I can't understand why anyone would think theres not life on other planets....all them planets and we are arrogant enough to think we the only ones?

Nah!

I watched the Star Wars film yesterday and the Star Trek film tonight.  I know that they are fiction, but it does make me think about other lives out there.

Suppose humans didn't have opposable thumbs, would some other species have the dominion that we have?  If my cats could operate the tin opener, I'm sure they would take over!

Suppose we had an intelligent life land on our planet, would that stop all the internal bickering?  Would it become a more "Us versus Them"?

I wonder why authors and film-makers nearly always assume the other life forms will be 'baddies'.
Strange instinct. Strange assumption.

Interesting, Brisket, and I do agree.  We have squandered the majority of Earth's natural resources, so why would any other life form want it?

I've always thought there must be, if it happened on earth I'm convinced it's more than likely for other forms of life to be somewhere out there.

This bloke in our local Budgens who works behind the till volunteered the information while serving us that he had just bought a telescope. He uses it to look up into the sky, at stars and stuff. Next time I'm in there I'll pose the question asked in this thread. It sounds like the sort of thing he'd know a lot about.

slim....that's totally him  Last time my OH was in there he told her he had been looking up at the moon as though this was of great interest to her  He is definitely the man to solve this mystery I'm going to get him on the case 

Paranoia, pure and simple. Just as people fear anyone different in life here on earth.

Keep us informed of his findings Prom

Of course. I'm sure he'll come running into Budgens one day screaming OMG ALIUMS! 

I'm pretty certain there's life on other planets. 

I think it's plausible that there may be microbial life on Mars and Jupiter's moon Europa or Saturn's moon Encladus.  The latter two are both speculated to have liquid water oceans underneath their ice crusts. 

I think microbial life is likely to be present wherever water can flow as a liquid even if that water is very hot or very cold.  If there's running water and light for photosynthesis, I think it's almost  a certainty.

As for intelligent life, I think it will exist somewhere but rarely and the vast distances between us and other civilisations probably mean that we'll never make contact. 

A depressing estimate if you're holding out for a Star Trek style future, is that to take a cabin weighing a ton to Proxima Centuri (the nearest star - not sure about the spelling) at half light speed, would take many multiples of all the energy currently consumed by the entire human race per annum.

Brisket
I wonder why authors and film-makers nearly always assume the other life forms will be 'baddies'.

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Judging them by our standards I suppose. 

Almost always when technically superior armed peoples come into contact with technically inferior (un)armed peoples they overrun those people - enslaving, murdering and subjugating them.

Plus it's more exciting from a dramatic, action story point of view to have evil aliens than aliens who want to kill us by dastardly means than have tea with us.

By our standards, that makes sense of course. By the standards of a vastly superior technologically advanced species, it doesn't apply at all. They might be out there and can't be bothered with us. If I was in their position I would be thinking the same way. Any contact would be seen immediately by the US as a conquest threat and we all know what would happen next.

He needs/has a name - We could start a thread, following ' the findings of Budgeon Bob' !

We don't know his real name we just call him Mr Interesting. He always has something interesting to impart. If you ask for 20 cigs and there are no 20 packs left he will say you can have two 10s but never will he fail to point out that it's normally cheaper just to buy the one 20 pack. He wants you to know these things. If they have a special offer he will explain it to you in great detail. He pays great attention to detail which is what makes me feel he is perfectly placed to help us in our great mission 

He actually sounds like a 'Trevor or Malcolm'  - I've worked with a few of them 
I eagerly await the first installment 

For all we know, we could appear as some sort of basic insect type (like ants) to a more advanced civilisation somewhere 

My O/H is well into astronomy and alien type theories. He has a telescope and loves to be out at night in the back garden with it. He gets some amazing views of the moon - which even make me go WOW! when I see them.  He got all excited on NYE when he thought he saw a UFO ... but it turned out to be a chinese lantern