[Trumpinator]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox

[who_would_fardels_bear]

This article implies that the number of earth-like planets had a bearing on the Fermi Paradox.

However when Fermi discussed his paradox there was no clear understanding of how many planets there were that could harbor intelligent life.

This is more about the Drake equation. The good news (if contacting aliens turns out well) is that we are significantly increasing some of the factors in the Drake equation. However, there are a lot of factors we still have no idea about.

There was a time during the period not too long after the Big Bang when the space between planets and even galaxies was room temperature ... after all it had to cool from exceedingly hot at the beginning to exceedingly cold now.

There could have been thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years when various carbon compounds were stable in space. Maybe that's why it seems like every meteor or asteroid we find seems to have some organic material on it.

All those organics attaching themselves to meteors and asteroids and then bombarding planets could mean lots and lots of planets where life had at least a chance to begin.

I'll wait a while before I write off the chance of alien civilizations.

[SandRat]

[I want the USA back]

Ridiculous. The only way to study that is to dig up the remains of thousands of deceased to test their DNA.
Besides, the assumption that non-Earth creatures look exactly like us is stupid.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Global warming killed them all!

[tet68]

We’ve only really been looking for fifty years and
we’re extremely near sighted to begin with.

The universe is a big place and we’re the only
ones in it?

[LucyT]

Maybe we can't find aliens because they've all died already

[<1/1,000,000th%]

The comPost...

It’ll take almost 100,000 years to wait for radio signals from just our galaxy. We’ve been using radio for less than 100.

[DoughtyOne]

If you feel like it, join in the Free Republic Caucus (each day)

Thank you.  Be sure to read the rules and follow them so your candidate will benefit from your vote.

LINK to Caucus 01/22/2016

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We've very lucky to have this forum where we can debate the issues of the day.

[JoeProBono]

[Williams]

“If you don’t know where you are from on the star map, what is the point of me telling you where I am from?” -

Alien ship captain to Betty Hill during her abduction.

[norwaypinesavage]

I first heard hyper ventilating like this more than a half century ago. Then, the cult worshipers were talking about nuclear war, not global warming. That was when people were building fallout shelters in their back yards, and children were taught in school how to hide under their desks when the bomb went off. The theory then was that civilizations only lasted long enough to invent nuclear weapons, and then they destroyed themselves. Thus, the probability was too remote for any two civilizations to develop the ability to communicate with each other before they destroyed themselves.

[null and void]

[samtheman]

The study authors believe that Earth’s early microbial life helped to stabilize the planet’s climate, while any life that might have existed on the nearby, similarly rocky planets Venus and Mars failed to do so.

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Don’t forget the lack of magnetic field on Mars. No magnetic field (or one that is extremely weak), and the solar wind blows away the atmosphere. Which happened. And is still happening, on Mars.