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Io Has Geysers, Lakes And Snow
An article this week in the journal Science , as reported in this CNN story, reveals that in addition to volcanos, Io is also home to vast mountain ranges, lakes of lava and sulfuric geysers up to 50 miles high. Photographs and thermal measurements from the keep-on-chuggin' Galileo enabled the discoveries. See the NASA press release for slightly more detail, as well as for newly released images (May 18th) from Galileo. (You can read the full Science article here, but it requires either a subscription or a fee.)
Acutally they wouldn't send a probe there. One spacecraft was going to crash land there but they altered its course. They did this so that it wouldn't infect the pristine moon. It wouldn't be worth desturbing the delicate balance of life that could possibly live there.
Just don't take any of the pins out of it, whatever you do...
Don't confuse Io with Europa. AFAIK Clarke wrote about life on Europa.
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
I call Ganymede!
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
The amount spent studying space is small in comparison to that wasted on activities like professional wrestling.
The point of studying it is because it's there to study, and because planetary behavior is important for our understanding of the universe. If I recall correctly, the land tides on Io are something like 300 ft every day, which is why it's so active.
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Perhaps it's because it's the weekend and the kiddies are out, but already 1/2 the comments in this story or so are jokes about the IO state abbreviation and the state of Iowa, rednecks in Iowa, etc.
Is no one interested in Io the moon of Jupiter?
Is no one interested in the scientific implications?
Is there anyone out there with an intelligent comments to make?
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Ah, my friend, AC, sometimes it is good to learn things beyond one's ability to experience. Not for profit or gain but simply to know. Objective knowledge of our vast universe helps keep ourselves and self-interests in perspective.
Not that you really cared for a philosophical dialouge on your rant, but, I digress...
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Don't confuse Io with Europa. AFAIK Clarke wrote about life on Europa.
:)
Oops, you're right. Got confused there (like that's unusual...) Well, as long as at least one moon of Jupiter has life, I'll be happy.
I don't think you understand. Arthur C. Clark predicted almost every recent discovery made by the Galileo probe. In fact, in the prologue of 2061 (written before Galileo was even launched), Clarke states that he nearly waited for the Galileo probe to reach Jupiter before writing the book. The Challenger disaster pushed back the launch, and Clarke went ahead with the book. Nearly everything he said has since been proven including ice on Europa, volcanoes and sulfur vents on Io, and the Jupiter-Io Flux. One of the most bizzare predictions is that a huge diamond exists at the core of Jupiter (I believe this was in 2010). The Jupiter-Io Flux seemed absurdly unlikely too...
"I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy." -Richard Feynman
-------------------- the list is long. dirac angestung gesept
On Io geologic processes that take thousands and millions of years on Earth happen in a month or year's time. It's like watching a fast motion movie on geology. Thats a good thing if you live somewhere like Japan or California with alot of fault activity or Hawai'i with its volcanos.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
So, this is a troll, but earlier messages about poison gas fumes and Cedar Rapids, IO ports and Voodoo 3, geysers and Yellowstone were FUNNY?
I would moderate you up, technos, if only in the interest of consistency.
Neopets - the best free game on the Int
are you sure youre not thinking of neptune and uranus? it may rain diamonds on those planets but the center of jupiter is thought to be made of liquid metal hydrogen. there may or may not be a rocky core after that in the direct center. but its not diamond, if you look at a phase diagram for carbon the center of jupiter is too hot for diamond to exist.
:)
When Clarke blew up Jupiter in 2010 (I think that was the right one...) he made the center of Jupiter a diamond (and then his characters find out and discover a small mountain made of the stuff that smacked down on one of the moons). The post I was responding to was speculating on which of Clarke's preditions would come true next.
And IIRC, the upper atomosphere is supposed to be at least partly carbon: maybe after time it condensed in the core (or maybe around the hydrogen)? I don't know crap about physics or astronomy (and I've heard the metal hydrogen theory before), so you're probably right. I was just being facetious.
I had the chance to see some of the pics from Io from Voyager very shortly after they were obtained. No WWW back then so transmission of this info was more difficult, Nonetheless, when we saw the pics we all said, Holy Fsck. Time to reboot the disk storage in ones' head.
