Aliens? Alice sat staring at the professor with a contemplative expression. Sure she had thought about aliens, and probably watched more muggle movies about them than what would be considered healthy, but Alice had never really thought of them as being something that is completely out of their mental capacity to understand.

"I'm not sure if someone has said this already," said Alice after raising her hand, "but couldn't it be possible that they don't know about us? I mean, we're a relatively young civilization, at least that's what we understand. But what if whatever other civilizations out there don't have the technology they need to get to us. Perhaps that's why they haven't made contact. Or, perhaps they have observed us but they simply don't want to interact with us. After all the idea of emotions and human beings may not be of interest to them." Alice gave a gentle shrug of the shoulders after, merely offering it as a suggestion. Who was she to try and understand the thinking process behind something that she wasn't even sure existed? All any of them could really do was guess.

Risu nodded. "You're certainly correct in that the Earth is the only planet in our Solar System currently known to harbour life, but I would argue it's not the only one with the potential to do so. Mars, as pointed out earlier, almost certainly possessed an atmosphere and liquid water at some point. Some moons such as Europa and Enceladus could even have life under their surface. Enceladus in particular is thought to have a giant interior ocean, life could certainly exist there. So while we only know of one planet with certainty, opportunities do exist elsewhere.

"Further," he went on, rubbing at the corner of his eye, "I did allow for some very long odds earlier. One non-barren planet in a billion would still mean billions of planets with life in our galaxy alone, and if you ask me, I don't think life is anywhere near as improbable as that. Intelligent life is a different question, of course, but given the age of the Universe and our galaxy..." He trailed off, shrugging.

He smiled a little self-consciously. "I don't know about you, but I can't think outside the human box. Perhaps a philosopher would be more suited for the task than me. It's probably possible, but until we see other life, we can't imagine what it might be like. On the other hand..."

He raised a finger to his lips thoughtfully. "Ponder me this. Do you think intelligent life, if it exists, will be similar to us in how they think and act? Do you think that there are certain, for example, thought patterns or concepts or whatever you might call them that arise out of intelligence naturally, no matter what? What I'm trying to say is, perhaps alien life, while looking different and being made of other chemical molecules and so forth, doesn't think too different from us essentially? Yes or no? This is an open question to everyone, really," he added. "I'd be very interested in your answers."

"The Earth is..." he grinned and pointed at himself, "middle-aged, perhaps? At 4.5 billion years or thereabouts, it's a pretty good age for a planet, I would say. Intelligent life, on the other hand, is very young on this planet. Humanity has been around for, according to some estimates, two or so hundred thousand years. Cave paintings are 40,000 years in the past. The pyramids are a few thousand years old. Radio signals into space are just over one hundred years in the past. So you're definitely correct, a civilisation that might even be just a little older could be infinitely more advanced than us. And we would have no clue about their abilities to, say, hide from view."

"Very good!" Risu said with a nod, pointing at the student. "You've come up with another proposed solution to the Fermi paradox. Several, in fact. First," he said, counting on his fingers, "we might not have been discovered yet. As I just pointed out, we've been noticeable on the galactic scale for a mere century, which is absolutely nothing in galactic or universal times. An alien civilisation might have aimed their telescopes straight at us, but maybe that was 200 years ago when nothing on this planet could have caught their attention.

"Second, technology. This is a valid question. To our understanding, nothing can exceed the speed of light, and without a way of travelling at that speed, or close to it, journeys between star systems would take thousands and thousands of years. It might just not be possible to physically visit other planets. We don't know.

"Third," Risu raised a third finger, "perhaps there is a policy of non-interference with other alien species, much in the same way that some aboriginal cultures on Earth are left in peace. I hear," he added with a slight smile, "this concept is quite popular in science-fiction. Humanity will learn of the existence of other life when we have proved ourselves to be worthy, and so forth."

