back to article Potential ALIEN LIFE habitats FOUND ON MOONS

International boffins, poring over the results from mighty telescopes both spacegoing and ground-bound, say they have identified at least 16 potentially habitable Earth-like planets orbiting other stars: and at least 30 potentially habitable moons along the lines of the scientifictional Endor and Pandora, orbiting planets in …

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  1. Bunker_Monkey
    Alien

    We're slowly being warmed up for something BIG

    That is all..

    Mines the one with the "Conspiracy Theory for Dummies" in the pocket

    1. BorkedAgain
      Alien

      This explains In The Night Garden as well.

      Think about it. A bunch of extremely odd beings - bouncy gas giants, a neat-freak with affinity for rocks, an intelligent, graceful flower creature, some dissonant flashers with three genders (Un, Ooo and Eee) not to mention the tiny red overlords (welcome!) with their near-identical tiny blue neighbours, and the intelligent transports, all taking place in the night sky? Some classic Sci-fi tropes in there...

      What are the Beeb trying to prepare our youngest generation for, I wonder?

      1. Eddie Edwards
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I've been noticing this since the X-files

      And Independence Day. Apparently someone is afraid of cultural collapse. A wise advice from an entity more experienced in first contacts is also a possibility.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    As always

    Science FTW

  3. MrXavia
    Go

    So when do we start sending out the probes???

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bloody Scientists....

    ...why is the human race so f'ing arrogant it presumes in order to have life it needs to be earth like. Is it so bloody hard to imagine life could exisit at -150c,"breathing" nitrogen, eating co2 and shitting 200c plasma out of it 6 arses?

    1. Lews

      yes, yes it is.

      Essentially the scientists are saying, "hay we are 99.99% sure there is life on earth and some of it might even be intelligent, so if we look at other planets and astral body's that are similar to earth then there is a chance that there may also be life on them"

      This is better than saying, "hey we have found a million planets all with vstly different climates and conditions to our own, by some magnificent flights of the imagination we think they might be able to sustain some kind of life form that is nothing like anything we have any evidence for"

      1. Field Marshal Von Krakenfart
        Joke

        "hay we are 99.99% sure there is life on earth and some of it might even be intelligent"

        Yep, that sounds about right to me....

    2. sisk

      I think the key phrase in the article is "along Earthly lines".

      Let's face it, if you start considering not-Earthling-like life then we have to take a good long look at every single exoplanet, not to mention searching stars for potential hydrogen based life. It's just easier to narrow the parameters down to looking for other carbon based life that breaths oxygen.

      1. Tomato42
        Boffin

        life is defined as any self-replicating, low entropy system.

        Yes, that makes some computer viruses life

        1. Eddie Edwards
          Boffin

          Who defines life as that? There is no widely acknowledged shared definition of the term. Some people don't even define biological viruses as life, merely as replicators, so saying self-copying computer programs are alive seems to be a stretch to the point of romanticism. The mighty Wikipedia lists 7 characteristic of living things; only one or perhaps two are shared by computer viruses.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Next project

      A five-arsed monkey that shits plasma.

    4. Daniel Evans

      200C Plasma?

      Yeah, that part's pretty hard to imagine - Plasma's a bit warmer than that.

      The issue with "other forms of life" is one of chemistry, really. You need to base it around some fairly common element - so nothing heavier than Iron (the element at which nuclear fusion gives up), and the lighter the better.

      You want something which is able to bond to as much as possible - Carbon and Silicon are the two good examples there. You then need to work your way up from that:

      Hydrogen will almost certainly be involved, as it's so damn common

      Nitrogen isn't too useful as it's pretty unreactive chemically in its standard (N2) form (note that 80% of the atmosphere is Nitrogen, and it does bugger all most of the time)

      You then need to consider energy requirements (photosynthesis, geothermal, or "eating stuff" are the three I can think of), and so on...

    5. Trollslayer

      The reason is

      liquid water increases the number of chemical reactions that can take place and is, in some respects the 'universal solvent'. Have you seen the salt crytsal caves in China for example?

  5. schnide

    That's no moon.

  6. detritus
    WTF?

    Wait.. what? We haven't actually any proof of the existence of any exomoons yet though, right?

    Or have I missed a fairly amazing announcement sometime recently?

    This page (August 2011) seems to imply not..

    http://www.paulanthonywilson.com/blog/exomoons-about-the-moons-of-exoplanets/

    1. Usually Right or Wrong
      Happy

      So what can go wrong?

      The moons may or may not exist, they may or may not be habitable, they may or may not be there when we arrive, shouldn't let that stop us though.

  7. Mr Young
    Joke

    Is it all really 20 light years away?

    That's got to be a slow wireless connection at least - never mind getting there!

