I would find it hard to believe that there is no life in the universe other than on earth. Something like 100 billion galaxies out there each with millions of stars. Each year we find more and more stars with planets rotating around them. That is a lot of places for life to start.
Whether we'll ever encounter life from another planet/moon/whatever, hard to say. Think about it. The earth has been around for around 4.5 billion years. Life started around 3.5 billion years ago. The opening of the olympic games in 1936 was the first time that we had any radio waves that could make it past earth's gravitational field. In other words, that would be the first time that another intelligent life form outside of our solar system could have had a chance to even know we are here. That gives us 75 light year radius that could have heard those radio waves. To have heard and responded, they would have to be with 37.5 light years. Thats not all that far in terms of the size of the universe. Also gotta remember that the universe has been around for around 13.8 billion years. Many other systems could have had intellegent life that died out long before the earth was even formed. There could be a number of other life forms out there that are too far away for us to know about and for them to know about us. I would certainly not be surprised to learn that there is other intelligent life in the universe. I would be surprised though to find out it was similar to humans.
To answer Bug's question on the worth of NASA and space exploration, there have been many things that were developed to aid in space flight that have been applied to everyday life. If you are interested, you can find a short article on that here: http://www.nasa.gov/50th/50th_magazine/benefits.html
Andrew



Reply With Quote