Are There Life Out There in the Universe?

 

 If you happen to have a very clear and dark night, you can see the Milky Way Galaxy like a River of Light spreading across the sky from one end of the horizon to the next. Just imagine a tiny dot of faint light out there is a single star similar to our Sun with 500 worlds revolving around it.

When I was a child, I wondered what all those stars were twinkling out there in the night sky. When I grew up, I wondered if those stars seen in the dark alley behind my house have life in their worlds that are much, much more beautiful than ours, where beings live in eternal peace and absolute happiness so unlike our troubled and stressful world we experience here. I began to learn astronomy because of this reason.

But let’s first look at our Solar System.

Our solar system is made up of our Sun and eight major planets, with countless smaller bodies such as dwarf planets, and asteroids.  Some asteroids have more than 300 moons

Various methods have been used to discover other bodies outside the Solar System. These planets outside our own Solar System are called exoplanets or extrasolar planets.  Their presence is detected using various methods, briefly mention below:  

1.       Measuring their radial velocity, or wobble of a stat that measures the line-of-sight velocity, or the rate of change of the distance or range between the two points. Using this method, some 1,036 planets were discovered at this time of writing.

2.       Most exoplanets have been discovered using the transit method when a planet passes between a star and its observer. Transits reveal an exoplanet not because we directly see it from many light-years away, but because the planet passing in front of its star ever so slightly dims its light. This dimming can be seen in light curves – graphs showing light received over a period of time. When the exoplanet passes in front of the star, the light curve will show a dip in brightness. The light curve data helps determine a variety of different exoplanet characteristics. The size of the exoplanet’s orbit can be calculated from how long it takes to orbit once (the period), and the size of the planet itself can be calculated based on how much the star’s brightness lowered.

3.       Direct imaging by taking pictures directly has its limitation in that the planets are so far away that their images are so faint. Only 66 planets have been discovered so far using direct photography.

4.       Gravitational Microlensing is a method used by measuring how light from a distant star bends by the presence of a body in between during its transit to Earth. As a planet revolves around a star, gravitational microlensing causes the brightening and dimming of a star by an object passing between the star and an observer. Since 2004 many extrasolar planets have been found through gravitational microlensing, including several so-called free-floating planets that do not orbit any star. This technique depends on an effect first discussed by physicist Albert Einstein. In his 1916 paper on general relativity, he showed how light that passed a massive object would be deflected by the object’s gravity. In this way, an extrasolar planet can act as a gravitational lens that would focus the light from a more distant star. Some 187 planets have been discovered using microlensing.

5.       Another method is through astrometry. This method detects the motion of a star by making precise measurements of its position on the sky. This technique detects the presence of planets around a star by measuring tiny changes in the star's position as it wobbles around the centre of mass of the planetary system. As far as I know only two exoplanets have been discovered using astrometry.

In the past few decades, the number of planets discovered beyond our Solar System has grown by leaps and bounds. As of October 4th, 2018, a total of 3,869 exoplanets have been confirmed in 2,887 planetary systems, with 638 systems hosting multiple planets. Unfortunately, due to the limitations astronomers have been forced to contend with using indirect methods for a majority of them. .

Within our Milky Way Galaxy itself there is a minimum of 100 million stars according to older estimates, but we now think there could be as much as 400 billion or even 500 billion stars. But I personally estimate that there could be even more than 5,00 billion (500,000,000,000 or 500 thousand million). We are still uncertain and still counting

Let us use 400 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, with each star harbouring 4,000 other worlds of all sizes revolving around each of them as an estimate.  In such an estimate, there would be at least 1.6 x 10 ¹⁵ (16,00 trillion) other worlds or planets in the Milky Way Galaxy.  

That's not all. Within our Universe 93 billion light years across, there could be as many galaxies as there are stars in our own Galaxy. Let us use even a much lower and a more modest figure of only 250 billion stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy instead of 400 or 500 billion other astronomers estimate.

Using this conservative estimate of 250 billion stars a in a typical galaxy to multiple itself as the number of galaxies in the universe, and multiple this again by 4,000 planets in each star system, our answer is an absolutely astounding 2.5 x 10 ²⁶ (250 trillion, trillion) other planets or worlds within an Observable Universe. Some much older estimates put the numbers of stars in the Universe as 10 ²¹ but we think there are far more than that when we have better and better and more powerful space-orbiting telescopes now in place constantly surveying the heavens.

Here are the numbers of stars God Revealed to Abraham:

When the angel of the Lord called upon Abraham, he said:

“That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies” (Genesis 22:17).

Of course, there are only about 5,000 stars visible to the naked eye on a very clear and dark night. This would be the numbers of stars Abraham would have been able to see even in the dry, clear desert skies where he dwelled. There was no way for Abraham to see more than 5,000 without a telescope. He wouldn’t have known there were as many stars in heavens as there were sands on all the seashores in the world during his days. But that was God revealed to Abraham.

