Is the Universe Full of Life? (313)

In this University of Southern California program, Robert Kuhn hosts a group of distinguished panelists in a discussion of what may lie beyond our world. Humans have long wondered whether life exists beyond our home planet. In recent years, a host of new technologies are turning speculation into science. We now have the ability to discern the atmosphere of an extra-solar planet so distant we can't even see it, to detect the presence of dozens of new planets circling stars similar to our own sun. To top things off, recent discoveries of life in environments on Earth so extreme leads to the belief that it's not unreasonable to imagine that microbes -- or more -- may flourish elsewhere in the Universe. Panelists include: Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, Bruce Murray, professor of planetary science and geology at the California Institute of Technology and Shri Kulkarni, planetary astronomer at CalTech.

Category:

Education

[Mickayeel11]

To think we live in a society where people are more interested in Kim Kardashian’s wedding or which celebrity is dating who, rather than the potential of finding life in the universe. The men in this video should be on the front of magazines and newspapers not superficial celebrities.

[metalmilitia1977]

I wish I had just a fucking penny every time I visit a science page and it's tainted with ridiculous comments from religious trolls.

[Forehead2Brick]

TODAY!

[1extenderpro]

universe is full of god slave.

[dldodson123]

@Mickayeel11 The front page is is determined by people's interest. Sadly, most people are perfectly content with their current ideologies and don't want their ideas challenged. And, in addition, most people simply don't have the fundamental understanding of the sciences to have a fertile discussion of the topic. Or, perhaps they don't like the feeling of the ignorance of their concepts made apparent to them.

[mzedong001]

It is full of life. There are no lifeless regions in some universe to my knowledge.....

[Realityprogramming]

@WaitFor2012 True but its not infinite, it has boundaries so therefore life elsewhere is not a certainty. It is however very likely based on what we know about biology/chemistry/physics from our own planet.

[Realityprogramming]

@metalmilitia1977 Think of the matter in the universe (stars, galaxies etc) existing on the inside surface of a balloon as dots drawn by a marker pen. Now blow it up and you have the expanding universe. The dots move away from each other as the balloon expands but in relation to themselves do not change. So the space between your fingers is the same but your fingers are moving further away from the fingers of the guy in the next galaxy.

[Realityprogramming]

@googoo120 Yup - nobody in the field believes the universe is infinite any more.

[Realityprogramming]

@jqs1943 sorry - Newtonian physics is way better than your idea and 300 years older. Plus he uses maths to back it up. Try that and i'll help you verify - would be interesting to see an alternative to Newtons laws of motion. You could win a nobel prize.

[Realityprogramming]

@jqs1943 we know the universe is expanding NOT because we look through the atmosphere but because of the predictions of general relativity and good old Edwin Hubble's observations. We have confirmed this with observations from space using a rather fantastic telescope named after Hubble. There is no atmospheric lens effect fooling us - as you suggest. Plus the spin of a galaxy happens over such a vast period of time that to us, they are not spinning at all.

[Realityprogramming]

@OldaurGold There is very little that could be considered scientific or historical in the bible. There are so may contradictions that using any of it to support supernatural claims or the "truth" is just ridiculous. Anyone who uses the bible as proof of the existence of god is being being self defeating.Using those methods you could also prove the existence of Harry Potter who is of course, a fictitious characters. Perhaps if those books had been written 2k yrs ago you would believe in Hogwarts.