The debate of weather there is life on a planet other then Earth's has been argued for centuries. It seems that people either believe there is life out there, or they simply do not. Either opinion can be supported by scientific reason.
Life can be as simple as a single celled microbe to an intelligent humanoid that may resemble mankind. An alternate possibility may be that if we come across life, we may not recognize it by our standards at all. This type of life is refered to as "shadow life"
The argument that life exists:
A very convincing argument that life may exist is provided by NASA. NASA believes that the ingredients for life are simply water, a heat source, and the necessary chemical compounds that allowed for single cell organisms to evolve into complex organisms, as found on Earth.
The necessary conditions to support life are believed to have been found on the moons of Jupiter and possibly on Mars. In particular the moon of Jupiter, Europa, is covered in a layer of ice. Beneath the layer of ice is water, and the core of the planet is believed to be warm enough to support the development of life.
The argument that life cannot exist:
"Paul Davies, physicist and cosmologist at Arizona State University and author of the book The Eerie Silence argues that the vast number of other worlds is actually misleading, that the statistical improbability of organic molecules lining up just as they did to create life as we know it is greater than even so large a sample group could overcome."
Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/05/14/life-in-the-universe-easy-or-hard/?iid=nf-article-mostpop1#ixzz1uxyDw0Xd
This fascinating debate will undoubtedly continue until proof, one way or the other, is discovered.
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