On the numbers of sands on Earth, we have calculated that if the Earth's surface is covered with 0.5 m of sand evenly all over, then there are 2.7 x 10 ²⁵ grains of sand.

This works out that the heavens (Universe) have 432 times more stars than all the sands covering the entire surface of Earth 0.5 m thick.

Alternatively, see this article here on sands on a seashore:

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=sands+on+earth

The numbers of sands in all the seashores and beyond would not even match the numbers of stars in heavens. Abraham would not know this till God revealed this to him.

Do we now in our right sense of thinking believe we are the only world that has life here? If we think earth is the only world that has life on it is the same as claiming that among all those astronomical numbers of sands on the seashore, there is only one special teeny-tiny grain of sand that has microbes on it, the rest are all completely sterile. We can’t be as conceited, arrogant and self-important as that, are we?

I have always thought not just one or two but hundreds of thousands of million other worlds that look exactly and precisely like our own world. In these worlds they have streets, shops, schools, banks, buildings,  trains, cars, rivers, bridges, seas, etc exactly like ours there.

In those worlds there would also be humans and or human-like animals creeping and crawling there.

If we understand statistics on chance and probability, we have to accept this reality if we take random samples in a large population to find similarity in each sample. Why should we be that special? The worlds out there are like sands on the seashore and on all the deserts of the world. We then multiply those numbers many, many times more.

If we have a logical thinking brain, we will understand that there would be countless grains even on a teaspoon of sands that would look exactly the same as each other, let alone untold numbers of sands that look exactly like each other among all those sands on a seashore.

We don’t even need the Frank Drake equation to tell us if there are intelligent and advanced civilizations in the Milky Way. Frank Drake equation is given by:

N = R_*f_pn_ef_lf_if_cL.

Where:

N = the number of civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy with which communication might be possible

R_∗ = the average rate of star formation in our Galaxy

f_p = the fraction of those stars that have planets

n_e = the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets

f_l = the fraction of planets that could support life that actually develop life at some point

f_i = the fraction of planets with life that actually go on to develop intelligent life (civilizations)

f_c = the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space

L = the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space

Nor do we need to look for planets with Earth-like characteristics, like liquid water where a celestial object can only orbit so close (like Mercury) or so far (like Pluto) from its star before water on its surface boils away or freezes.

This concept is called the 'Goldilocks Zone,' or habitable zone. It is the distance of a world with the right temperatures for water to remain liquid from the star. Discoveries in the Goldilocks Zone, like Earth-size planet Kepler-186f, are what scientists hope will lead us to water and life.

There are two steps in the calculation for the Goldilocks Zone:

Step 1:

Estimate the host star’s absolute luminosity based on the star’s apparent visual magnitude by calculating the absolute visual magnitude of the host star based on the star’s apparent magnitude.

M_v = m_v – 5 log (d/10)

Where:

M_v = Absolute magnitude of the star

m_v = apparent magnitude of the star (visual spectrum)

d = distance from Earth to the star in parsecs

Step 2:  Calculate bolometric magnitude of the host star.

M_bol = M_v + BC

Where:

M_bol = bolometric magnitude of the star

M_v = the absolute magnitude of the star

BC = bolometric correction constant

There is also no need for scientists to embark in their Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) to listen to radio signals transmitted by other civilizations in other planets among the stars. Neither do we need China's huge 500-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), the world’s largest radio telescope to do the same.  

International efforts have been ongoing since the 1980s to look for advanced civilizations among the stars. In 2015, Stephen Hawking and Israeli billionaire Yuri Milner announced the Breakthrough Listen Project, a $100 million 10-year attempt to detect signals from nearby stars. None has been successful since.

Common sense would instantly tell us untold numbers of civilizations exist out there among the myriads of stars except they do not want to communicate with us. Why should they? What is so great and advanced about us?  Would any life among the sands in a vast seashore wish to communicate with one teeny-tiny isolated far-off grain of sand called “Earth”?

We already instinctively know they are there without us needing to search for them.

Even in other worlds beyond the Goldilocks Zone there may be silicon-based life that may not even need water. There may be worlds with the same appearance as ours with even humans or human-like creatures on them. This may be different from our understanding of the evolution of life on Earth that requires water that has given rise to such enormous biodiversity of life on Earth with untold colours, shapes, sizes and genetic diversity. We may not necessarily expect this the same as in other worlds. Their conditions for their existence may be entirely different from ours.  We may even expect human-like beings with grotesque faces, limbs and bodies out there. Their appearances would be so frightening, weird and surreal, so fearfully and frighteningly different from ours. We can also expect human-like beings to be so beautiful, kind, loving, hospitable, and understanding. They may be towering giants in smaller worlds or tiny and light Lilliputians hardly a few cm tall in giant worlds where gravity is strong. We do not even know if life is carbon and DNA-based as we know it here. All kinds of possibilities far beyond our wildest imagination are possible given the horrendous myriads of other worlds out there that may have created and evolved under entirely different conditions than ours.