Simon was listing to the Professor speaking he was finding it very confusing but he didn't want to put his hand up and look dumb and so he decided that he would just listen and see if there would be anything he could understand all he knew was that there was suppost to be this place called area 51 where all the aliens where kept so people didn't know about them.

Kurumi scribbled on her notes and couldn't help but snort here and there as the discussion moved on. Cheeks flushing, Kurumi set her quill down and covered her cheeks for a little as she attempted to control her embarrassment. It was uncanny, really, how similar the discussion was.

"F-Forgive me, Professor," Kurumi said now that she had contained her giggle. "I-I just couldn't help but notice how similar our talk about other intelligent life in the universe and the human race is similar to the same sort of conversation non-magical people may be having about witches and wizards living among them." Her eyes glanced around the room and just KNEW that that one Ravenclaw girl was going to make another rude comment. She had done so about everything everyone else had said.

Ryden dipped her quill in her inkwell and began writing down the three proposed solutions that the professor had just described. As the brunette wrote, she pondered the professor's question. Would aliens perhaps be like them, humans, but under different categories? Different names, same thing? Perhaps what they call light, we call heat? Or maybe their love is our hate?

The fourth year year looked up at the professor and decided she'd rather think about this a little more. It was... philosophical. And she needed to think about it.



Why did she keep SNORTING like that? Seriously, was there something stuck up the girl's nose or something? Swiveling in her seat, Ryden scowled at the girl and raised her eyebrows as the Gryffindor began talking. "How is it even remotely similar? Witches and wizards, even in the muggle world, have similar feelings and similar emotions to muggles. They way they see us is that we're precisely like them, with more power."

Hehe. "Which, if you think about it, we are. I mean, I've never heard of a muggle story that involved alienlike magical folk. Can you provide some sort of example?" Ryden demanded. If people were going to say stupid things, they should at least be able to back them up.

Kurumi merely shrugged her shoulders at the girl. She had not come to class to argue about everything and clearly this girl only looked at facts and was completely incapable of thinking outside the box. "So, I suppose you would classify shape-shifting as non-magical then?" she said as she picked up her parchment to lay it back down in a neat stack on her table. "Beings that are able to transform themselves into looking like everyday vehicles or animals. There are plenty of stories involving such things. Even stories about beings from outer space that look just like us. One such story involved a boy with telekinesis, which he can access most readily through playing music, particularly his harmonica. And there was a girl whose powers included the ability to unlock any door by touch and communicate with animals."

"I also don't see how you cannot see this potential policy of non-interference as having no connection to the Statute of Wizarding Secrecy," she continued as she aligned her quill to be perfectly parallel to her parchment.

Ryden frowned. She didn't see the connection between what the Gryffindor was saying and what SHE had said. "Wait, let me get this straight so that I know what we're talking about. You're saying that the muggle stories - ALL of their fiction, in whatever shape or form - is about us? A boy with the power of telekinesis and a girl with seemingly supernatural abilities? The world of fiction in the muggle world is vast..." the brunette paused to compose herself.

"You think that when they sit down to discuss magical folk, they think about the probability of meeting them? They wonder if they have the same technology? And I don't see the relevance of the Statute of Secrecy here - the point of it is to keep us a secret from THEM so that they won't abuse us," she said, her eyebrows knotted low on her forehead. "I'll give you this, that the discussion of the unknown is similar - but that goes for EVERYTHING that is unknown. I could very well make up that there are mystical creatures that live only in the dark, and we'd start talking about them in the same manner because we do not know what they are," Ryden stated plainly.

She still didn't think magical folk tales were anything like alien ones.

Kimalia turned to the two students who were debating, she had to help explain things, "I think what she meant by how similar we are is that like us humans we have certain interpretation and many fan based works related to aliens. Even though we might not be accurate at all, the same kind of relates to how muggles would view witches and wizards as evil or like little small miniature people casting magic left and right." Hopefully that made things more clearer. "And also how us witches and wizards have our own little world like any other life outside our world does. Only difference is we actually mingle with muggles."

