Carl Sagan 1966 Interviewed about UFO's

[BootinUp]

[TomDaisy]

1. well, he pretty much laid out his novel "Contact" right there (and eventual movie)

[BootinUp]

2. For 30 years his feelings on it

Didn’t change much at all.

[Chainfire]

3. Walter and Carl in the same film at the same time. Those were the good old days. ;)

I miss both of the men like they were family.

[Blue Owl]

4. Carl was the best

[progressoid]

5. I had a long drive today and would occassionally tune into Fox news. They spent a LOT of time

talking about this UFO "whistleblower"

Must be a slow news day at Fox.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. While it does seem as though pretty much every single star out there

has planets (My Son The Astronomer does exo-planet research), it's important to realize that the conditions that actually lead to life of any kind are probably very rare.

First off, some 70% of stars are red dwarfs, so if life evolves on planets around a red dwarf, it's probably going to be very different from our life. Only about 7-8% of the stars in our galaxy are like the sun.

There's also a Goldilocks zone for stars, just as there's a Goldilocks zone for planets. Get close to the center of the galaxy and stars are so close together that radiation is a huge problem, and would probably prevent life at all. Too far out may likewise not be so good either.

It also may well be that having a relatively large moon, as we do, is absolutely crucial. It gives us the tides, which probably had a positive influence on life.