Will life on other planets just be like ours?

Question

If evolution is true wont life on other planets just be like our own or at least like prehistoric times?

Answer 1

no. the most common element on earth is carbon.

what if the life on another planet was silicone base?  everything would be different.

life is opportunistic and depends on the right resources.

It is highly improbable that life on another planet would look anything like on Earth.

Answer 2

No because other planets have much different conditions then the ones on earth. The fact that other planets have such extreme conditions life would be hard to establish and if they were established then they would need to be capable of living through all of those environmental extremes.

Remember the environment shapes the wildlife.

Answer 3

Uh, evolution IS true, and, no, there's no reason to think life elsewhere would be "just like ours" -- in fact, much reason to think otherwise.

There's so much of contingency and accident in the story of life on Earth. It's exceedingly unlikely that everything was the same, and went the same on every other planet with life (for instance, each was hit by a similar asteroid at the same moment in devleopment, and that exactly the same stuff would have resulted).

What makes you think that evolution implies that all planets would have identical histories of life? That really does not follow, and makes no sense.

Answer 4

No, evolution happens based on natural selection and that is what is conducive to the environment so a totally different environment could produce completely different things.  

Also another planet could be completely different -- life forms might not be carbon based, they might not use oxygen and carbon dioxide like our planet, gravity might even be different, and life would evolve conducive to that planet not necessarily like ours.

Answer 5

In theory, it should be.  But the type of life forms would be different, as well as develop differently over millions of years.  The chances of find so called "humans" as we know it are slim to none.

Answer 6

No because each planet (that we know of) has different chemical compounds, thus different organisms would have to live off different elements and evolve differently to survive.  And how is anyone to know until we get there what era that planet is in?  They could be millions of years behind or ahead of us.

Answer 7

If evolution is true, life on other plaents should be totally differnt. Eveolution is driven by environmental stresses, and a different planet should experience different environmental stresses.

Many scientists, including myself, believe that there are certain elements necessary for life to exist anywhere, but no one is sure. We don't have any other example to compare except for planet Earth. We may be a one time fluke, or we may actually be the norm.

My personal belief is that all life, no matter where, will be carbon based, and require liquid water. And all life will contain DNA. The reason I say this is that carbon based molecules number in the thousands and is the only element that combines to form as many and complex molecules that living organism require. Water is an excellent medium for the molecules to form in.

I think there must also be certain planetary conditions present before life can evolve:

A planet must be the appriate distance from its energy source (star) to maintain liquid water.

A planet must have protection from radiation, i.e. a magnetic field and atmosphere.

I also believe that tectonic plates, and variable seasons would be adventagous for the development of life.

When it comes down to it, life is just a very complex form of chemistry. There isn't very much that separates the animated (living) from the inanimate. Maybe life is a logical step in the evolution of the universe. Stars make the elements necessary for life, those elements are distributed and form the 'heavenly bodies'. Methane and ammonia form, and eventually lead to amino acids, which then forms proteins and DNA.

Science is very good at explaining things that happen just before, or just after an event, but explaining the beginning and the end is very difficult.

Answer 8

No because evolution happens because of ENVIRONMENT. The environments on other planets can be similar to Earth but of course can also be very different. It all starts with the single-cell organisms. Animals have evolved just like we have...it doesn't make sense to have exact humans like us on other planets, but possibly something like us.

Answer 9

possibly. history rymes...it doesnt repeat exactly but in future discoveries there will probably b something that will create new life on mars or neptune

Answer 10

If evolution was ture (which it isn't, it's an illusion that Darwin himself didn't believe) life on other planets wouldn't exist.

Answer 11

No.  If evolution is true, life on other planets won't be anything like ours.  Evolution is not a theory about progressive improvement.  It starts with random mutation, AND then natural selection takes a hand.  So it is very dependent on the environment.  Evolution will favor mutations that give advantages to individuals in coping with a specific environment.  We are not the "end result" or "goal" of evolution.

Answer 12

It is possible because of evolution that life could be very similar to us.  It isn't likely going to have the same chemical structure and the similarity won't be like in the space movies where all the humans play aliens with weird foreheads as their only difference.  Intelligent life could be predominantly bipedal because that is the only one that got past a certain level on Earth.  Evolution can't answer that question because you can't know all the possible selection pressures on an alien planet.

Answer 13

It's funny, in science fiction movies they sometimes talk about the Law of Parallel Evolution.  This is so that when Captain Kirk and his team beam down to the planet, the beings there resemble humans.  Even their clothes, houses, cars, etc.

But, as others have pointed out, evolution means that living things adapt to their environment, and another planet's environment might be very different from ours.

Scientists talk about something called the Goldilocks Effect.  Most of the planets in the universe, they say, are too cold or too hot for life to exist 'as we know it'.  Earth is 'just right'.  And considering the trillions of stars in the universe the must be other planets that are 'just right'.  But they still might be much colder or much hotter than earth.  What kind of life might exist on a planet 20 times the size of earth, and with much higher gravity?  Or with an atmosphere made up of ammonia instead of 20% oxygen?

Finally, life 'as we know it' is based on carbon because it's one of very few elements that can combine in so many ways.  The only other element that can do this is silicon.  I remember Carl Sagan talking about an early Mars probe.  The probe had equipment for scooping up a bit of soil and analyzing it chemically for signs of microbial life.  Sagan said that was all well and good but it should also have a TV camera just in case a silicon-based giraffe happens to walk by.  8^)

Answer 14

No.

The "people" will have horns and be bright glurple. They will have hair on there toes that is so long it wont fit in shoes.

But it is a happy place. Far, far away. They all sit around all day and eat peas on top if pizza. (They never forget the snubles (the main fish export))

AND EVOLUTION IS NOT TRUE!!!!!!!

Answer 15

It depends on the conditions of the planet. If they are very similar to earth, any life that were to evolve there would have some similarities to life on earth. But you have to remember that although life on earth has evolved as it adapted to these conditions, there is still a lot of randomness in evolution. For example, if it weren't for a streak of lucky events, all life on earth could consist of bacterium. Evolution isn't bound to happen it is completely random to a certain point.

Answer 16

Not true, if u watch history channel they made a video called alien planet making rare predictions that sound convincing to me.

Answer 17

no - if we do find life - it may not be anywhere near as evolved as us - it could just be bacterial. A different planet will have different conditions and the life on it will need different adaptations. Whose to say they will have eyes hands limbs arms. brains even. it is out of our imagination until we discover it.

Answer 18

No.  A life form on another planet will have evolved to adapt to the conditions found on that planet which would likely be quite different from those found here on Earth.

Answer 19

very doubtful

Answer 20

No. Carbon isn't the only element that can be used for life. Imagine a silicon based life form.

Second, it's been established that life on earth is the end result of a vast number of chances. DNA could have gone clockwise or counterclockwise. Again and again such branches in evolution occurred.

Having another planet, with an alien environment produce life most assuredly won't end of the same as earh's kife.

Answer 21

life on other planets is unlikely.... I could explain why, but I'm too lazy.... the more reseach that is done, the more people realize that earth and our solar system is unique.