front at the population , we lie with that the Earth and the whole solar system are not in a particular position . This has been extend too to the existence of foreign life – if we are here , we are belike not peculiar , and the world must be teeming with spirit . To which , we ought to agree with physicist Enrico Fermi and ask : where is everyone ? TheFermi Paradoxhas been tackled in many different ways , but one solution just read : wait a bit ! perhaps we are special !

This is known as the Rare Earth hypothesis , and it arise from a book published in 2000 , titledRare Earth : Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe . It was written by two scientists at the University of Washington ; Peter Ward , a geologist and fossilist ; and Donald E. Brownlee , an uranologist and astrobiologist .

In the tome , the duo argues that the evolution of biological complexity requires so many factors that the odds are against complex life sentence being common . The position in the extragalactic nebula needs to be correct , the starring property involve to be correct , the position of the satellite needs to be right , and maybe you needplate tectonics , a large orbiter , and a satellite like Jupiter that can carry through you from comet . The leaning lead on .

To be fair to the authors , when this was put forwards , there were only 11 known exoplanets . Now , there are over 5,600 known exoplanets and thousands more nominee objects . Past estimates suggest that there might be 40 billion worldly concern - sized planets in the Milky Way . As planet and star combo go , it is not that rare . Not all those planet will be Earth - similar , and it is potential that even planets with striking similarities with our own might fail to have the right precondition in the long run .

Venus is similar in mass to Earth , and it is believed to have hadan ocean . But it is now a hellish place . And yet , scientists have speculated thatlife might existin the clouds of Venus . One of the unassailable criticism of the Rare Earth speculation is that it fails to imagine life unlike our own . That it is only potential in the slim potential condition on a blue marble .

But scientist are look into somany different worlds , near and far , looking at those term and query them . So far we have not found life story out there – but just because we have n’t does n’t intend it ’s not there .

We will tackle how we are seem for life on foreign world in our coming freeCurious LIVE!event on May 31 .