Life on Io (or Europa)? Maybe. Why? Because it is now recognized that life can occur in "exotic" environments. This realization is based on studying harsh environment life on this planet. I'm biased on this subject, but why not spend more money to understand this on Mother Earth?
About seven years ago, seismic activity on the Juan de Fuca Ridge off the coast of Washington state was monitored by the US Navy's SOSUS system of underwater hydrophones designed to track submarines. Scientists quickly went out to sea to monitor this event. What they discovered was a massive amount of life (bacteria) in this area. Where this this sh*t come from? The conclusion was that it was already in place in the rocks below, and that the seismic activity/eruption released these critters.
The underwater hydrothermal vents have been studied and have revealed exotic life. Photosynthesis? We don't need no photosynthesis.
I like NASA. But, let us not forget that we need to study stuff on this planet. I'm waiting for when NASA says that they can get a better understanding of Earth's global climate change by studying other planets. BTW, my last comment is troll bait.
Yeah you're right, I think that the top on the Washington memorial in DC was made from aluminum because at the time it was even more expensive than gold and therefore more "precious".
IIRC, Volcanos spew Chlorene, whereas chloroflorcarbons, CFCs, can only be man made. The two have diffrent effects on the ozone layer. I personaly don't know if I buy into the whole CFCs cause Ozone holes thing, though. but who knows...
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
IO actually has many definitions:
1) Jupiter's 4th moon. That's what were talking about here.
2) US postal code for the state of Iowa.
3) In computer science, an acronym for Input/Output. (Often written I/O or I2O for 'intelligent' I/O). It refers to any kind data that is transferred (as opposed to stored in memory... most of the time)
4) Iodine Monoxide. A poisonous gas. Used in the first world war by the nazis. Neil Stephenson, a famous author and veteran of that war suffered some lifelong ill effects from it.
5) A rather large, shelled, Marsupial who's habitat is a small island in the Indian Ocean. Pirates used to use them for food, since once they were turned on their backs they couldn't get back up. They would have rooms full of them, all turned on there backs, waiting to be eaten in the ships back in the. There aren't very many Ios left today.
6) Io Portallieni, A famous Renaissance Italian Author from 1750s. A lot of our common legends/stories are based on his ideas. Hansle and Grettle(sp?), Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, Star Wars. All were his ideas originally.
welp, that's all I can think of...
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
Clarke was just following accepted theories on the make-up of planets, he's not some visionary. Look at his 'in the year 2000' lists.
Oceans, though, aren't a requirement of life. There are many deep core humanly poisonous gas loving organisms that live here on earth. If we can find it here, perhaps we can elsewhere.
Cryogenically preserving people will probably never happen, given the cellular damage caused by the process. Of course I can't prove this, so don't take what I say as an absolute, but rather just a gut feeling.
Of the animals that naturally enter a state of cryogenic stasis, they're usually very simple organisms that spend a good portion of their time dehydrating their body before being frozen.
Doesn't exactly sound like a fun process to go through.
It would seem to repair the cellular damage caused by cryogenic stasis, we'd already be well on our way to being able to preserve the state of our cells indefinitely, without having to be frozen.
And this is no small feet, eh?
Natural diamonds are expensive because of the De Beers monopoly.
Producing diamonds, which has been done for ages, would be cheaper than extracting them from Jupiter's gravity well. So finding a "diamond mountain" on Jupiter would be about as useful as that giant piece of copper ore they found years ago in the U.S. Since it would be so expensive to mine it where it is, it just sits there.
Io was discovered (and named?) by Galileo. I'm not sure if it was named after her, but Io was one of Zeus's mistresses. I believe he turned her into a cow to hide her from Hera, or some such. It's been a few years since I've read much mythology, so I may have her mistaken for another myth.
Well I know that Canadian cans aren't made of steel. If nothing else, they'd get rusty when they're left exposed to the elements in the back of my truck for a couple three months...
