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Asked by sodiumpolyacrylate to David, James, Mike, Suze, Will on 22 Jun 2011.
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Suze Kundu answered on 19 Jun 2011:
There could be, if all of those things were ideal for the creatures living out there. Don’t forget that just because we have evolved to suit our environment that they would need to have the same conditions to sustain life. Maybe they are better at dealing with hotter or colder climates, and perhaps they are able to create energy for life using a different mechanism than we do on Earth.
I don’t know how likely it will be within our solar system, although there has been talk of evidence of at least bacteria on other planets, but I think it depends on whether they are still alive, or whether they used to be. Maybe there are hundreds of planets with life capable of thought, wondering whether another version of them exists somewhere else in the Universe, but there’s a lot fo Universe out there to explore! When we think about our Sun, it’s just a star. We have nine planets around our sun (yes, NINE! I don’t care if Pluto has been officially demoted! It was my old team’s name at work, and I stand by the fact that it should still be a planet! They should add more if it’s just a size thing!). If every star has a bunch of planets around it, and there are countless numbers of stars, I reckon that the chances of life appearing somewhere has to be fairly high. I doubt we’ll be able to find evidence of it though, which is a shame.
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James Marrow answered on 20 Jun 2011:
I agree with Suze; if the universe is as huge as we see it to be, and as old as it is, then there is a chance that life could develop on another planet. Whether it could evolve to the same level of complexity as on earth is an interesting question. We’ve taken so many steps to get to where we are, and there are so many ways that it might not have happened, so the chances are so much more reduced of there being intelligent life on other planets. Then there is the time problem: complex lifeforms have only been present on the earth for a very short part of its life, so the chance of there being intelligent life on other planets NOW is even less!
It’s no reason to stop looking, though!
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William Eborall answered on 22 Jun 2011:
I think there could be too. As Suze says though, that life wouldn’t necessarily need the same conditions as we have on our planet to sustain humans. Even on our planet there are places where bacteria live that would seem impossible to us. For example bacteria have been found at the bottom of the ocean around volcanic vents at temperatures that boil water, they have been found in lakes of sulphuric acid and lakes of arsenic, they have been found under the sea in brine lakes (areas of really concentrated salty water). It seems that the only thing life as we’ve known it really needs is water.
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