  8. Nick Davey
    Alien

    But...

    surely we'll never find out if there is intelligent life out there if they caught hold of that Bebo broadcast. I'd be more worried about Xindi style doomsday weapons coming our way.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why are the words potential & habitats in lower case?

    It really is getting like the bleedin currant bun around here.

    I know it's a red-top website but this is getting silly.

    1. djs

      Do you really need the joke explained to you?

      If you read only the upper case words, the headline is "ALIEN LIFE FOUND ON MOONS"

      Or, in other words, it takes the piss out of the sun and its sensationalist headlines.

      1. Dave Wray

        Thats why I referenced thebleedin paper!

        But it's not the Sun it's The Register!

        I dont expect ElReg to be hacking my voicemail either..

        1. BorkedAgain
          Happy

          They did that...

          ...but there wasn't anything worth reporting on. ;)

  10. bruceld

    Smart scientists...

    ...know that by saying 'oh we are very certain to find extra-terrestrial this time!' and pleading publically and garnering headlines all around the world is sure to gain financial support for them to continue making a living. That's what I call...smart!

    Moving along. Do we really need to prove that life exists elsewhere? How does it benefit us and why should it matter? We can't even get along with our fellow lifeform species where we want to blow eachother up, exploit one another for our own selfish benefit, to control and exploit every other lifeform and natural resource on our planet for our own selfish gain and benefit. We do all of this without thought or consideration believing that we have a right to exploit everything that we come into contact with, and that we deserve to survive and exist above everthing else in nature. So if we find life elsewhere, do we then automatically have the right to profit, tamper with, exploit and destroy it too?

    Humans. I'm ashamed to be part of our disgusting race.

    1. Mr Young
      Facepalm

      Humans can choose to do good and nice things as well

      ; See icon

  11. DirkGently
    Stop

    Probes

    By the time any probes we send out reach these planets, the civilisations will probably have been and gone - even if they haven't already.

  12. AndrueC Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    The really advanced civilisations gave up on planets long ago except for tourism and a few scientists doing biological research.

    Natural biospheres are just /so/ delicate and unpredictable. One minute you're being attacked by a tiger, the next minute some busybody says you've just destroyed the last of their habitat. In space we can control things and if a reactor starts to go wobbly you just jettison it out the door and build another one :)

  13. James Yeomans 1
    Coffee/keyboard

    Not THAT BOTHERED about the article but why is some of the HEADLINE IN CAPS?

    Agree with 'Anonymous Coward'

    It's infuriating, that's all, is there a new editor who sometimes get his caps lock stuck on or sees the need to write headlines half in sentence case and half not?

    "You know what really grinds my gears..."

    1. Francis Boyle Silver badge

      Well, I for one welcome

      a good "ON (THE) MOON(s)" headline.

  14. ottokrog

    SSpeed of light

    Off course there is life out there.

    We just have to exceed the speed of light to get there faster than 36

    years. In a few decades it will be done.

    But not untill my philosophical theory gets investigated.

    I am pretty sure that it is wrong, but it might get somebody to think.

    What if the speed of light varies through time and space?That would

    create some interesting theory.

    At least I think so.

    Antimatter is the mind and consciousness of all living entities.

    You are your own universe.

    Reality is where the minds (antimatter) meets the physical universe.

    Interested? Then read my philosophical multiverse theory.

    Google crestroyer theory, and find it instantly.

    http://crestroyertheory.com/the-theory/

    1. hplasm
      WTF?

      The drugs don't work...

      they just make it worse.

      And not a single rhyme...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      The speed of light is not constant and is affected by gravity for example. GPS is a good practical example of this as the speed of light is different enough in orbit to that on the ground that compensations is required, without which GPS would be useless and out of sync in an instant.

  15. DanceMan
    Flame

    Bah, Humbug!

    I'm afraid I had the same reaction as Bruce. After listening to the news all day, my thoughts were of us eventually racing off to another celestial body where we could dig up half a planet for resources, extinguish half the species, acidify any oceans, etc. That's after we kill half the inhabitants if they don't convert to our religion of the moment.

    Where's Tiny Tim when I need him?

    <----------------- burning xmas tree

  16. Anonymous Coward 15
    Alien

    's/FOUND ON//'

    Alien buttcheeks caught on space camera.

  17. ottokrog

    peed of light

    Off course there is life out there.

    We just have to exceed the speed of light to get there faster than 36

    years. In a few decades it will be done.

    But not untill my philosophical theory gets investigated.

    I am pretty sure that it is wrong, but it might get somebody to think.

    What if the speed of light varies through time and space?That would

    create some interesting theory.

    At least I think so.

    Antimatter is the mind and consciousness of all living entities.

    You are your own universe.

    Reality is where the minds (antimatter) meets the physical universe.

    Interested? Then read my philosophical multiverse theory.

    Google crestroyer theory, and find it instantly.

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