According to a certain Mr Arthur C Clarke...
"Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."
Alien Earths are out there: Our home is not 'unique'
New research suggests planets similar to our Earth are much more common across the galaxy than previously thought. And the boffins behind this revelation have also come up with a simple chemical recipe for creating habitable worlds suitable for use by advanced super-powered intelligences and/or deities etc. "Our solar system …
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Wednesday 7th January 2015 17:30 GMT GBE
Re: According to a certain Mr Arthur C Clarke...
"Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."
True for me, but not in the way that AC seemed to think. I find neither option terrifying at all.
I find the former much _sadder_ than the latter. I'm much happier thinking there is other life out there (though I'm not really sure why). Due to the vast distances involved, I don't see why we would have anything to fear from extra-terrestrial life.
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Tuesday 6th January 2015 22:02 GMT Uffish
Re: And it's supposed to work?
No idea whether the simple recipe described will almost guarantee that all the other elements will naturally be present in earthish ratios but if they say that there are lots of earth size, weight, temperature, chemical composition planets out there well, that's great.
But how many will have lifeforms up and working? Is that likely, or are there just a lot of wet, rocky planets in the universe.
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Wednesday 7th January 2015 07:03 GMT dan1980
Re: And it's supposed to work?
@Uffish
"No idea whether the simple recipe described will almost guarantee that all the other elements will naturally be present in earthish ratios . . ."
And why would they have to be? We have evolved to require small amount so stuff like magnesium and cobalt and so forth but other animals on earth don't necessarily need those, depending on where they evolved. There's no reason to believe that, once the basic 'organic' blocks are there, life would evolve to use and require whatever spread of elements are available, just as we have and the other inhabitants of Earth have.
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Wednesday 7th January 2015 04:43 GMT Faux Science Slayer
If at first you don't succeed....skip sky diving.
Only a brain dead moron would make this 'not unique' assertion....EARTH IS VERY UNIQUE.
Earth is the same distance from the Sun, yet is 200C cooler than the hottest temperature on the Moon and 75C warmer than the coolest temperature on the Moon. This is due to the atmosphere, the 310 million cubic miles of ocean and internal fission of 2 million cubic mile of Uranium and Thorium. In addition to internal heat, nuclear decay provides a stream of elemental atoms and compounds, replenishing the planet. The wingspan of flying insects and reptiles during the Jurassic was double that of today because the atmosphere was four times the current density. The atmosphere is under constant erosion from solar wind and nuclear decay. Earth had a magnetosphere that limits particle beam exposure and Ozone to limit UV exposure. There are dozens of critical components necessary for life 'as we know it' on Earth, and only a simpleton would reduce this to a few parameters.
See "Greenhouse Gas Ptolemaic Model" for more unique Earth factors.
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Wednesday 7th January 2015 10:45 GMT Evil Auditor
Re: If at first you don't succeed....skip sky diving.
I hope you're not committing suicide. Anyway, don't know whether the nuclear decay ... replenishing the plant is really a requirement, for kicking off the evolution the ionizing radiation certainly didn't harm. But why, e.g., would flying insects need larger wingspans in a more dense atmosphere?
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Wednesday 7th January 2015 11:17 GMT Wilseus
Re: If at first you don't succeed....skip sky diving.
why, e.g., would flying insects need larger wingspans in a more dense atmosphere?
They wouldn't, and anyway I'm not aware that the Earth did have a denser atmosphere then. Arthropods (and not just flying insects) back then did grow much larger than today but this was because the atmosphere contained a much larger proportion of oxygen.
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
