Answering a Question

                The argument of whether extraterrestrial life exist or not has been going on for quite some time now, although there may be more people who believe that there is extraterrestrial life now than those who did in the past, there are still many people who don’t believe in extraterrestrial life. Now instead of jumping straight to the “yes” or “no” conclusion of whether extraterrestrial life does exist or not let’s first ask ourselves, what is extraterrestrial life?

Well the actual definition of extraterrestrial life is any form of life that does not originate from earth, this can range from simple forms such as bacteria all the way up to what is commonly thought of extraterrestrial life, and that is aliens. Now if we wanted to go by the exact definition of what extraterrestrial life is, then the answer is yes, extraterrestrial life does exist. There have already been forms of bacteria that do not originate from earth have already been found.

            Instead of using the exact definition of extraterrestrial life, let’s use the more common thought that comes to mind when talking about extraterrestrial life, and that is aliens, are there actual life forms out in space that have an equal or greater intelligence than us humans and that resemble a human like structure? Or maybe even an alien life form that would be the equivalent to earth’s wild animals? Well instead of jumping straight to the “yes” or “no” conclusion let’s try and find some evidence that can support those conclusions.

            Let’s start with the basics, the universe is currently believed to be infinite since scientists have yet to find anything that resembles the end of the universe, so that right there already opens up the thought of other life forms to be in existence. Through doing my research I looked up Dr. Michio Kaku who is an expert theoretical physicist and author and I came across a video with him in it and Dr. Michio Kaku said “we now have some numbers that substantiate that. The Hubble Space Telescope orbiting in outer space right now has given us the first census of planets in the galaxy that may have life on them. It turns out that out of every 200 stars you see at night, one of those stars can have a planet in the habitable zone, the Goldilocks Zone -- not too close where the oceans would boil, not too far from where the oceans would freeze but just right to have liquid oceans. Why liquid oceans? Because water is the universal solvent. It dissolves most things including the organic materials of life like DNA. Our galaxy contains billions of stars. This means that perhaps 500 million planets in our own backyard, in our own Milky Way Galaxy may have planets carrying liquid oceans and perhaps even life.”
            With that being said that’s really strong evidence to help support the thought of aliens existing, now a good rebuttal that someone who is against the thought of aliens existing would be something along the lines of, “if there is life on other planets why haven’t they come to earth?” which is a good counter argument, though I would say that either the life isn’t as advanced as we are, or even if they are as advanced as us, they still probably wouldn’t be here yet because the vastness of space and also we haven’t been to those planets either, the only reason we know of these planets is because of the Hubble Space Telescope that has taking pictures of these planets. But let’s say that these alien life forms are much more advanced than we are and they can travel interstellarly from planet to planet, why haven’t they came to earth? If you look at earth in comparison to space, earth is a mere speck at most compared to the vastness of space, and is just one planet among the infinitely increasing number of planets that we continue to discover, so those life forms could just as easily gone to another planet than to earth.
            Many people have said that they have seen aliens or UFOs and some even have said that they have been abducted whether you believe these stories are true or not is completely up to you. Many people who think these are just made up stories often ask “if these stories are true then why are the aliens being so secretive about their existence and abducting people?” in which I would respond with, the reason the aliens are being so secretive is because us as humans and epically Americans, we wouldn’t just roll out the welcome carpet, we tend to shoot first and ask questions later. If an alien space craft landed in one of our towns the government would come in with balloons confetti, and a big “welcome to earth” sign, they would bring every member of the military, every tank, helicopter, boat, and plane they could and surround the space craft and ready to open fire on it if they felt the slightest notion of being threatened. Now for the whole abduction thing, the only reasoning behind that is to study humans closer without having to land on earth for safety precautions.
            Many people believe that Area 51, which is house in Nevada, holds many secrets and among those are alien life forms, alien technology, and even alien space craft. The reason behind these beliefs is because around the same time the thought of alien existence and sightings really started to boom, Area 51 was built, and many people believe that the government is hiding the fact that there is extraterrestrial life from the public, and the reasoning behind that is because the government doesn’t let anybody into Area 51. Now the government claims that Area 51 is just a base used for development of military aircraft, and seeing how its top secret, they won’t tell anyone what’s really going on in there and they just let the people believe what the want.

Now in the end we still have no solid factual evidence proving or disproving if aliens exist or not, that is still entirely up to your beliefs. I for one think that, yes, aliens do exist and that we are not alone in the universe, the reason I believe this is because I feel there is more evidence supporting the possibility of alien life forms than there are disproving the possibility of the existence of alien life forms. One day we may know for sure if there is or isn’t other life forms out there, but that day may come when our generation isn’t around anymore. But I think it’s safer to believe that there are other forms of life out there that do exist. That way if they do exist we will be ready for it, whether they come to earth peacefully, or violently, either way we would still be ready and have a basic plan laid out.