by bill cobbett » Tue Jun 30, 2009 8:58 pm
Can I put in my two bennes worth please?
There is absolutely no evidence for any life outside the Earth. None at all, zero.
BUT scientists play a numbers game which goes like this....
There are billions and billions of stars in our Milky Way Galaxy and there are billions and billions and billions of other galaxies inthe observable Universe.
The argument then goes that therefore there must be a huge number of rocky Earth-like planets within the habitable zone of other sun-like stars. Habitable? Not too hot, not too cold. - the Goldilocks zone where WATER exists in its liquid form.
If you want to find life, basic bacteria or more advanced, look for places with liquid water, the medium for all life.
NASA/ESA are doing just that within our own Solar System with the budgeting for remote missions to the moons Encaladus (Saturn) and to my favourite moon Europa (Jupiter). Both missions will try and find and test the liquid water that we know, for a variety of good reasons, must be there.