Intelligent Alien Life Forms Exist in Our Universe

Although there is no definitive evidence that any aliens or even intelligent alien life forms exist in our universe, there is an extraordinary possibility that they do exist in our universe. I am skeptical of the UFO stories throughout the world and the mysterious 'crop circles', but I find it considerably difficult to believe there isn't one other intelligent life form outside of our planet, Earth. "Intelligent: having the faculty of reasoning and understanding" (1) An intelligent life form does not only pertain to humans. Just as humans are able to resolve a situation with reasoning and understanding, a life form as simple as an ant or a fish can solve a problem just the same. For example, ants work together in a colony by collecting food and providing protection to the rest of the colony in order to survive. Intelligence is not just a measure of one's mental ability, but also of being able to recognize and react to environmental factors in order to stay alive. "There are 70 sextillion stars in the visible universe", say astronomers. (2) This is what the number 70 sextillion looks like: 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. The number of stars in the universe exceeds this amount. "The real number could be much, much larger still -- some people think it is infinite", says Simon Driver of the Australian National University." (2) 70 sextillion only represents what the telescopes' range can show. "Based on calculations by Charles Lineweaver and Daniel Grether at the University of New South Wales, at least 25 percent of Sun-like stars have planets." (3) This means there is an overwhelming trillions and trillion of planets in our universe. Also stated by Lineweaver, "...the rapidity with which life arose on Earth suggests that more than 10 percent of terrestrial planets have life." (3) The possibility that we are the only thinking beings in the atronomic universe we live in would be astounding. "To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational, the real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like." - Stephen Hawking There is an unimaginable amount of space in our universe which is filled with dark matter, stars, planets, asteroids, meteors, and certain life. Did we get that lucky to be on the one and only planet suitable for intelligent life or bacterial life at the very least? Or is there many other planets similar to ours which also have intelligent life, maybe even of greater intelligence than our own? Looking at the odds of our planet being the one and only appropriate for intelligent life, I know there are other planets with intelligent life. There could be another civilization just like the human race, wondering the same thing. Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer for SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), is so confident that he set a date for our likely encounter with intelligent alien life forms. Seth Shostak stated, "It is quite likely that there is life elsewhere in our galaxy, and there's a real possibility that we will find evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life by the year 2025." (4) 1. http://dictionary.reference.com... 2. http://www.space.com... 3. http://dsc.discovery.com... 4. http://www.space.com...