I never answered the actual question - inhabited by microbes or something primitive maybe less than 10 years (Mars/Europa/Titan/etc). Inhabited by intelligent life (unless SETI or the interferometry mission gets really lucky) probably not for centuries if ever. Is there intelligent life out there someplace? IMHO yes definitely - it’s a big universe...
KingCheetah, I've noticed you in the science threads. Hobby or career? I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I think it's quite possible that some may already be aware of the existence of et life. I wonder how humankind would have responded if we became universally aware of it, in say, 1900? 1950? 2000? Obviously, it would be much better accepted now. I'm sure there will be negative effects, but I have hope for the positive effects: i.e., most humans, not just the astronauts, would now realize that we are all together...one family...on a small wet rock hurtling through space. With the advances in science over the last 50 ... I think we will find other intelligent life within our lifetimes.
I was thinking about what Cohen just said, and all of you will call me insane, but I came up with a possibility for intergalactic space travel. And perhaps somebody has has already been stupid enuff to think of it before me and stupid enuff to be critisized for it. But this is what I came up with. The biggest hurdles are fuel, time, gravity, and distance. Why fight them to get there. We already have them right here. I was thinking that maybe we should think bigger. Maybe we are just a wet rock hurtling through space. But we are hurtling through it together with a sun and nine planets. As a solar system we could travel much faster together. Cover much greater distances. The sun is the biggest ball of potential energy we know of. That could be our fuel. If we could harnass the sun's energy and get the sun to move, we are going to move with it. We could piggy back the Sun around the universe. That way we could leap through space without even leaving the planet. Without even noticing that we are leaping. Many liftetimes later we'll reach our destination. There are a lot of assumptions here because I don't know physics. I mean a lot. But The hope would be that gravity would hold us in place as we travel. And that the earth would maintain its current environment as we move. But let's say that was true just for the sake of saying it. It would be possible to set the earth and our solar system on course for other galaxies, universes, or whatever. You basically have intergalactic travel without the need for fuel, without the need for food, and with decreased time and distance. All the limitations we battle now. As crazy as it all sounds, it's not out of the realm of possibility given that you have mass of potential energy in the sun that just needs an ignition key. And it seems to me that chemists have that power. What problems would we face? Just about everything. But nothing that physicits and chemists could not make a reasonable prediction about. Relativity is in our favor. Think of us as a passenger in a car. We are moving at high rates without even noticing. All we need to know is how to stop the car and start it. If you have the ability to control the movement of the sun you ultimately have the ability to avoid harms way. This is a far off thought. I mean really far. But it's not inconceivable in my own mind. Anyway, this is what you get on a Friday.
One more thing I just thought of. If we could coordinate a change in the electrical charge of the sun via a chemical reaction, it might be possible for our sun to be drawn through the galaxy toward another electrical charge that is opposite it. Or even possibly repelled by one. and if that happens we go with the sun to whatever destination it will be drawn to. Thus another form of space travel with little to no risk to human life.
Can you imagine the human emotions that would come out on the announcment. This is a great day in our history.... What do we know about them.... How can we kill it.... Lets face it, ALOT fo people would be very scared by such news. Then you'd have to deal with the issue of who would be the mouth peice for Earth. Also the question that you'd want to ask. Where do you come from? How did you get here? How did you find us? Ever do it with an Earth dude? The posibilities are endless!
As I'm learning more and more about the sun, I found this site to be an intriguing place to find answers to question I never thought to ask myself. http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae_astro.cfm