Simon decided to ask the Professor something here. "Professor you know we read about aliens and different things in books right?" Simon hoped the Professor would answer his question. "Do you think we are being read by some kind of alien now as a book?" Simon hoped that he was making sence, he was sure that an alien was now reading everything that was happing on his own little planet somewhere.

"I share this same thought!" Eino said as turned to Kurumi instead this time. "I had mentioned a bit earlier that aliens could even be using magic or something to keep themselves hidden as we do to ourselves from muggles." Muggles didn't have any sort of confirmation that magical beings existed, well none that were warranted anyway, but they were still free to guess they did. Sure, there were incidents that suggested the use of magic but it still didn't confirm it, and that was the same for earthlings in relation to aliens. Maybe they could have some sort of mysterious signals from outer space that they could weigh into the equation but they would never have confirmation as to whether they exist or not. "One of the biggest problems we have found with this equation is that we cannot designate whether all aliens are like humans and live under the same conditions. I suppose that happens to be the same situation muggles find themselves in in regards to some magic." Wizards could walk to walls and flush themselves down toilets but Muggles would never even think of something like that, so it worked to the advantage of wizards. For all they knew aliens could be closer than they expect, but hidden.

" Would you like to joinn our discussion?" Willaim asked Fee. " Alex is very smart" Willaim said to Fee.

" Good answer" Rex told Alex, " I am so young, I do not know Astronomy."William said to Alex. ' I asked Fee to join our discussion" William wxpalined to Alex.

William raised his hand." Would not weather be a factor on the planets?" Willaim asked the professor. " I am sure thre is weather to hot or freezing the could not have anyone living on the planets' William said to the professor. " What do you both think?" William asked Fee and Alex to start a lively discussion between them if the professor lets them discuss more Astronomy in the class.

Selina had been relatively quiet the entire discussion. She was trying to wrap her head around the idea that there WAS life beyond in space or maybe even the space between spaces. She wasn't sure, but the more she listened the more it seemed like the whole idea was probable and very poignant. Of course Kurumi dominated the conversation. She always seemed to look at things in ways that no one else did. That was why she was so smart- her perspective. But every time she spoke some pompous Ravenclaw opened their trap and rebuked her argument. It was wearing on Selina's nerves.

Finally a line was crossed and Selina had to speak up in defense of her friend. So she literally stood up and looked at the Ravenclaw calmly but intensely, "She's not saying that they are exactly the same. She is drawing a parallel between the two races and species. Saying, simply, if you misunderstood, that we seem to view other life out in space as mystical and powerful beings, but in a way odd. That maybe, if they had the technology to get here, they could be a serious threat to our way of life. Now you tell me that Muggles don't think the same of us. That we, if we exist to them, are all powerful beings who have the technology or magic or whatever you call it to control them. The choice though that we make is to not to. So no, Kurumi isn't dumb, she actually making a very good parallel and metaphor."

Ooohh, witchfight going on. What on earth?

"I don't quite understand where this lesson is getting, professor. I'm confused." Zara frowned, and hopefully that mean Slytherclaw wouldn't attack her.

"In my opinion, there could be a lot of possibilities for this. Maybe they do exist, right here on earth now but choose not to communicate with us. Then again, maybe they simply don't exist and we are alone in the universe so only humans civilization and those existing in the earth are the only ones created. We are created alone. Or, they possibly exist but there's no evidence for they don't want to communicate with us. Further yet, maybe they do communicate with us but we humans just don't listen. Another could be that they can't communicate with us because they still haven't found a way how to. You know, stuff like that." That was her opinion. Of course, people had their own. There was a lot of possibilities.

