A pithy comic strip about life, love, lust and puthy cats.

Est. 1985

Extra, Extra!

We May or May Not Be Alone

By Jimmy Johnson

July 7, 2017


Launched in 2009, the Kepler Space Telescope went into forced retirement in 2018, when its reactor ran out of fuel. Its purpose was to search for planets outside our solar system, and it found a slew of them over its lifetime. To be exact, it is reported Kepler located 2662 planets among half a million stars surveyed, but astronomers and astrophysicists still are poring over the satellite telescope’s multitudinous data. In fact, a team of astronomers from the University of British Columbia has crunched the numbers from Kepler (and made not a few assumptions) and come to the conclusion there could be six billion earth-like planets among the 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. This is a scientific extrapolation of the information available, of course. The empirical evidence only suggests the possibility. You might call it a wild-ass guess, but I wouldn’t. Admittedly, I know nothing about the scientists’ methodology or their information and wouldn’t understand it if it were explained to me. However, their conclusions seem perfectly logical and plausible to me. It supports what every kid who’s looked up at the night sky has thought.


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37 responses to “We May or May Not Be Alone”

  1. Brian from Boston Avatar
    Brian from Boston

    I think that is what we used to call a SWAG — a Scientific Wild-Assed Guess

    1. Jimmy Johnson Avatar

      Unlike the your and my unscientific Wild-Ass Guesses?

    2. Rusty Avatar
      Rusty

      Beat me to it! It was always “SWAG” in grad school! 🙂
      Rusty

  2. Ruven Avatar
    Ruven

    For folks new to the conversation this is the . Google it, o, best detailed at -equation-index.

    1. Ruven Avatar
      Ruven

      weird rules for posting at this site. Google Drake Equation, best detailed at seti dot org, drake dash equation dash index

    2. David in Granbury Avatar
      David in Granbury

      My first thought was the Drake Equation.

  3. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    If there are advanced alien civilizations observing us, I suspect that they tell each other “Earthling jokes”. 🙁

    1. Matt Avatar
      Matt

      Like Jimmy has been doing, really… almost daily… for decades…

      1. Ghost Avatar
        Ghost

        True that. But I sort of doubt the ETs’ jokes would be so good-natured…or early as entertaining.

  4. Steve From Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    I posted this on yesterday’s blog post:

    Today’s strip (6/17/20) reminded me that years ago Ted Nugent’s wife was interested in writing a novel and asked my wife for advice. She was pleasant and my wife and her traded a few letters and phone calls. That Christmas we got the Nugent Christmas card, which included a picture of the family. Living in Michigan, I decided to show it to the Engineers that I called on and they were incredibly excited and impressed. This was before he became more widely known for his politics…

  5. Steve From Royal Oak, MI Avatar

    As far as today’s retro strip, I never appreciated the nighttime sky growing up. There was no light pollution as we live around farmland. When I moved to the urban areas, I didn’t realize what I was missing until we went up to Northern Michigan and saw the Milky Way as well as a meteor shower.

    I like the line from Contact “The universe is a pretty big place. If it’s just us, seems like an awful waste of space.” Although it is mind boggling that there is only one unique me.

    1. David in Granbury Avatar
      David in Granbury

      Except, Steve, if you exist in some of the posited “brane” universes throughout the “bulk” then you may only be unique in this one on a quantum level. 🙂

  6. Rick in Shermantown, Ohio Avatar
    Rick in Shermantown, Ohio

    I find it interesting that some scientists are now opining that we might very well be alone in the universe.

    Myself, I hope that at least one or two Earth-like planets out there not only have life but also have beings that are more intelligent than we.

  7. TruckerRon Avatar

    Some very bright people think we may all be characters in a virtual reality universe, not a real one. At least they claim they can’t disprove it.

  8. Old Bear Avatar
    Old Bear

    There must be intelligent life out in the Universe – there is a scarcity of it on Earth.

  9. Ghost Avatar
    Ghost

    From “Balm Threat” on Twitter: My 72 year-old mother just informed me she is going to her first “sex party” and doesn’t know what to bring.
    After some delicate questioning, “Gender Reveal, Mom. It’s called a Gender Reveal.
    h/t Tamera Keel

  10. joe d Avatar
    joe d

    Do you think there’s at least 1 planet out there we could go to and not have covid?

    1. Bob Avatar
      Bob

      I’d settle for a planet WITH covid if it didn’t have politics.

  11. Steve the Rigger Avatar

    Politics. Sigh.
    The bumper sticker on my truck says “Its Not Left Versus Right, Its The State Versus You.
    Thats about all the politics that count. I hope that I live long enough to see the majority of my fellow humans come to realize that.
    Then maybe our species can get about the business of evolving into what we could be.

    The only problem with alien visitations and space travel is that half the people in the world still think that the world is flat, man never went to the moon and the government told the truth about 911. If aliens made contact half the people would make them gods (like they do their politicians) and the other half would be trying to kill them.

    I have avoided much of the news and have fallen way behind on my podcasts in the past few days and have been reading every single A and J strip from the beginning.
    I felt that I needed a little break from the negativity and the propaganda. Plus I have a particular strip that I am seeking. Haven’t found it yet and I’m almost to 2004. But I shall not give up my quest. I will share it with you when I find it again.
    I have to report that by spending all my spare internet time to reading old Arlo strips instead of paying attention to the antics of the frantic, my spirits have improved markedly. And after squirting my wife with the hose when she was smoking her ciggy butt outside the office, I think my mischievous side might be resurfacing. Poor Jen.
    Leave it to JJ to cheer me up while reconfirming all my paranoias.

  12. BarbaraRivera Avatar
    BarbaraRivera

    I also would like to read Arlo’s strips from the beginning. What date should I pull down to find the very first strip?

  13. joe d Avatar
    joe d

    If you go to the current A& strips on Go Comics you can use the way back tab and go to May, 1994

    1. BarbaraRivera Avatar
      BarbaraRivera

      Thanks, Joe!

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