We may even find tiny human creatures with wings that fly around like birds, or giant humans with multiple eyes, eight or ten hands, several legs and eery faces in another world or in the same world living together. We might even find an ancient world as it was one million years ago on earth, either similar or dissimilar from ours where all kinds of creatures’ dwell alongside humans or human-like beings with weird and anomalous faces and features. We have no clue.  

Likewise, there may also be worlds that are 100,000 years or more advanced than ours who have conquered all ills and diseases whose state of art in medicine is exactly like how Jesus treated the sick by just one touch of their hands. All kinds of possibilities, combinations and permutations are possible considering the horrendous number of worlds out there among the stars. All these possibilities depend on the conditions and environment out there, and how life was created or evolved, and also how they adapt themselves over several million years, more or less.

Of course, many, many worlds are sterile and devoid of all life like we know them so fare. But what about the vast majority of the rest we have not seen or explored? Here on Earth, we can already see all kinds of creatures of different shapes, colours, sizes, genetic characteristics among others. We already have at least 10 million species of life here thriving in our own small little world, and they are all different in morphology, shapes, sizes, physiology, and their requirements for existence. What about 250 trillion, trillion other planets or worlds under all kinds of weird conditions spread across all heavens 93 billion light-years in diameter? We don’t expect all the worlds out there are similar to ours where life has evolved and have existed exactly the same as ours. Of course, there is a very high chance that many, many worlds are the same as ours where life evolved under the same conditions and patterns as ours, in fact a mirror image to ours. But there is also a chance of the extreme. We have no clue at the moment because we have so far not detected even the simplest life form even in our nearest neighbour, the Moon, or in Mars, let alone in other planets or extrasolar planets we have already discussed. We only need to close our eyes and imagine all possibilities, all kinds of beings, and living creatures presented with all kinds of strange, offbeat shapes and sizes in other worlds entirely different from ours. Their existence may depend on conditions there in their words, how they came into existence, their requirements for continuing existence, how they adapt to challenges in their environments. Anything is possible in other worlds as much as we see and experience here among the wide spectrum of life here on Earth. The evolution of life and their characteristics may be much, much more different from just the single world they exist together just like here on Earth. We can go on and on with all possibilities how they look in different parts of alien worlds scattered over such a horrendously vast reach of heavens. Some ideas here should suffice.

We can also expect spiritual beings like angels flying about. Life out there may not necessarily be carbon-based, nor do they require air or water as there is no sea, rivers or lakes there. They may also be silicon-based life whose chemistry is entirely different from ours. See this article:

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=silicon+life

Life in some of the myriads of worlds may exist as pure “energy of life” like a soul without the body.

They may also exist as viruses such as:

Is SARS Virus an Alien Visitor from Another World?

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=comets+carrying+life

Why must life have a physical body like we know here? See

“Does Soul Exist” in Part II under “Does A Human Soul Travel Faster than the Speed of Light?” here:

https://scientificlogic.blogspot.com/search?q=is+there+a+soul

There is also the presence of principalities and higher powers in other worlds.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).

“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him” (Colossians 1:16).

Their civilizations may be tens of thousands or millions of light years more advanced than ours. Take Jesus who came from another world to ours over 2,000 years ago as an example. His miracles defy all laws in biology, medicine, chemistry and physics that we know of in this world. His practice of healing and medicine by merely touching a person afflicted with all kinds of illnesses, or merely touching the clothes Jesus was wearing and she was instantly cured, showed His healing powers were tens of hundreds of light years ahead of our modern medicine where we depend on all kinds of drugs and surgery.  

 “Now there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years; and though she had spent all she had on physicians, no one could cure her. She came up behind Jesus and touched the fringe of his clothes, and immediately her haemorrhage stopped (Luke 8:43 – 48).

So was his first miracle in chemistry when He converted water into wine:  

Scientific Logic: Jesus First Miracle: A Hind Thought on Life

In physics and in meteorology when He walked on water and rebuked the storm (Matthew 14:22-33).

His miracle on biology when He raised up the dead.  Here is just one example of Lazarus being brought back to life by Jesus as described in John 11:1–45.

He also clearly revealed He came from another world. But He was born in human form.

“My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).

Just think about all these possibilities given that the age of an Observable Universe is 13.8 thousand million years old, and the Earth is 4.543 billion years old.  But the Universe is expanding ever since its birth and is now stretching with a radius of about 46.5 billion light-years and with a diameter of about 28.5 gigaparsecs or 93 billion light-years (8.8×10²⁶ metres) across.