WHOA. Ryden blinked. Apparently this Gryffindor had many friends. And all of them were now ganging up on her. For a second, the brunette's mind left the classroom, left the country, and went back to a few years ago, when a similar situation had occurred. Back then, she hadn't been able to take it. She could still remember the horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach that was caused by the knowledge that there was not one person in the whole room who-

NO. She fisted her hands and bared her teeth, pulling herself away from past traumas. They had made her strong. They'd made her able to deal with annoying little people who thought they were so smart just because they looked at things differently. Well, guess what? There's more than one way to be smart. There IS more than one way to be correct. And Ryden Di Marco was not about to be shot down by a group of arrogant, silly pipsqueaks who thought they were the bloody descendants of Merlin.

"Everybody, look here. I SAID that I don't fully disagree with the Gryffindor," she waved her hand in the general direction of the girl, "because I DO agree, on a very specific certain level. She - you - made it sound at the beginning like the discussion was so similar, it was practically identical and with THAT, I disagreed," Ryden explained, looking at the girl now. "I did, however, agree that the discussions ARE similar as they are both about the unknown," OKAY PEOPLE? So cut it out.

"And now, if you please, could we return to aliens? The pipsqueak here has it right - this isn't Muggle Studies," she said, and with one last contemptuous look, turned back to the professor and folded her arms. As soon as she fell silent, the walk down memory lane began in her head once more and she aggressively shoved it into the dark recesses of her mind, at least for the remainder of the lesson. She'd have to go punch something late on to relieve herself of this completely.

Stupid, idiotic, annoying, insufferable Hogwarts students.

Fee just smiled at William and nodded.It was sweet that he wanted to invite her."Yees sure i would love to",the girl said and grinned.

Mhhhh,could there really be alien life?As in intellegent,human related being?!Oh well why actually not?!"Well i think that it is possible",the girl said nodding as she raised her hand,"i mean we developed intellegence too and human beings started with bacteria.If a planet has everything it needs to be hospitable why not?"Of course it was a weird thought after all muggles made so many film about aliens but no one ever really saw one."They might even look like us",the blonde went on,"you cant know it."


Mhhh... if Fermi was really right and there were a lot of other itellegent beings out there,there had to be a reason why no one got into contact with them yet."If there really are other beings in the universe it could be possible that their intellenge is highly developed but they dont have the technical equipment they need by now.",the Slytherin raised her hand.That was highly possible,remembering how many poor countries even on earth dont have the technical standarts other countries had."Its also very possible that these beings have a totally different language we dont understand or even recognize as language",she went on,"maybe it even has another frequence or we cant hear it with humanly ears."Or maybe it was just because the planets on which intellegence livings existed were to far away from earth. There were so many possibilities.

Aurora raised her eyebrows a little, this was getting to be quite a heated discussion and she wished she could join in but she was just thoroughly confused.
"Maybe... Maybe if there are intelligent life forms out there then they just don't care? I mean, knowledge could be different for them. Simple things could be deemed more important to them, so just knowing that the sun is warm could be more important than knowing that there are other worlds out there. Or something..." she trailed off. Then another thought struck her. "Or maybe they just don't live long enough to communicate, if you think about it, the fact that the human life span has become more and more extended probably helped us with our scientific advances so maybe some other life forms never made the connection between good exercise or food and a long life and so haven't long enough in their life time to learn enough to make these scientific advances." she said this slowly, thinking carefully about it.

Risu chuckled, shrugging. "Possibly? Maybe on some other world, an extraterrestrial being is grabbing every literary award on offer for imagining and writing about a race of two-legged ape descendants around a little yellow star." He shrugged again. "Why not."

"Of course," Risu said, nodding. "Even on our planet we have extremes of temperature that only very few things can survive. But even before we get to weather, a planet must have a stable atmosphere. A place like Mars, with only a very minimal atmosphere, doesn't have much else to offer other than dust storms."

Risu waved a hand at the arguing students. "Alright, alright, everyone calm down," he said, looking as severely as possible - not something he was used to. Frowny-face muscles weren't some he habitually employed. "Discussing different opinions is fine, but we're getting too far afield here. Maybe you should ask your Muggle Studies professor about this," he added.

