Prediction: We will find alien life within 5 years

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Started by Legend, Mar 15, 2015, 08:50 PM

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the-pi-guy

We really don't know how rare life is. 
We have some idea of some factors that play a part in life, but even many of these ideas are subject to changes.  If we look at the Goldilocks zone, the planet being of the "right" temperature.  This is based off our preconceived notions of life and certain planetary conditions.  The conditions can vary wildly though.  I would even say each planet could have its own Goldilocks zone based on its disposition. I would wager than Venus and Mars would have different zones because of their atmosphere, plus there is the potential of other heat sources barring the sun, such as a planet. 
Then we consider that life could use something other than water and carbon as its building blocks, and certainly more examples I haven't thought of yet. 
Etc, etc.  There are lots of factors that we have an idea about and almost certainly factors that we don't even know about.  Life might be more common than we ever dreamed. 

Then we go to the fact that all life on Earth seems related, so based on that it might be incredibly rare, but even that I think might have other possible answers. 
Perhaps new life is *common* but dies out from competition very quickly or some other reason.