The question should not be ‘is there other intelligent life in the universe’ - instead, ask what are the odds?

Are we the lone sentient life in the universe? So far, we have no evidence to the contrary, and yet the odds that not one single other planet has evolved intelligent life would appear, from a statistical standpoint, to be quite small. Read the rest at The Daily Galaxy

Photo of - Irregular Galaxy Sextans A

Photo Credit: D. Hunter (Lowell Observatory), Z. Levay (STScI)

Explanation: Grand spiral galaxies often seem to get all the glory. Their newly formed, bright, blue star clusters found along beautiful, symmetric spiral arms are guaranteed to attract attention. But small irregular galaxies form stars too, like this lovely, gumdrop-shaped galaxy, Sextans A. A member of the local group of galaxies which includes the massive spirals Andromeda and our own Milky Way, Sextans A is about 10 million light years distant. The bright Milky Way foreground stars appear yellowish in this view. Beyond them lie the stars of Sextans A with tantalizing young blue clusters clearly visible.

 

Technorati Tags: galaxies,odds of alien life in the universe/galaxies,Milky Way