Intolerant people should be shot.
yeah, too bad they couldn't confirm common space flight, touristable space stations, and moonbases :-(
And I don't think we found that monolith either! ;-)
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Frogs and turtles are as complex as humans yet several species of each are frozen during the winter time as lakes and riverbeds freeze over. Oh well, I suppose by complexity you mean bigger animals.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Producing diamonds, which has been done for ages, would be cheaper than extracting them from Jupiter's gravity well. So finding a "diamond mountain" on Jupiter would be about as useful as that giant piece of copper ore they found years ago in the U.S.
In the story, they found the mountain on one of the moons after Jupiter was destroyed. It blew up, and a piece of the core hit into one of the moons - other pieces were still orbiting around the new sun that was Jupiter. So probably the easiest method would be to attach some engines to one of the orbiting pieces and send it towards Earth. It might take a few years to get there, but it would be relatively cheap to do, because (in the story) we already had settlements on the Moon, Mars, Phobos and Deimos, and were starting to explore the moons of Jupiter. So whenever we send some people out there, we give them a big engine and have them attach it to a large chunk of diamond (ok, it's not quite that simple but you know what I mean).
Yeah, nothings gonna live IN the lava itself obviously. It doesn't on earth either, and we do pretty well.
The article states that temperatures go down to -160, so there is every temperatur in between available. Sounds great for life, if perhaps not for building cities.
Scientific American, February 2000, The Galileo Mission to Jupiter and Its Moons page 43, 44, 46-47.
The text of the article is available is available online, including a diagram of the Io flux tube and plasma torus.
But then again, I could be wrong.
The 'money put into this' has been 'yielding results' for decades.
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Soma: because a gramme is better than a damn.
This image compares temperatures at the volcano Loki, the most powerful volcano on Io... Wow, looks like Loki got a Volcano named after it... or was Loki named after the Volcano?..or its it all just an odd coincidence?
Anyone Know?
I'd say you can forget aboult life on IO with that kind of volatility in the geology.
"Even if you are on the right track, you'll
get run over if you just sit there." Will Rogers
"Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there" - Will Rogers
"Even if you are on the right track, you'll
get run over if you just sit there." Will Rogers
"Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there" - Will Rogers
They were going to crash Galileo (the same probe that took those Io pics) somewhere away from Europa, not Io. Europa supposedly has the subsurface water ocean. There will be a separate mission especially to Europa, I think, that will drill the surface. They didn't want any stuff from Galileo to contaminate Europa. It is a long shot anyway because Galileo has been exposed to so much radiation that it is unlikely there are any live bacteria on it, but NASA wanted to be safe.
Am I wrong, or is this going to be enough to send a probe?
Actually they wouldn't send a probe there. One spacecraft was going to crash land there but they altered its course. They did this so that it wouldn't infect the pristine moon. It wouldn't be worth desturbing the delicate balance of life that could possibly live there.
Infect Io? Dude, are you a fucking moron. Think Europa which is a few thousand miles out from there and you'll be closer to the truth.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Or start a nice sized war to wipe the slate for a few generations.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Actually the theory of relativity has the solution to long term interstellar travel. The theory goes that time slows down as the speed you are traveling at increases. As you approach the speed of light time almost comes to a standstill.
This means that a flight to alpha century at just under light speed would take a little over 4 years for the people on earth but mere days for the crew of the ship.
Then there is the question of defining close quarters. If you follow mainstream comics ( Marvel, DC ) and TV SiFi then you know there are many stories of whole civilizations adrift in ships for generations. The key to survival is that these ships must be very very large.
Add Cryogenics to the mix ( which by the way nobody has got working and I suspect those people already frozen cannot be resurrected.
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
Norse for of mischief. You're thinking Logi, don't feel too bad.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
From the NASA press release:
"and mountains that may split and slide
sideways for hundreds of kilometers, or miles."
Hmmm... I'm not sure what to think of that. I guess they're just trying to keep their bases covered?
You use that word a lot.. I do not think it means what you think it means.
