Ironworks Gaming Forum - View Single Post - NASA scientists say that life could exist on Venus

promethius9594 · 05-27-2004, 03:06 AM

in each star/planet system there is a ring around the star wherein a planet may contain life. some planetary systems contain no planets in this ring, others as many as three. while the average of zero and three is 1.5, we'll round out and say the average number of planets in the life ring of a planetary system is 1.

now, there are millions of stars in our galaxy. lets just assume that 1 million of those several have that average 1 planet. this accounts for any stars that dont have planets, and doubly accounts for those that don't have any in the life ring. that makes one million habitable planets in our galaxy alone.

now, we know there are at least a million galaxies out there, and thats just what we've managed to see so far... keeping in mind that we've only recorded a little over 15% of the sky, the rest is hidden by solar polution.

lets assume for a second, though, that some of the galaxies have zero habitable planets, and that the most have 1 million habitable planets... this is fairly reasonable, as our galaxy is a fairly middle sized galaxy. we take then, for an average view, and assuming that there are only 1 million galaxies in the universe, only consideration for 500,000 of these galaxies.

we have now formed a good equation for determining the minimum number of planets capable of supporting multi cellular lifeforms. that is: planets per system * systems per galaxy * galaxies

this works out to be 1*1,000,000*500,000 = 500,000,000,000. even with a 1 in a billion odds that multicellular life will form on any planet, that leaves a strong possibility of 500 planets (minimum) which will have multicelular life. even expanding that number to one in ten billion leaves 50 planets which are going to have life. that is why physicists recognize the fact that we are not alone... its not based on a "feeling of loneliness" as yorick would like to state, but on a statistical probability which shows there is a strong probability.

finally, i note that my estimates are rather low, there are more planets and galaxies than i noted, so these numbers are off on the low side.

05-27-2004, 03:06 AM	#6
promethius9594 Drizzt Do'Urden Join Date: April 13, 2004 Location: USA Age: 42 Posts: 676	in each star/planet system there is a ring around the star wherein a planet may contain life. some planetary systems contain no planets in this ring, others as many as three. while the average of zero and three is 1.5, we'll round out and say the average number of planets in the life ring of a planetary system is 1. now, there are millions of stars in our galaxy. lets just assume that 1 million of those several have that average 1 planet. this accounts for any stars that dont have planets, and doubly accounts for those that don't have any in the life ring. that makes one million habitable planets in our galaxy alone. now, we know there are at least a million galaxies out there, and thats just what we've managed to see so far... keeping in mind that we've only recorded a little over 15% of the sky, the rest is hidden by solar polution. lets assume for a second, though, that some of the galaxies have zero habitable planets, and that the most have 1 million habitable planets... this is fairly reasonable, as our galaxy is a fairly middle sized galaxy. we take then, for an average view, and assuming that there are only 1 million galaxies in the universe, only consideration for 500,000 of these galaxies. we have now formed a good equation for determining the minimum number of planets capable of supporting multi cellular lifeforms. that is: planets per system * systems per galaxy * galaxies this works out to be 11,000,000500,000 = 500,000,000,000. even with a 1 in a billion odds that multicellular life will form on any planet, that leaves a strong possibility of 500 planets (minimum) which will have multicelular life. even expanding that number to one in ten billion leaves 50 planets which are going to have life. that is why physicists recognize the fact that we are not alone... its not based on a "feeling of loneliness" as yorick would like to state, but on a statistical probability which shows there is a strong probability. finally, i note that my estimates are rather low, there are more planets and galaxies than i noted, so these numbers are off on the low side. __________________ mages may seem cool, but if there was a multi player game you wouldnt see my theif/assasin until you were already too dead to cast a spell...