"Erm..." His brow furrowed. "Sorry, Miss Griffiths, I lost my train of thought. Since I can't give you a definite answer either way, this lesson is merely intended to familiarise yourselves with a few of the concepts that have historically been among the most important in the discussion about possible alien life. As we've pointed out amply, they have their flaws and counterarguments, but we should be able to evaluate those arguments. I have something a little more hands-on planned for the next lesson, but we will need to know about this before we start anything else."

He shrugged. "Maybe we are alone. It's possible. I personally don't really think so, but I do think that the problems of size and distance aren't easily talked away. What I mean is, first, that even just our own galaxy, with its possible billions of planets with life on them, is so big that looking for specific inhabited planets might well be a never-ending task. And second, even if it were possible to pinpoint such planets, the distances between them and us are so unimaginably huge that even communication via radio signals - which travel at the speed of light, obviously - requires a lot of, er, patience. Astronomers could send one message and then would have to wait for the next generation to receive an answer.

"But," he said, leaning against the desk, "we should probably wrap up here in a little while. Before we do, though, are there any questions, or anything that needs to be clarified. Or, really," he added, "anything that you just want to discuss further."

Sophia's eyes widened as one of her own members of her house seemed to feel attacked. That wasn't good. She understood what each of them meant, and none of them seemed to be dropping it. What on earth? But Professor Antares had addressed it as well. She wanted to make PEACE though.

"Guys, guys," she said. "No one dropped the 'dumb' insult as far as I'm aware. Kurumi has a point, but it's not the one that we need to be talking about here. I agree that it's similar, but this isn't where we need to discuss it per se."

Ugh, she BETTER not get attacked now. It's just a discussion about ALIENS. And if they possibly exist. That's what she's trying to get at here. That and to make people stop getting irritable with each other.

"I mean, I understand what you all mean," she said. "I really do. It was, admittedly, a really good metaphor. And while there are similarities, we don't want to be too small brained and get all mean with each other for no reason. I know it's gonna spark differentiating opinions, but really guys. We're talking about ALIENS. You know, if they have big eyes and green skin and how they eat and breathe and if they even exist."

She looked at everyone who had been in disagreement.

"Let's try to get back to that, metaphors aside? I'm sure there are other great opinions."

Sophia moved herself closer to her fellow Ravenclaw. She knew her name began with an R, but wasn't completely sure about it.

Sophia nodded while listening to this Slytherin girl talk, then turned to everyone else.

"THIS is what I'm talking about," she said, getting excited. "I never even thought about that. We as humans overlook the SIMPLEST things, like the sun as she pointed out. They could WORSHIP the sun, like the Egyptians did thousands upon thousands of years ago. We don't know that." She paused, and then started back up once she got her train of thought back. "They might be thinking that they're the only ones in existence. Or they could be thinking the same, how there might be other life forms besides themselves out there, but they're waiting for us to communicate with them."

She leaned back in her seat a little.

"I'll take this one step farther..." she began. "What if they've already discovered us, and are getting entertainment out of watching us talk about them and wonder if they exist? This could be like one big movie for them. They would probably feel so incredibly superior to us because they've discovered that we exist, and that they're the best race in every universe because they can discover new beings."

Another pause.

"What if they're already communicating with us, and Muggle technology isn't strong or advanced enough to decipher it?"

And the number of possibilities, not forgetting to mention disagreements about out-of-earth intelligence could not end. Marie had heard about them for quite a while, mostly in the magazines that were sold in corners, or reports about Muggle Astronomists who gave their theories about aliens' existance.

Anyways, Marie preferred to act oblivious about the subject, listening to the many questions, and suggestions each student was giving, and Professor Risu trying to calm down the crowd. "What about human ways to communicate, that as we've seen aren't the most touching when it comes to aliens? I mean, look around, some people can't accept the fact of migration, and it could be that the aliens have seen this behaviour coming from us, and decide to wait until the proper time to establish a way to talk to us?" It was her human point of view, the way she thought. "Sorry, I had to let it out..." She apologized, in nothing more than a whisper and her arms hiding under her sweater.

