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05-30-2005, 01:57 PM
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Dino
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Yeh, but if it's happened in our Galaxy, and there are squillions of other Galaxys out there, then the chances of it happening again aren't really that low. The Universe itself is a tad large, and so there's got to be something wigglesome-worthy somewhere.
This is a common argument. The usual "But space is so BIG! Surely there must be an increased chance of it happening because of it's size?" argument comes down to this; until we know precisely how life is formed (to the point where we can actually create life in the laboratory) we will never truely know the precentage likelihood of life being formed elsewhere. Don't forget that life has to be "created" first - at least one cell has to be manufactured in order to start life. It could be possible that a VERY primitive bacteria was taken from earth by a meteorite impact, and flown through space to another planet, but for this you must calculate the chances of the fragment ever reaching another planet in tact - there are more stars than planets in the universe, so it's most likely that it will be sucked into a star and annihilated.

Also, you've got the fact that, at the end of the day, planets are just big rocks in space. Big rocks in space do not have a special magical power that allows them to "create" life. The circumstances need to be right. Probably needs the right reactions, in the right way, at the right time, right temperature, and with the right amounts of available chemicals... and who knows.. maybe even a bolt of lightning to jumpstart it? Just think about the chances of that.
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