Question: do you believe there is more living things outside of our world and universe?

Alex Reid answered on 8 Nov 2018: last edited 8 Nov 2018 3:41 pm

Thanks for the fascinating question. This is not my area, but I am a huge fan of science and questions like this. From chemistry you might have heard of the periodic table. These are the ‘ingredients’ to our universe and all of the elements in it will be present throughout the universe we exist in. Many of them, like hydrogen and carbon, are in your body right now. We are not quite sure how life arose on earth, but it looks like when planet is in a ‘good’ spot (not too far or close to a sun) then these ingredients can mix into organic compounds (goo) and life can arise. Through billions of years of evolution you get all the animals and humans you see on earth today. To say the universe is a big place is a huge understatement, it is absolutely mind bendingly massive! We already know of many planets that occupy a similar distance from the sun as earth. Some scientists reckon there may be as many as 40 billion planets similar to ours in the universe! In other words it is more than probable that there is life elsewhere in the universe due to these similarities. What this looks like, and if it is smart like us, is anyone’s guess. Also, because the universe is so vast, it is unlikely we will ever meet them (but we can always hope!).

Is there life in other universes? Well we are not sure if there are even are any other universes yet, but some physicists think there could be an infinite amount (known together as a ‘mulitverse’). Some might have very different conditions from our own and some could also be very similar, however remember this is all speculation (we just aren’t sure). If there are infinite universes, and some of these are like our own (with the same or similar ingredients), then there is no reason why they couldn’t host life as well.