It seems that the real trick is to get the unicellulars to arise in the first place, which would be no mean feat in a hell like Io. Once you've got that, then the next trick is to get multicellulars to act as vectors for your unicellulars. Then you've got yourself a big percolating evolving planet. *grin*
J
I don't think that radioactivity has any part to play in the matter. Besides, wouldn't that amount of radioactivity (enough to melt iron) be life-threatening? And I've never heard anything about the radioactive hazards of lava spills. I don't think that your theory holds up.
I don't know any PepsiCo insiders, nor am I one, so I may be wrong. However, I think American Pepsi cans are still made from steel. I do have several samples of cans from Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Dr. Pepper littering my desk, but independent informal testing was inconclusive, even with a few Michelob bottles acting as a control group. Can anyone shed more light on this?
J
The story doesn't really matter, since Jupiter isn't going to "blow up." Jupiter doesn't have enough mass to become a star, and if it were to become one, I find it hard to believe that its satelites wouldn't be enveloped.
In terms of the books I stand corrected, but I was under the impression we were talking about reality.
I thought it was really funny. You must have a lousy sense of humor.
Yup, sounds like Iowa to me. Ever been to Cedar Rapids?
Don't just whine about poor internet privacy and freedom policies,
The story doesn't really matter, since Jupiter isn't going to "blow up." Jupiter doesn't have enough mass to become a star, and if it were to become one, I find it hard to believe that its satelites wouldn't be enveloped.
Aliens engineered Jupiter into becoming a star so as to heat the moons and help life evolve on Europa.
In terms of the books I stand corrected, but I was under the impression we were talking about reality.
Oh, sorry. The thread originally started because someone was speculating on which of Clarke's predictions would come true next. I figured Jupiter's core being a giant diamond would be an interesting one to be true.
Could the sulphur and lava flows possibly provide the energy to sustain life on the planet?
The more we find out about IO the more I'm sure that some primitive life exists there.
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so.. when do I get to move in?
Sounds like the ultimate extreme sport resort!
Pack up the snowboard & BMX, NASA!
Nice to see that the money put into this is yielding results
The Graph: Substance that makes techies tick
This place looks like alot of fun!
When can I book a flight?
I could train in Haleakala with a 100 pound suit...and strain against the thin air.
I think Wendy Carlos wrote a tune about this large bolide.
I want to go!!!
-Sleen
Geysers, mountains, lakes, volcanoes, atmosphere being poisoned... sounds a lot like Yellowstone (sulphur pun intended), doesn't it?
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
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Galileo has been studying Jupiter and its moons for 4-1/2 years. It completed a two-year primary mission in December 1997 and a two-year extended mission in December 1999. Galileo is continuing its studies under yet another extension, the Galileo Millennium Mission. On Sat., May 20, the spacecraft will fly by Jupiter's moon Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system, for the first time since May 7, 1997
Don't just whine about poor internet privacy and freedom policies,
Am I wrong, or is this going to be enough to send a probe? with that much energy freely available, there has to be the possibility of life, at least at the primitive scale.
Think --> Think Different --> Think OSS
Reminds me of where my ex-girlfriend used to live. Damn that was a long drive.
Got Rhinos?
Sorry, while we are on the subject of IO, what is IO? And where is it for all those non-space kinda people. Thanks
I know there are insturments to test wether or not something is water but exactly how do you do this from space (yes im ignorant).
Next you'll be telling us Wookies Live on Endor.
--------========+++Dont Feed The Lab Techs+++========--------
It is worth noting however that these items force IO to have a climate that's almost fit for human habitation. Sure there is lots of Volcanic activity but the general temperature has to approach livable limits.
My own bet however is that when we eventually do find life on another planet it will not be one in our solar system. That however is based on the idea that life is too complex to occur entirely by accident. If it did come about that way, IO and Titan may have some living microbes swimming around.
I however expect a universe that looks much like the Star Trek/Wars universe. I.e. many civilizations of various levels of advancement that never invaded earth simply because they didn't want to or were busy doing other things.
Then again maybe we are the decedents of an occupying force from another planet.
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
OK. That was probably his most far-fetched prediction. Absolutely incredible. I wonder how I never heard about this. Thanks.
