William Atkins
Thursday, 05 February 2009 21:26
Science -
Space
Page 3 of 5
The possibility of microbial life, what is considered primitive life, out there somewhere in the Universe is seen as a plausible possibility to most scientists. No scientific evidence has been presented, however, for the existence of such life.
The possibility of advanced life, what is considered intelligent life, outside of Earth is much more controversial in the scientific community, and in the general populace of Earth.
It too has yet to be found to exist, at least to the acknowledgement of the scientific community (they are difficult people to convince—you just need a lot of proof to convince them, which is what they are doing with such programs as the Kepler Space Telescope).
Space aliens, extraterrestrials (ETs),
little green men, and the other such names are often associated with intelligent life that have come from other places in the Universe and arrived at Earth in UFOs (unidentified flying objects), sometimes also called bogeys by military personnel.
They are all associated with campy science fiction movies, conspiracy theories such as the use of secret government facilities (like Area 51) that house these supposed ETs, UFO sightings (and annual events) in and around
Roswell, New Mexico, and other such amusing but not-very-serious stories and events of yet-to-be positively identified fellow intelligent species within the Universe.
In other words, most people do not take such names for species (which may or may not co-habitat the Universe with us humans) very serious.
They are spoofed in movies and kids dress up like them on Halloween. Some adults say they have seen UFOs and “little green men,” and “little green women,” but so far no one has introduced us to a living creature from somewhere out there in space or produced a real spacecraft that was not manufactured here on Earth.
Page four discusses our past efforts to locate life on other planets.
