• Question: is there life in space

    Asked by anon-186556 to Verity, Danny, Catherine on 13 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Catherine Smith

      Catherine Smith answered on 13 Nov 2018:

      I think that there are about three people living on the International Space Station – but beyond that, no one knows. I hope there is!

    • Photo: Verity Hill

      Verity Hill answered on 13 Nov 2018:

      I hope so! It would be sad if it was just us alone in the universe. I’d say that the universe is so big, that there must be!
      It might not look like us though: it might be only single celled, or based on a different element (we are “carbon-based” – something else might be based on silicon!). The key problem might be recognising it as life!

    • Photo: Danny Ward

      Danny Ward answered on 13 Nov 2018:

      Given the size of the universe, I think its probable that there is other life out there. The problem is, the universe is an estimated 93 billion light years or 880000000000000000000000000 meters in diameter (and this is just the observable universe, it probably goes on beyond this). In this huge space, their are an estimated 3 trillion planets 🌌🌍.
      .
      Trying to explore all of that to search for life is just an impossible challenge for us right now, we don’t have the technology to travel far enough. The furthest we have ever gone in space is with the voyager satellite (in space right now!) and that has reached 21200000000000 meters which we sent off 40 years ago. Still no signs of alien life yet but lots of promising planets to explore that look like they might contain life. If we did find life it would likely be a simple microbial organism at first 👽.

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