"I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy." -Richard Feynman
I hae a sneaking suspicion that they were both named after the trickster god of Norse mythology.
So what's next? The Jupiter-Io Flux or Deep Sea Vents on Europa?
:) Of course, he's been right so far... [insert alien/Clarke conspiracy theory here]
No, the center of Jupiter really is a giant diamond. Oh, yeah, and enourmous beasts made of gas exist in Jupiter's upper atomosphere.
Oh, man, if we found out all that stuff Clarke has written about Jupiter were true, I would freak.
Do you know what the Jupiter-Io flux tube is? Clark is a hell of a smart guy but he made his predictions based on OBSERVATIONS through telescopes of the moons. You people act as if no one has any idea that Jupiter had moons before Galileo flew by it. Galileo is just confirming Clark's well thought out predictions. He didn't predict anything terribly absurd or something defying the laws of physics. You dumb sheep.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Aluminum is not that cheap even now, because it is still extracted by electrolysis. That is why aluminum plants are usually built next to extra large hydroelectric power plants -- dirt cheap electricity. They still have steel cans in Europe too. I think the reason they make Al cans is more that steel rusts and is also heavier, not that aluminum is cheap (it will probably never be cheaper than steel).
...but I got my hands on Uranus.
How the hell is that far fetched? Jupiter has an enormous magnetic field. High energy particles become trapped in said field. Io's orbit is well within the lower (stronger) parts of Jupiter's magnetic field. Clark used physics and some creative thought to make his Jupiter predictions. How the fuck is that incredible?
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
(it will probably never be cheaper than steel).
I didn't mean it was cheap in comparison to other metals neccessarily; more that it used to be quite valuable (people used to have their good silverware be made of aluminum) and now is significantly less so. Simliarly, diamonds are now quite expensive, but if several large mountains made of diamond was found, the price would probably drop significantly.
You could have life that spent most of it's time as spores or seeds, and only got active and reproducing when the temperature got just right.
And that's just one idea I got in a second. Imagine what evolution could come up with after billions of years.
I think (and correct me somebody if I'm wrong) that here on earth we find that wherever there is the slightest chance for life to exist, it has found some crazy way to make use of an environment.
A solar sail is a dumb idea for anything past Saturn. If you really want to make it out of the solar system you'd need something like an Orion system with matter-antimatter reaction over a matter fusion reaction. And even then it would take a while. Crygenically freeze the people. Then send them out of the solar system like pollen.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Beep! Wrong question! Do you want me to go citing people who have said things like that before :-)?
Like "what is the practical value of electricity?", "what is the practical value of understanding the internal structure of atoms?", "what is the practical value of Quantum Mechanics?", of semi-conductors?
Well, if that was an important question, you wouldn't have been writing this. Yet, the question is surely asked every time, you get sick of it, I can tell you that... :-) (OK, I'm biased, I'm a cosmology-student).
Employee of Inrupt, Project Release Manager and Community Manager for Solid
The Working Group for Planetary system nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union. I know the chairman of this working group. He's as professor at the institute where I'm studying.
Employee of Inrupt, Project Release Manager and Community Manager for Solid
I appreciate the sentiment, but I really was trolling!! The 'Troll' was perfectly appropriate!!
.sig: Now legally binding!
Looks like we just found us a new spaceship, boys.. Billy Joe, you get to work figuring how to go wallin' in one of them geysers, and Jimmy an me are going to get us some of that lead pipe and a couple of big electric fans for the next shuttle.. Figure we ought be able to blow that baby right out of orbit... Shit, boy get us some parkas too. It's gonna be kinda cold up there, what with all that snow..
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There is more information related to this article here on spaceref.com
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
Don't forget, once Nanotech is working properly, nanobots can repair cell damage from cryo-freezing...
Water/ice on Europa - Check
Volcanos on Io - Check
Ice in the moon - Check
Europa most likely location of life - Check
Sulfur vents on Io - Check
So what's next? The Jupiter-Io Flux or Deep Sea Vents on Europa?"I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy." -Richard Feynman
Don't think you really need to freeze the poor souls, just bring their temp down to around 1 -4 degrees C... People will still age but, very, very slowly... suppose it wouldn't work for 10000 yrs though...
if (!signature) { throw std::runtime_error("No sig!"); }
I'd always wondered why it was that the people at the computer store told me not to open my computer myself.... I mean, if my IO port is this hazardous, what's my Voodo 3 going to be like?
