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Originally Posted by ALIEN ANAL
did you catch my post on the size of other stars and shit in this universe. Its so amazing, and it got me thinking, correct me if im wrong....but if there is suns a zillion times bigger than our suns and so on..does that mean there could be planets a zillion times smaller than us with life on it?
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Giant stars have short lives from what I understand. This means their planets have a short time to form and develop any sort of atmosphere worth talking about. That's not even discussing the posibility of life.
So I don't think they'd be ideal candidates.
Tiny stars, dead stars, dwarfs.. whatever they're called. I don't know much about their planetary systems, but I'm guessing the lack of light & the fact that any close planet probably got fried before the star shrunk (stars like our sun grow massively before they die) wouldn't help life either.
The Alpha Centauri system is a really interesting place, at least one of the Stars is much like our own and it's relatively close by - a few light years. If there are planets in orbit, there could be one like ours.
But the big variable is, we only know about evolution on one planet, our own. It's possible that life could evolve which is extremely different from us in every way. I'd love to think that life, any kind, be it microbe or plant will be discovered off earth in my lifetime. Europa, the high latitudes of mars and Titan have to be studied in even greater depth than they have been already.
Personally I think one of the most interesting discoveries made since we went into space was on one of the Apollo missions. They took back an instrument from a robotic lander that got there before them. When the instrument was analysed, they discovered traces of bacteria/virus (some flu variant I think). It got in before the lander was launched when somebody sneezed.
Turns out the organism was able to adapt quickly, and went into a kind of slumber while on the surface of the moon. If a lifeform from this planet is able to adapt so quickly to such an alien world, it says much for the possibility of life throughout the universe. In my opinion anyway.
Sorry for going on at length, I'm a bit of a space dork. The cosmos just fascinates me to a rediculous degree. I enjoy thinking about it... daydreaming.