Glad that the heating argument of that Slytherclaw and the others were done--hopefully--Zara was starting to be relieved each passing minute. She listened intently to the professor's explanation of his opinion.

Aaaaand no questions. Yup, none. She began to smile again, and waited if anyone else would ask.



Zara blinked. Whoah, also her? Nahh, she wasn't saying anything to defend Kurumi anyway. She was just scared of the Slytherclaw who she still didn't know the name. She smiled at the girl who seemed to address her too, hoping not to get mixed up there.

Astronomers could send one message and then would have to wait for the next generation to receive an answer. Whaaaat?!

Ah, the class was about to end? However, Helena had a question, so she raised her hand. "Professor? How huge could that distance be? I mean... about what you've said earlier." It sounded kind of... creepy. But... creepy or not, Helena would LOVE to go out there, far FAR away, on some other planet.

So she had been making sense. "Well, I'm glad you see what I mean." she grinned. "But think about it, we just don't know so there's no point getting all heated about it." she added. Though, if she was honest with herself, she would be joining in if she had some sort of opinion on the subject.

Kurumi had chosen to remain in silence after the Ravenclaw had continued to verbally abuse not only her but every other student who had so much as raised an opinion. What was the point in speaking if SOMEONE was just going to be flat out rude? There wasn't.

Kurumi turned around and looked at the other Ravenclaw who seemed to be directing her comment more towards Kurumi and her friends than anyone else. They hadn't been the ones to start anything. It was the older Claw who had snapped at them. They, as far as she could tell, were all in agreement. She was the one who seemed to be arguing for the sake of arguing. As for the whole Muggle Studies bit, she had merely been making an observation in which SOMEONE had then attacked her and demanded that she explain herself.

Kurumi wanted to throw her hands up in the air, grab her things, and just leave right now. She hadn't come into Astronomy today for this and she did not appreciate the stern look she had received from Professor Antares.

Instead, Kurumi simply crossed her arms, set her quill on top of her parchment, and waited for class to be over.

Eino couldn't believe that people had gotten a heated conversation out of Astronomy. I mean, really? Rocks were more interesting. He let out a heavy sigh and rested his arms on his desk. That Ravenclaw girl was being particularly nasty, even calling people names. He couldn't understand why she was so heated, it was just a discussion after all. Most importantly, why wasn't Professor Risu doing or saying anything? He just let students insult each other in class? This girl was lucky. If this had happened in Potions or Flying, Professor Lafay would have hexed the magic out of her and Professor Vindictus would have beaten her with a bludger bat. But alas, this was Astronomy, and Eino was about to pass out. Fortunately, it seemed like class almost over. Just a few question and they would be dismissed? Great. If he had a time turner and could use it only once, this would be the time he would use it. No doubts, no regrets. He had enjoyed part of the class, which was rare, but talking about aliens was interesting. Well, until that Ravenclaw girl started barking at people. He could not bear her sight or voice any longer.

"Well... It's really hard to convey - these distances aren't anything we deal with regularly, so the numbers don't mean anything to us. But... Light travels at a speed of nearly 300,00 kilometres per second. That's six times around the Earth in one second. It takes a little more than a second for light to get from Earth to the Moon.

"Now, for light to reach us from the Sun takes 8 minutes. The average distance is 150 million kilometres. The furthest planed in our Solar System, Neptune, is already 4.5 billion kilometres away, or about four hours for light.

"But the closest star to us is already four light-years away. In kilometres, that's about 40 million million kilometres, or a 4 followed by 13 zeroes. Four light-years is, of course, nothing again on the galactic scale. The galaxy is about 100,000 light-years across. That's, er, a lot of space."