What do you think
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I think it's a certainty.
Searching for planets with liquid water on their surface has so far turned up nothing. With hundreds of confirmed planets discovered and thousands awaiting confirmation, it might seem deflating that none have oceans of H2O. It would be easy to point to these results and claim life elsewhere is not probable at all.
But consider this: We've only been planet hunting with significant success for merely a few years now and discoveries are suggesting there are likely as many as hundreds of billions of planets out there at the most conservative estimate. With only 800 or so confirmed planets, that means we've only found a billionths or a hundred-billionths of 1% of the planets in the universe. That is an incredibly small sample for anyone to draw conclusions from. That's even worse than claiming every apple on the planet Earth is spoiled because the one in your lunch bag has a worm in it.
And, while liquid water seems to be elusive, we're finding that H20 is not exactly as rare as we once thought. We've found it in ice form on the Moon, Mars, the atmosphere of Venus...even in the dark craters of Mercury of all places. We suspect large quantites of it on several moons of the gas giants and probably locked up in some of the dwarf planets way out there. We've found traces of it in asteroids. Comets are full of them. The water molecule, it seems, is everywhere.
Now, if you're going to tell me with all of this H2O out there that there is not ONE other place in this entire universe where a temperature exists that would allow it to be in liquid form, giving the odds of life existing there a huge boost...well.... I'd call you very naive.
Searching for planets with liquid water on their surface has so far turned up nothing. With hundreds of confirmed planets discovered and thousands awaiting confirmation, it might seem deflating that none have oceans of H2O. It would be easy to point to these results and claim life elsewhere is not probable at all.
But consider this: We've only been planet hunting with significant success for merely a few years now and discoveries are suggesting there are likely as many as hundreds of billions of planets out there at the most conservative estimate. With only 800 or so confirmed planets, that means we've only found a billionths or a hundred-billionths of 1% of the planets in the universe. That is an incredibly small sample for anyone to draw conclusions from. That's even worse than claiming every apple on the planet Earth is spoiled because the one in your lunch bag has a worm in it.
And, while liquid water seems to be elusive, we're finding that H20 is not exactly as rare as we once thought. We've found it in ice form on the Moon, Mars, the atmosphere of Venus...even in the dark craters of Mercury of all places. We suspect large quantites of it on several moons of the gas giants and probably locked up in some of the dwarf planets way out there. We've found traces of it in asteroids. Comets are full of them. The water molecule, it seems, is everywhere.
Now, if you're going to tell me with all of this H2O out there that there is not ONE other place in this entire universe where a temperature exists that would allow it to be in liquid form, giving the odds of life existing there a huge boost...well.... I'd call you very naive.
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It is wrong to think life on other planets is a certainty, it is equally wrong to say it is certain as to say it is impossible. There is a reason scientists and mathematicians care about significant figures and error margins becasue to quote a number more accurate than you can measure is dishonest.
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