The Pros And Cons Of Extraterrestrial Life

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is perhaps the most well known space agency in the world. Since its formation in 19581, it has pioneered in space science, yet is also renowned for its large budget. NASA has the highest budget of any space agency, $18.6 billion2 in 2015, the equivalent of every American paying $54 towards the agency3, meaning 0.14% of total GDP is spent on NASA3 . This money is spent on the ISS, sending astronauts, probes and satellites into space, astrophysics and planetary science research, maintaining and developing NASA’s space telescopes (the Wide Field Infrared Survey telescope searching for dark energy and exoplanets, the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope) and developing spacecraft2. Space exploration is an incredibly expensive process with one shuttle launch costing $450 million4 however NASA’s colossal budget benefits the USA greatly; the agency employs 18,000 people5 as astronauts, engineers, scientists and teachers and G. Scott Hubbard, former director of the NASA Ames Research Center estimates that every dollar spent on NASA returns $8 to the economy6.While this figure is an estimate, it demonstrates NASA’s worth and capacity for money making. NASA works on pioneering research and as its patents and licenses return to the US treasury, it

With all our knowledge of everything around us, overwhelming as it may be, there are still a lot of aspects that are unknown to even the smartest scientists. Did you know that humans know only 5% of the entire universe? Yes, everything we know about the Earth, the Milky Way, and all the planets is barely even a fourth of what comprises the entirety of the universe. Knowing that, it would be illogical to say that the creatures on Earth are the only forms of life in the universe. Today I will tell you about unidentified object sightings, close

There are several different meanings to the word “alien.” An alien could be a resident born or belonging to a different country, a foreigner, a person who has been excluded from something, or a creature from outer space (extraterrestrial). For this argument, a creature from outer space would be the appropriate definition. Many believe extraterrestrials do exist. Many even claim to have seen aircrafts belonging to these extraterrestrials. There have been thousands of “sightings” of unidentified flying objects in which many believe do not look like or belong to anything Earthly. A lot of these sightings have not and can not be explained. Major governments around the globe will not come out and tell the public

Does life exist on other planets besides Earth? Has extraterrestrial life visited Earth recently or in our distant past? The notion of extraterrestrial life is a very intriguing subject possibly for as long as mankind has looked into the vast heavens gazing at the stars. Can one say that life on Earth was done by Mother Nature which some call evolution? Is life on Earth the result of creation or alteration by a higher power or being? Some people do believe that other forms of life except those on Earth do exist. Others consider it false because there is no absolute proof beyond doubts. There have been countless occurrences by individuals around the world of either being contacted or abducted by alien life forms. Many unofficial accounts describe the Earth as being visited by one or more alien species. These various alien species that possibly visited Earth may be interested in observing the development of the human species.

Throughout history humanity has been fascinated by the existence of extraterrestrial life. Today such ventures are in the development process and the discovery of life beyond our solar system, no matter how primitive, may soon become a huge(important?) scientific breakthrough. The three basic things that are required to consider a place even remotely habitable are water, a source of energy, and organic materials. Habitability also depends on other factors that must also be taken into consideration such as how close the planet is to its star (in the case of our solar system, the sun), how long the water and organic materials existed there, and the size and mass of the planet. One must not confuse habitable with inhabited. The term

We live in a universe that is about 46 billion light years old. In a world, as massive as ours there must be some form of extraterrestrial life out in the galaxy. For thousands of years ancient peoples, such as the Greeks, have wondered the same question. Are we alone? As our technology advances, things such as videos and photographs are surfacing of people claiming to see such alien life. Whether it is an unidentified flying object, or if it’s from someone claiming to see an actual alien, there are thousands of people that believe they have seen proof. Some also claim that the government is hiding things behind our backs, like the Roswell UFO incident for example. Though many people refuse to believe in the existence of alien life forms until they see evidence, the fact that multitudes of people have eye-witness accounts, the improbability that we are alone, and the idea that we have thought of aliens so long, bring forth the evidence that proves something is out there.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is one of the leading organizations in space technology and research. In the past 60 years, NASA has sent numerous satellites, telescopes and crew modules into space. Despite drawbacks in launch failures and lack of funding, NASA continues to focus on its mission in space exploration and technological advancement. One of NASA’s projects is to explore deep space, in which entails a manned missions to Mars, exploration of the asteroid belt, and beyond. With these goals in mind, NASA has engineered new rocketry and even created a program to better allocate costs of such conquests. With these new advancements, NASA has created a new age of how space travel is carried out.

Neil Degrasse Tyson points out in his article “Cosmic Perspective”, first published in the Natural Magazine in 2007, that if every human were to truly comprehend how stupendous and interraled the universe is to us, our perspective on humanity would shift from a focus on our distinctions to our connections. Tyson explores through many examples of the “cosmic perspective” to prove just how closely associated we are with the universe.

Space exploration has exploded in the past 56 years. From the first successful satellite mission in 1961, to the first mission space walk in 1969 a to the first time lettuce was grown and eaten in space in 2015. These are just the beginning steps towards potential space exploration and advancing technology to the maximum.

The Space Race was a time of great exploration, and created many new techniques in the studies of science and technology. Many new techniques of engineering and technological advances resulted as positives of the Space Race. The cause of this great exploration and learning was fueled by rivalry and competitiveness of two governments, the Soviet Union and The United States. The Soviet Union and the United States were in a race to see which could reach space supremacy first. This rivalry unfolded in front of millions of spectators, and instilled a sense of competiveness into the viewers. During the mid nineteen-sixties, the achievements of the United States space program caused them to leap ahead of the Soviet Union space program, which was very unexpected. The achievements by the United States during the Space Race in the nineteen-sixties created a gap in space exploration between the Soviet Union space program and the United States space program because the United States was able extremely motivated by government forces and was able to achieve great technological advances in their space crafts.

Most astronomers and scientists seem firmly convinced of this fact. Although there is not any direct (or even indirect) evidence to support these claims that other sentient life is sharing the universe with us. However, this lack of evidence showing that extraterrestrial life forms exist is not proof that they do not exist. It just does not seem logical that our planet is the only place where life and intelligence could have developed. The odds are billions against life of some form being unique to the Earth only. The Earth is unimportant in the grand scale of things in the galaxy. By this I am referring to its' size and position in the universe. In fact, the American Association for the Advancement of Science suggests that the true question that we should be

Should we as humans expect to find intelligent life elsewhere in the Universe? There are many reasons for and against this concept, but first we should trace just how our terrestrial life started.

The argument suggesting life existing on other Earth-like planets has been present since man first looked into space and questioned his own existence and the existence of others like him. Today there are many theories on the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, but only one theory goes beyond them and into an even larger realm. The contents of this theory, known as the “multiverse” theory, suggest that humans on Earth live within one universe of many others that reside within a primordial vacuum containing many other universes (Jenkins and Perez). Each of these universes possesses potentially different natural constants and physical laws that govern them differently, thus calling forth some logical questions. First,

Many people who live on Earth are close minded to what is really out there in the universe. They cannot even begin to fathom the vastness of it and how Earth is just a tiny little speck compared to everything else out there. From the planets to the stars and out towards the edge of the unknown, we can only see what science provides us with. From this, we know that we are nothing but a tiny planet located in a solar system of millions in a galaxy of many more in the universe.

In reality, many scientists were skeptical of both UFOs and of alien life in general; they contended that interstellar travel would be easy for advanced civilizations, so the lack of overt contact disproved alien existence. Yet most UFO opponents do believe alien life exists out in the universe, just not here. So they defend the near impossibility of interstellar travel, which contradicts a considerable portion of the scientific community (Thompson, 1990).