Are we really alone? Life beyond the stars.....

[Dadsguns]

"The farthest and one of the very earliest galaxies ever seen in the universe appears as a faint red blob in this ultra-deep–field exposure taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. This is the deepest infrared image taken of the universe. Based on the object's color, astronomers believe it is 13.2 billion light-years away."

This picture is simply amazing and hard to really comprehend the enormity of it all and how small and fragile our planet is compared to the vast reaches of space and time.  When this picture aired on NBC Nightly news I paused it and with my Plasma TV it was incredible the detail in that image, explaining it to my kids was really fun and they were amazed at it all, they kind of get it but the scale of it is even hard for me to grasp.  There is plans for another space telescope to replace the Hubble which will bring even more incredible pictures that are far more detailed.
 
Keep in mind, that every galaxy captured in this frame was taken from a portion of the night sky the size of a postage stamp.  Just incredible that we have yet to explore like this 360 degrees around earth and what else we will find.

Life out there? mathematically it must exist in some shape or form.  We are only kidding ourself if we thing we are alone in such a vast and endless probability.  IMO.

[Saxman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEheh1BH34Q&NR=1

[moot]

There was a gamma ray blast so powerful a few years back that it was visible to the naked eye from almost 8 billion light years away.   Couple years ago when I was at full speed into discovering astronomy I'd literally get vertigo when I stepped outside at night with such black skies you could see Andromeda.  The scale of things was crazy.

If you mean James Webb telescope as Hubble replacement, it won't be as much visible spectrum pix.  It's an infrared telescope.

[Saxman]

It's been a long time since I've been somewhere with so little light pollution that the night sky is actually clear enough to see many stars. Seems I remember growing up in the suburbs in the 80s and being able to see FAR more than what's visible now.

[Dadsguns]

If you mean James Webb telescope as Hubble replacement, it won't be as much visible spectrum pix.  It's an infrared telescope.

Yes, its an infrared telscope, it will be able to peer through gas formations as well to see more as this picture example below.  Top is visible light spectrum, bottom is infrared.  The details will be amazing.  But just much further out than the Hubble can see.

[FLS]

If there is life out there that can manage space travel it's likely that they are predators like us.

[Dichotomy]

I think it would be ridiculous to think there's not some form of life out there.  I'll believe in intelligent life when I see it here.

[Saxman]

I think it would be ridiculous to think there's not some form of life out there.  I'll believe in intelligent life when I see it here.

We're still looking for it on earth....

[Jack16]

We're still looking for it on earth....

yep 

[Dichotomy]

We're still looking for it on earth....

exactly

[TinmanX]

It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not everyone is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the universe is said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and any people you meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination.

Douglas Adams

[bozon]

The shift of astronomy towards the infra-red is due to the drive for observing farther and farther galaxies. Almost all light at wavelengths shorter than 911 angstroms (in the UV range) is absorbed by the gas inside the galaxies. When observing far galaxies, this cut-off is shifted into longer wavelengths due to the redshift (Doppler) effect. The farthest galaxies that were found are at about redshift of 8, which means that the cutoff wavelength is shifted by factor (1+z) to about 9000 Angstroms - this is outside the visible rage and into the near infra-red. That is why future telescopes focus more on those wavelengths.

[Sonicblu]

< pokes his toe in the water just for fun because I like to 

[CptTrips]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEheh1BH34Q&NR=1

I got that beat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWVshkVF0SY

:tn
Wab

[Gh0stFT]

Are we really alone? a ridiculus question.

the real question is, are we really alone in our galaxy, and it looks like, yes.
our galaxie is aprox 100 000 lightyears wide, so the light from the widest star
in our galaxie hit us the last 100 000 years and still no no contact.... _(strange)

a wise man once said, a species (any kind) have to survive at leat 200 000 years
to get (maybe) in contact with another life form.

it still didnt happend, because its to early for us humans, we need a minimum of additional 100 000 years.

plenty of room...BUT if we get a signal from such an OLD galaxie (you talking about), and we respond today,
it would took us another 13.2 bill. lightyears until our signal hit them, and if they send
a signal back it would take another 13.2 bill. lightyears until it reaches us back....
theoretically, but that time our signal hit the distant galaxie back, they would allready not exsist  

anyway, so it would take us aprox 26.4 bill. lightyears to get an answere.
you see its just ridiculus

WE will never know, maybe in between the next 100 000 years inside our galaxie,
and even then to get an echo, we need another 200 000 years

and all this is is done with the speed of photons (light)
but moving real humans around in the galaxie would cost us much much much more time