Submitted 2 weeks ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/1f26c245-79e3-4be4-ba2b-f084386f6af8.jpeg
I like how you can make whatever claims you want about life in other parts of the galaxy and no one can check you on it.
Here’s why life could actually be abundant on planets close to their star: because I fuckin said so, that’s why! Prove me wrong nerds!
If only we knew how light worked and could come up with some analysis that would suggest one answer over the other. Oh well, I guess you’re right and physicists are just making shit up
It is a pleasure to meet you Mr Fermi.
I personally like to believe that life is not rare because life fucking finds a way and all that.
Intelligent life is likely not rare. On our planet there are several species that might be considered intelligent like elephants, whales, dolphins, covids etc.
Intelligent, extreme tool building life at a detectable technology level from space is extremely rare. I mean seriously, humans have only been detectable from space for less than 125 years out of the 400-500 million years with large multicellular life on this planet.
We developed the ability for a global extinction event from nuclear warfare 80 years ago and we are currently on pace for a global climate catastrophe in the next 200. At the current rate we’ll be lucky to be detectable from space for 200 years.
I somewhat agree with your sentiment. We know only about life on earth and assume we are the norm. There are arguments to make that changing a few parameters will have a negative effect but we might just be a “local optimum” and have no idea what the other local optimums (or even absolute ones) look like.
Then again, we can make educated guesses and I guess the scientists know that that’s what they are doing. But raising research money is easier if you claim to search for alien life.
If you look at stuff like the purple earth hypothises, the Canfield ocean, I'd definitely go with life finds a way.
Why has no-one ever gone there and checked? Are they stupid?
Gotta look at the orange dwarfs. Kurzgesagt just had an interesting video.
what if they start on a yellow dwarf like we are then turn the star into a red dwarf so it won’t kill us?
While they have similar life cycles, ending up as white dwarfs, red dwarfs are much less massive than our sun. Thus, our sun can’t turn into a red dwarf without somehow loosing a significant amount of mass.
Alos, in the case of our sun, before it becomes a white dwarf, it will balloon up into a red giant and consume everything out to about the orbit of Earth. Any life on Earth at that time will be wiped out even if the planet itself doesn’t get dragged down into the sun.
I fail to mention it, but I had Astro engineering in mind. IE, artificially remove mass from the sun
There’s hope, Proxima b may have a magnetosphere
SapphironZA@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I don’t recall this being new, when I was growing up in the 80’s astronomers were citing the unstable nature of red dwarfs as a major filter in the Fermi paradox.
chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
So what’s the reason? They are not consistent enough and changes in light/heat output would kill any life that arose?
SapphironZA@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Correct. Its a combination of regular flaring and CME’s and the fact that their habital zone is very close to it.