of proof is required? I’m genuinely curious (as you can tell) and I’m sure it will be different for each person.

For me, the James Webb is opening up a ton of possibilities for life signatures, but nothing definitive yet. There is a telescope coming online in Chile by 2028 or so that has nearly 40-meter mirrors (JWST’s are about 6 meters). It will be able to super-zoom in on the atmospheres of the planets that JWST identifies as possibly hosting life. If it sees competing gases in those atmospheres (oxygen and methane most likely) then we may be able to assume something there is replenishing those gases, or else one would eliminate the other. The most likely candidate that we know of for that replenishment is life.

It’s not little gray men but it’s something else out there. JWST did detect a planet that looks like it has carbon dioxide and methane in its atmosphere, as well as dimethyl sulfide. The dimethyl sulfide is cool because it’s produced by the microorganisms in our oceans and it actually has a big influence on clouds and weather. Also, we don’t know of any way nature produces it other than through life.

Pretty fascinating stuff. We are literally coming out of the dark ages.

My brother designed the box that will house the instruments that will detect & analyze the exoplanets for that a good in Chile. For real. MSU aerospace engineering degree.