Re: Habitable planets
Many changes lately. "Last week, Nasa's Kepler satellite released a list of 1235 potential planets orbiting nearby Sun-like stars, with 68 planets that are roughly the Earth's size and 54 planets in the so-called habitable zone, a region conducive to life as we know it."
And not too long ago "life as we know it" meant that it required oxygen, sunlight, and a fairly temperate range. But since then we have discovered life that exceeds any bound we set. Far under the ground beyond sunlight. Very deep in the ocean using volcanic vents and gases instead of oxygen and sunlight. In the ice of antartica still alive. Its beginning to seem more that its impossible to find someplace that life cannot exist.
Samplings of meteors and moon and mars samples has included water, amino acids, and everything needed as a building block "for life as we know it".
And thats just for LIFE AS WE KNOW IT. Not to mention the variations that have been speculated.
I think that the scientists of the sciences involved here have shifted from "maybe possible" toward "Id be really surprised if it wasnt".
"If there is no intelligent life in the universe other than Man, I will accept that as proof of the Hand of God at work."
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