Planets, and Alien Life..

[Bender]

I've known the stable elements since the 9th grade.

 

 

So....How about we get somebody to find a test we can both do online and submit our answers? I bet I outscore you.

 

As far as that racket grip nonsense, we will see who has the best grip on chemistry.

 

Though, I am quite sure you won't take me up on the offer.

 

Can't wait to hear your reason.

 

Have a great weekend!

Which elements are stable has little to nothing to do with chemistry. QM has been very effective in making lots of predictions and we have no reason to believe there could be other elements. There were holes in the PSE, and we manager to fill those with new elements, exactly as predicted. By analysing the spectrum of other stars, we see the fingerprints of elements we know, exactly as predicted.

 

We depleted most combinations of protons and neutrons. There are hypotheses of a "stable" region above 120 somewhere, but that refers to possible half-lives of milliseconds or perhaps seconds, either of which would be huge, but not exactly practical for use.

 

We even ventured into replacing protons or neutrons with other baryons, but these are all extremely unstable. Even neutrons, by far the second most stable baryon, decay in minutes to protons outside a nucleus.

 

Every single particle we know of degrades to protons, electrons, neutrinos or photons. There may be other weakly interacting particles, but if they are weakly interacting, they aren't good candidates for new element-likes.

 

In short: in our current, effective models there is no room for new elements and through our astronomic observations, we have no reason to assume it is going to be different elsewhere.

[beecee]

In my opinion, and in the opinion of most scientists, life would certainly exist elsewhere in the Universe.

In saying that though, we must also accept the fact that as yet, [other then for "the stuff of life"being everywhere we look] we have no evidence at all for that.

Contact between "Intelligent species"? May happen one day, but two distinct barriers do make that hard....time and distance.

If by any long stretch of the Imagination, we on Earth were it, [the only life in the universe] then it would certainly raise far many more questions then the more obvious answer.

[Janus]

In my opinion, and in the opinion of most scientists, life would certainly exist elsewhere in the Universe.

In saying that though, we must also accept the fact that as yet, [other then for "the stuff of life"being everywhere we look] we have no evidence at all for that.

Contact between "Intelligent species"? May happen one day, but two distinct barriers do make that hard....time and distance.

If by any long stretch of the Imagination, we on Earth were it, [the only life in the universe] then it would certainly raise far many more questions then the more obvious answer.

If there is life on other planets, that is important knowledge to have.

If Earth is the only planet with life, that is also important knowledge to have.

Edited June 23, 2017 by Janus

[beecee]

If there is life on other planets, that is important knowledge to have.

If Earth is the only planet with life, that is also important knowledge to have.

Yes certainly in both cases, but again, taking into account, the near infinite nature of the universe in extent and content, plus the fact that the stuff of life is everywhere we look, if we were it, many many more questions would be raised.

The god botherers would have a field day!