How likely is it that another earth like planet could look almost identicle?

Question

So..if the star of another planet was a similar distance from our Earth to the sun and was a similar star and the planet had a similar atmosphere would it look the same as earth? Could humans have evolved the same on this planet?

Answer 1

Well, even a very, VERY small chance, i.e. 10^-99% that this would happen (being generous), may very well yield intelligent life given the size of the universe.  There are countless planets in the universe, you must take this into account.  In the life span of the universe there is a realistic chance of anything happening - check out sites that cover quantum physics. There is a calculable chance that you could disappear and reappear on the moon right now - this gives the cliche that "anything's possible" a more literal meaning.

Answer 2

Scientists have proposed that Mars used to be very similar to earth... due to the changing atmosphere with the sun's life cycle, it declined.

it is VERY unlikely that humans would have evolved... life, yes... but the probability of humans (or any earth species for that matter) living on another planet is ridiculously tiny. Natural selection won't allow it

Answer 3

no

Answer 4

highly unlikey, the sheer amount of chaos in the system that is the history of Earth has too many variables for it to happen exactly the same way again in an area as small as the visable universe.

that being said we have not discovered life on other planets period. who knows, maybe the Earth way is the only way life can evolve.

Answer 5

Another question is where did our oceans come from? Would most planets like ours have oceans of water? I once heard a theory that our oceans came from an impact with a commet that was mostly ice. That makes me suppose that most planets in a similar location to ours wouldn't have watery oceans like we do. That makes the likelyhood of an identical planet low.

Answer 6

Probably not.

It's not impossible that there are planets out there that are similar to Earth, maybe even look the same (although there won't be many). But the kind of life that has evolved here suits this particular planet and life anywhere else would evolve in the same way.

It's extremely unlikely that humans exist anywhere other than here - but other forms of life probably do.

Answer 7

I agree with the first sentence from the person above. I was wondering about this question and started thinking about our interpretation of our physical environment. This got me wondering about quantum theories /  4th dimension and possible multiverses. If some quantum theories are correct, there could very well be other Humans, living in different planes of existence, in a different time frames... but it’s giving me a headache trying to understand some of this stuff :-)

Answer 8

Considering the vastness of the universe I would find it unlikely that a similar planet DIDN'T exist.As far as human or like beings I would not even hazard a guess.

Answer 9

It is extremely unlikely that life on another planet would evolve the same way it has on the earth.  In fact, the chances of humans evolving independently -- or even creatures that resemble humans, like those seen on Star Trek -- are close to zero.  It's quite possible that there are planets out there with a similar atmosphere and terrain as the earth, but the life that might evolve on those planets would be vastly different than life on our planet.  Despite natural selection, there is a large degree of chance involved in evolution -- a set of very specific mutations would have to occur in order for another humanoid species to arise.

If there is intelligent life out there somewhere, it would be very different from us.

Answer 10

well, the universe is endless, so why not?

i think it is very likely that there is a planet like earth, and there could quite possibly be a race like ours too.

Answer 11

It wouldn't look similar - the continents wouldn't look anything like ours, the oceans could be larger or smaller depending on the amount of water on the planet.

Humans evolved on Earth over 3.5+ billion years through trillions of random mutations.

Our DNA is a complex molecule comprised of a very tiny number of nucleotides, but the number of possible nucleotides it could be made of is huge.

So lifeforms on another world may have similar forms and function and may have DNA, but the chances they will be like us is extremely small.  Statistically, they won't be anything like us genetically, and may not appear anything like us physically.

Answer 12

In a finite universe, very unlikely; in an infinity of infinite universes, very likely.

Changing one little thing in Earth's history could have prevented humans from evolving. Having the right set of initial conditions doesn't guarantee anything.

Answer 13

The chance of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe? Likely. The chance that that intelligent life is similar to humans on a planet similar to earth? Very unlikely.

Answer 14

It's not likely that life on another planet would evolve to be humanlike.  There are a lot of random factors that influence evolution.  If an asteroid hadn't crashed to earth 65 million years ago, Earth might still be a dinosaur world with no large mammals at all.  And it had to be an asteroid big enough to kill off large animals worldwide, but small enough to leave small animals alive.