Name: Phuong Dang Tri
Class: PHYS-1040-001
Date: 2/22/2012
Possibilities of alien and what will they be like.
Alien is a word that we are very familiar with in modern days. We have alien in our thought; we have them as in entertainment, also in science, religion and in our speech. But the funny thing about alien is we have not or not yet seen an alien? So what is alien? Alien in science (the real alien) is a form of life outside of Earth. As long as it lives we call it alien. In entertainment alien is a big ball of money magnet which sucks the money and time out of nerds, geeks and people who cannot get out of their televisions, computers and costumes. Most of the time alien in entertainment is stuck to a stereotype of gigantic eyes and head with skinny green midget body. It really comes down to this, are there alien outside of Earth? To me, I’m giving it a big concrete YES! And this is my reasons.
First, let’s talk about the possibilities of alien out there. Our Earth is just a tiny round blue ball in a super duper extremely big universe. The Earth, including eight other planets and countless other objects orbits the Sun which we call this group the Solar System. Being one in about two hundred billions stars in a galaxy the Milky Way, but still the Milky Way is just a grain of sand in a giant cosmic ocean. The cosmic ocean is a vast web of galaxies so small which are so small comparing to the big picture. We are Just one of one hundreds billions galaxies. Even though the Universe does not have infinite stars but because the number is so big that it seems like there are no END! And to me it is really amazing that how Astronomist could really calculate such things. It’s just too big to be real and the chances of having alien life is extremely high even if it’s a simple life form or intelligent life form like the one we sees in Star Wars or Star Trek and this could happen in our own galaxy!
Second, the big question here is how will alien might look like? There are tons of possibilities to tell how an alien might look like. All living creatures in the whole universe have one thing in common and that is the need to survive and grow. Alien life form could be as simple as slimy green stuff that feeds on microscopic germs or cells. To a much more developed or advanced that can bites, fly or swim in ocean. Their features depends on the environment that they live in. Like if they live in liquid environment they will need something like a fang or have scales that will help them breathe and get around. But that is just a simple and small possibility. Nothing is impossible and it is impossible to not imagine that there are intelligent life forms. Could be a little less than us, there could be exactly like us or even more exciting if they are much more intelligent than us with cool spaceship and different abilities that they can do. Sometimes I think that there are many Earth like planets and alien on that planet actually look like us and speaks our languages, because the Universe is so big that even that could still be 0, 1% but it’s still possible. I’m not say that because I’m guessing but there are many research shows that asteroids could carry small organism so we might be actually from another planet but lucky got to Earth where this organism is supported. There could be creature that lives in the center of stars living in the extreme heats or even exists in micro life forms that joins up as a massive cloud and we might not recognizes them as alien life form.
Third, It is really hard to know what to look for and where because as I have mentioned many times that this is a really big place with trillions of opportunities. But don’t over think anything we have to take as simple a perfect place to get those kind of information is our own home Earth. As life on Earth began by accident, it started in hot steamy pool full of chemical calls amino acid. So in the pool there were countless molecules that hit each other randomly for years until they are in perfect combination. In the end life started in the simplest life form of tiny cell. From then the magic word “evolution” steps in the game taking millions of years and now here we are with thousands of species. And species turns into another species’ food just simply because that is the law of natural and nature favors the ones who can survive. From looking at our little Earth we can see how we act and look just based on the environments that we live as we talked before. So the goal here is not looking for any type of alien first but it is the alien or life forms that might actually exist on Earth Like planets. Earth like planets must have water since that’s the place for chemical to start kicking. And plus it must have the right distant from its star in order for water to exist. It is a lot of things to consider but since the launch of the Kepler mission many Earth like planet have been found.” 2,326 potential planetary candidates identified by the mission so far.”. So it is not that hard for the alien to exist. The only hard thing for us now is we cannot travel in space fast enough with our current technologies. Most stars in distant is light years away from Earth. So let’s just hope that there will be alien contacting us and hope that they come in peace J
In conclusion, alien is any type of life form that exists outside of Earth and what we learnt is that the possibilities of having alien are extremely high because due to the vast and awesome universe. They can be in any shape or form, Intelligent or not. I really hope in the near future we will actually experience alien in a peaceful diplomat and fun way. In the mean time we need to focus on how to travel through space fast and keeping looking for those outer life forms.
CITE:
1/“ 2,326 potential planetary candidates identified by the mission so far” http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/earth-like-planet-kepler-22b-to-get-close-up-summer-2012.php
2/ The essential cosmic perspective (fifth edition).
Author: JEFFREY BENNETT, MEGAN DONAHUE, NICHOLAS SCNEIDER, MARKVOIT
3/ Video: Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking . Using Netflix
Being in this class is amazing. I’ve learnt a lot although my English isn’t great and I have a lot of difficulties catching up but I think I’m doing good. Astronomy has always been a great mystery in my life and I’ve always looking forward to learn more and more about this awesome subject I also have to adapt to new methods of learning which is having a lot more quizzes and do daily journals and exams which are good practice for future learning and working experience.