-Denor
Or, if we use your idea, We attack Io
-- Dr. Eldarion --
It's not what it is, it's something else.
Think about it. When you're running out of space for files on one drive, you get another drive. When you're running out of space for fellas on one planet or moon, you get another planet or moon. Never mind that aliens who look like these guys are armed, dangerous, and ready to strike at any terran invaders, kind of like Indep... erm, I'm boycotting the movies.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I'm not sure how productive it would be to investigate IO.
Aren't there an awful lot of problems right here on Earth?
I guess it could be made into a penal colony. "You are sentenced to live with more Volcanos erupting at one time than the sum total of all the eruptions of the last 10 or more years, depending on whether it's a busy day or not"
If there's life, that's great, but can't it be left alone? Granted, it probably won't turn into something major, what with Jupiter pulling at it all the time. Call me an idealist, but our little Earth needs some attention before we go poking around all the heavenly bodies. Otherwise there will be nothing left to fall back on.
Starskita
Starskita
!
Well, since the guy in charge of naming things is a Norwegian.... Anyway, it should have been Loke, not Loki (not pronounced ee).
Employee of Inrupt, Project Release Manager and Community Manager for Solid
Oh, don't get your knickers in a twist. When you have some moderator points, you can moderate down what you like. If it was such a bad moderation (Which i don't think it was), then there's always meta-moderation.
Syllable : It's an Operating System
Yep, but the problem is how you get any significant amount of mass to within a fraction of lightspeed. In fact getting any significant amount of mass to even a 10th of lightspeed requires so much energy that we have no clue how to do it yet.
For some reason I suspect "build a faster ship" to be a problem more easily solved than all the others we worry about.
BTW: If you Accelerate at 1G for a 2 years, you will come pretty close to light speed. Personally, I don't think Light speed is a real barrier in the vacuum. Except that space isn't really a vacuum and at that kind of speed dust could rip a conventional ship apart.
So we need a Warp drive and force fields. Artificial gravity is a mere side benefit ( Accelerating at a steady 1G == artificial gravity on board ).
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
Wait a hundred years, load the people into computers (Kurzweil), send the computers. If it gets boring drop the clock rate. At the other end loading the computer programs into the people is a bit iffy, but why bother 'cos Earth-format people likely won't make much sense in the new environment. Yes this is wacky, but IMHO it's a lot more plausible than sending bags of jelly around, or FTL. As for pottering around in the Solar System, go ahead.
Wouldn't whatever we land be nuclear powered (probably with plutonium)?
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is it just me, or does the lead picture at the top of this story look like a giant, miles-wide booger? ;-)
Unfortunately Io is a proper name, and thus not a valid Scrabble word.
Don't eat the yellow snow!
Drop a few cockroaches out there and see what happens... :)
True, although ironically the greenhouse effect has recently been suspected of contributing to the damage to the ozone layer. The insulating layer of greenhouse gasses in the lower reaches of the atmosphere make the upper reaches (containing the ozone layer) colder, and the reaction by which CFCs break down ozone works better at lower temperatures. Scary stuff.
"What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist." Salman Rushdie
Traveling to another planet is no trivial task, put that planet light years away, and it is a nearly impossible task. Try to keep a small colony of people alive for 10,000 years while traveling in deep space with nothing to entertain themselves but eachother and an old copy of Quake3.
s/quake3/yourfavgame/
People have a hard enough time surviving in a close quartered situation for a few months, try it for your whole life!
Don't even tell me about the solar sail plan, that's publicity, not a realistic solution for long distance travel. Although it is probally better in the long run than thinking solid fuel (or liquid fuel) would work to go more than to mars or so.
If we meet another intelligent life form, it'll probally be by accident, not due to anything else.
Spring is here. Don't believe me, look outside!