Bush Budget: Aliens May Be Out There WASHINGTON - Proof that life exists outside the boundaries of Earth continues to elude scientists, but President Bush budget suggests that "space aliens" may be out there. And it could just be a matter of time before they are discovered. In a brief passage titled "Where Are the Real Space Aliens?" Bush's budget document released Monday says several important scientific discoveries in the past decade indicate that "habitable worlds" in outer space may be much more prevalent than once thought. The finds include evidence of currently or previously existing large bodies of water — a key ingredient of life as we know it — on Mars and on Jupiter's moons. Astronomers also are finding planets outside the solar system, including about 90 stars with at least one planet orbiting them. "Perhaps the notion that 'there's something out there' is closer to reality than we have imagined," the passage concludes. Budget of the United States Government http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2004/nasa.html
Actually, I think there's a big trend against this. Most of the extrasolar planets that have been discovered are either in really tight circular orbits (extrasolar planets that have been measured are all roughly Jupiter-sized or larger because they are detected by the effect of their mass on the location of stars) or, if at Jupiter-range they have wildly eliptical orbits. The gas giants in tight orbits would kill the chances for earth-like planets in the "habitable range" for planets where water would be liquid. Conversly, gas giants with highly eliptical orbits would have catastrophic effects on the stable orbit of habitable-range planets, distorting the stability of their climates which would make it more difficult for blossoming life to achieve stable enough conditions for life. Also, there also seems to be an incredible stablizing effect on the planet Earth as a result of Earth's large stable moon which helps to reduce variations in orbital tilt. As the Moon slowly moves outward, it is predicted that the seasons on Earth will become more extreme, resulting in a wider range of sesasonal climate variations, again not good for life. Jupiter, BTW, gives off incredible amounts of radiation to it's otherwise promising moons. Life on these moons would have to be incredibly hardy, like the notorius "Conan the Bacterium", aka Deinococcus radiodurans
I just find it pretty amazing that a president is saying there may be other forms of life outside of our planet. Will they finally come out in the open about what happened at Roswell?
but that is only a small portion of the universe we can or have looked at...and as BillyBob said in Armageddon..."it's a bigass sky".. I would imiagine that in an infinite universe, there is a high probablilty that there is another planet that can support life.. to think otherwise is to ignore the law of averages..
