Debate: Can life exist on other planets?

[Vanessa Tilley]

Hello everyone! As you may have noticed, the Ravenclaw April activity is all about planets so we thought it would be fun to see what your thoughts are on if life really could exist on other planets.

[Gail Allen]

Yes!
Life can absolutely exist on other planets.
There are so many planets in the universe with so different compositions, it would be Ludicrous to think it impossible. In fact we know of several other planets that are fairly similar to earth located in habital zones around their stars. Since we know life is possible here (evidenced by our very existence), we have to accept that these earth-like planets would also be capable of housing life.

The far more interesting question is of course then: Do they then? And if they do, is this life intelligent.
This question is far harder to answer, but what always makes me curious is that when trying to judge whether a planet might be capable of housing life we always assume that this life must be at least somewhat similar to our own; We assume that there has to be liquid water, we assume that the temperature has to be within a certain interval.
And of course we have to make these assumptions; otherwise we would not know where to search or what to search for. But who says life has to develop the way it did on earth? Why could it not develop with entirely different building blocks than us? What law states that life on other planets must be 'biological' in the way life on earth is? Could it not have developed differently somewhere else in the universe?
Since we cannot recreate the environment on other planets and run million upon millions of tests to see whether it would be possible for life to develop there, I would not necessarily rule out that life could exist in a way that was dissimilar to our understanding of biology.

But then why haven't we heard from them?
Apparently intelligent (and spacefaring) life in the universe is either rare or so far away that they haven't reached us - yet.
Or we're early and intelligent life in the universe is only beginning.
Or we're late and most intelligent life in the universe has already become extinct and we're some of the last ones left.

Either way: I definitely believe other locations in the universe are capable of producing life, just maybe not life in the way we imagine it.

[Louis Walles]

In my opinion, there is no way ever we are the only living things in the universe. This sounds so obvious and I think it is stupid to assume that only one planet in the WHOLE UNIVERSE was able to create any sort of life. We, of course, will never know for sure, but I do believe there is some life out there.