Are we really alone?

[Winston001]

given enough release of energy and in a frictionless environment? - why can something go faster than the speed of light?

instead of calling it "the speed of light" just call it 300,000km's per second or whatever it is that way its just a number to go faster than.

Fair question. The answer is that that this speed is hardwired into our Universe. Its a Rule. Blame it on the Big Bang when the rules were made up because that's the way it is. There's another rule that all particles have a left-hand (I think) spin.

In another Universe electrons are positive, gravity is weak, magnetism strong, and light changes speed. But we got stuck with this one. Go figure.

[Quasievil]

Sheesh some of you guys read to much............I need a beer

[terbang]

Everything starts out as a theory and generally stays in place, as a theory until disproved by discovery (sort of like the flat earth theory) or replaced with something more plausable which generally has a bit of discovery involved as well. My point being that the only way we have established ourselves, as we are now, is by keeping open and enquiring minds and discovery.

[ManDownUnder]

Tis a question for the ages... I mean check out these two facts and see what you make of it.

1) I'm not all here
2) I have more than one personality

Hell - I'm not sure if I'm alone personally... and then someone comes and asks about things on a cosmic scale??

Not good- my head hurts, I need to lie down...

[Wolf]

That "sweet spot" is only for life similar to ours. Carbon based and what not. No reason life cannot exhist outside of this. I cannot believe that life could be limited to only one set formula for success.

Considering that on our own planet we have iron-and-sulphur-based life forms living and dying near the volcanic vents under temperatures and pressures that would destroy us feeble humans in no time.

A vent closes, the life forms die, only those few lucky enough to ride hot currents to another nearby vent live to breed and form the colonies - bear in mind they can't steer or control their speed, they waft on the current and find a new home or the current cools and they die.

Given that life such as this can cling tenaciously in a hostile changing environment such as that, then life can exists anywhere.

I had said for years "Yeah, yeah, "life as we know it" but what about life as we don't know it?" And they found "life as we don't know it" here on Earth in the depths of the oceans, based not on carbon but iron and sulphur, only fairly recently.

I have every confidence that Mars, the iced-over oceans of Jovian moons and other surprising places within our own solar system will yeild signs of life of some description. Most likely that life will be similar to bacteria or plants (but not necessarily carbon-based plants and bacteria), but it will be life.

"Sweet spots" and "biospheres" are all well and good, but as Waylander rightly says, they are not the be-all and end-all. I don't think the bottom of an oceanic trench next to a stream of super-heated water is remotely "sweet" but something does.

And that's merely our own solar system and our own planet.

Once we get out into the other stars and their planetary systems the likelihood is still there. Who is to say that there is not a planet of near Saturnian proportions orbiting 10 times as far from the super-giant Antares as we are from Sol where lifeforms based on liquid-iron and complex silicates (that can only form under the intense heat and atmospheric pressure of the world) squiggle and multiply in a drop of molten sulphur?

I don't expect them to be fronting up to make themselves known any time soon, and for all we know, no race in the history of the Universe, no matter how intelligent, has ever (nor will ever) figured out how to cross interstallar space.

Approaching light speed? Not in this universe, mate! Forget Einstein and all the rest who theorise you can't anyway and assume you can...

Our space is not a perfect vacuum, it contains molecules of hydrogen and helium as well as larger dust specks. Admittedly they are far apart.

But then, so are two power poles when you're at walking speed but they just blur by on a decent bike at "loss-of-licence" velocities.

Anyone stopped to think of what sort of damage a "tiny" 180gr bullet can do at merely 1.5 times the speed of sound and wondered what even a small particle of dust would do to the hull of a ship at relativistic (or near relativistic) speeds?

Sure, it's tiny with negligible mass but when you're multiplying that mass by the square of a relative velocity of close to the speed of light you're going to get enough energy to start vapourising hulls.

If we do crack the speed of light, it won't be in this messy, dusty universe with hydrogen strewn carelessly around.

I personally favour worm-holes/hyperspace - Babylon 5 vs the Star Trek universe. Don't know if there are any to be found, though.

[Skyryder]

lets imagine you could travel at the speed of light, if it was dark and you switched your headlights on, would you be able to see where you were going? cause you would be going as fast as your headlights could project their light, i know this is slightly off the subject, but id be interested if anyone has an idea?

If you were in a car travelling at the speed of light and you turned on the lights you would see exactly the same as if the car was stationary.

It is only the car that is traveling at the speed of light. Because you are in the car, in effect a stationary object you would see the car's light in the same way as if the car was stationary. In both traveling car and a stationay car your 'relative' speed is unchanged.

Skyryder

[Colapop]

I got confused by this thread some time ago - the situation has not changed....

[avgas]

sqrt() means that you square everything in the brackets
t0 is the stationery time relative to the rest observer
t is time at speed relative to the rest observer

You mean square root, and isnt t a matrix of readings relative to time, eg T = [t1; t2; t3...] with a corresponding distance matrix d=[d1,d2,d3.....]. No hang on im thinking of a completely different formula for theretical speed control......sorry my head is a blurry mess right now, damn work

[Skyryder]

http://www.livescience.com/technolog...fastlight.html

I'll see what else I can find.

At present the most objective answer to life in the universe is the Fermi Paradox. Google it.

Skyryder

http://www.solstation.com/habitable.htm Then click on the Keppler mission. There enough here for the rest of winters rainy weekends.

[Drunken Monkey]

given enough release of energy and in a frictionless environment? - why can something go faster than the speed of light?...

...BIG LOAD OF NONSENSE...

.... its just another number.

No offense dude, but you need to brush up on your physics and history before you post in this thread again.

[Winston001]

Considering that on our own planet we have iron-and-sulphur-based life forms living and dying near the volcanic vents under temperatures and pressures that would destroy us feeble humans in no time.

I had said for years "Yeah, yeah, "life as we know it" but what about life as we don't know it?" And they found "life as we don't know it" here on Earth in the depths of the oceans, based not on carbon but iron and sulphur, only fairly recently.

Interesting. Do you have a link? I thought that all life - even viruses - was carbon based.

[Drunken Monkey]

... Do you have a link?

Do you have a web browser?

Google is your friend.

http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en...sed+life&meta=

[Biff]

Speed of light?
Pahh.
Ya bunch of nanas.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/841690.stm

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18024175.200.html

[Skyryder]

Speed of light?
Pahh.
Ya bunch of nanas.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/841690.stm

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18024175.200.html

Seems we are both going to the same speed shop.

Skyryder

[Biff]

On another tanget, if the universe is forever expanding, just what is out side of it? And where does 'that' sit?

Nothing. At least nothing that can be explained by what we currently understand the universe to be, based upon what we believe to be the physical rules of life the universe. Then again everything we claim to know is based on our current understanding of both physics and quantum physics. And the even more geeky things in between and down at the sub-atomic level. Quarks n shit.

So nothing we're capable of imagining. Yet.