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General Discussion & Feedback => Radio Show & Podcast Feedback => Topic started by: thedoc on 30/01/2015 13:40:09

Title: Could Earth-like planets form 11 billion years ago?
Post by: thedoc on 30/01/2015 13:40:09
A system of 11-billion-year-old Earth-sized planets has been discovered, increasing the likelihood of finding extraterrestrial life...

Read the whole story on our  website by clicking here (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/news/news/1000632/)

  
Title: Re: Could Earth-like planets form 11 billion years ago?
Post by: 2dogmom on 06/02/2015 00:28:18
Just because we are now aware of a planet that might be suitable for alien life, the probability that there is alien life has not changed.  Whether we are aware of it or not does not affect the chance of it existing!  The planet exists whether we know about it or not.....
Title: Re: Could Earth-like planets form 11 billion years ago?
Post by: diethyl on 06/02/2015 03:26:00
I want to know is there any other planet's creatures know the existence of human
Title: Re: Could Earth-like planets form 11 billion years ago?
Post by: chris on 19/02/2015 10:44:29
Just because we are now aware of a planet that might be suitable for alien life, the probability that there is alien life has not changed.  Whether we are aware of it or not does not affect the chance of it existing!  The planet exists whether we know about it or not.....

Actually that isn't strictly true, because, as I point out in the piece, these planets are extremely ancient (11 billion years); previously, scientists had thought that rocky planets could not exist this far back in time. The great age of these worlds indicates that the elapsed time during which life could have evolved on other planets across the Universe is therefore far larger than we had anticipated. This means that previous figures for the likelihood of the existence of extraterrestrial life are likely to be an under-estimate.
Title: Re: Could Earth-like planets form 11 billion years ago?
Post by: 2dogmom on 11/03/2015 22:47:05
What I meant was the the probability of those planets existing has not changed, just OUR perception of whether they existed or not has changed.  OUR CALCULATION of the probability of life existing may be changed, but the actual probability has not.  Either life exists on other planets or it doesn't.  Nothing that we learn or do will change that. 
Title: Re: Could Earth-like planets form 11 billion years ago?
Post by: chiralSPO on 12/03/2015 00:08:50
What I meant was the the probability of those planets existing has not changed, just OUR perception of whether they existed or not has changed.  OUR CALCULATION of the probability of life existing may be changed, but the actual probability has not.  Either life exists on other planets or it doesn't.  Nothing that we learn or do will change that.

Agreed. I don't think that extraterrestrial life is anything like Schrödinger's cat--our knowledge about it has no bearing on the actual truth.