Origins of aliens

Psychologist Carl Jung, in his book Flying Saucers, stated: “something is being seen, but it isn’t known what…. This formulation leaves the question of ‘seeing’ open. Something material could be seen, or something psychic could be seen. Both are realities, but different kinds”. Albert Einstein said, “as far as the laws of mathematics refer to … Read more

Panspermia

Panspermia is a theory that suggests that the seeds of life are prevalent throughout the universe and are distributed by meteoroids, asteroids and planetoids. According to that theory, life on Earth began by such seeds landing on Earth and propagating. The theory has origins in the ideas of Anaxagoras, a Greek philosopher and was developed … Read more

Fermi paradox

The Fermi paradox  is the apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and the lack of evidence for, or contact with, such civilizations. It is named after the physicist Enrico Fermi who, in 1950, questioned why, if a multitude of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations exists in the Milky Way … Read more

Rare Earth Hypothesis

The rare earth hypothesis is the contrary of the principle of mediocrity, advocated by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake, among others. It argues that the emergence of complex multicellular life on Earth required an improbable combination of astrophysical and geological events and circumstances. The term “Rare Earth” comes from Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is … Read more

Extraterrestrial life

To assess the probability of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, let’s first define what is basic life, what are the differences between an inanimate object and a living creature. Organized -Living things are made of atoms and molecules that are organized into cells. The cells in an organism can be either uniform or specialized … Read more

Drake Equation

Some state that by making what they feel are reasonable assumptions and arguments we can ascertain that if life is possible at all, then the universe is so vast that it should not only be possible, but almost certain that there are large numbers of extraterrestrial civilisations in the Universe. In the early 1960’s Frank … Read more

The mediocrity principle

The mediocrity, also known as the Copernican principle, states that since life originated on Earth, a similar process is likely to happen or already happened elsewhere in the cosmos, where the same molecules exist and the same laws of physics probably apply. This idea was reinforced by Edwin Hubble’s discovery that the universe is substantially … Read more