Hi Malcolm & All,
Quote:
Originally Posted by mswhin63
I haven't watched this post for quite some time as it diverted a lot from the original post. I am sort of curious without reading all the post how did it get from trillions of dwarf stars to ravens and typical alien life forms that follows most post relating to science.   : |
How it happened was that the original mass-media article concluded that because the inventory of stars in the Universe had tripled, so had the number of Earths. Because the number of "Earths" in the Universe had tripled, the chances for life and intelligent life had also tripled -- and everyone got excited that there would be more people out there to shake hands with. This was done in the title of the article remember: " 'Trillions' of Earths orbit red stars in older galaxies". But it's a good headline -- grabs your attention. Only one problem ...
It is erroneous reasoning because the "new stars" are virtually all very low mass, ultra low metallicity Population II red dwarf stars in elliptical galaxies that are manifestly unlikely to have the building blocks to form rocky, terrestrial-type planets required for advanced life, let alone intelligent life.
It is in fact the point I've been pressing all the way through -- assumptions without evidence or with litte evidence other than a statistical argument. There are in fact a lot more things that go toward making an "Earth" than people usually think of.
Best,
Les D