Humanity is on the verge of discovering alien life, high-ranking NASA scientists say. NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan said April 7 during a panel discussion that focused on the space agency's efforts to search for habitable worlds and alien life, "I...
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NASA scientists predict that alien life may be found within the next ten years. "I think we're going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth within a decade, and I think we're going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years," stated Ellen Stofan, NASA chief scientist in a recent discussion regarding a search for habitable worlds.
NASA/Goddard/SDO
There are many conjectures surfacing and being mulled over by science’s great researchers and thinkers. As technology’s reach increases, those who study space have more and more tools and methods available to them. For example, the discovery of older solar systems will make it increasingly likely to find planets that are in the “habitable zone,” reports Fox News July 10,
There are other tools, as well. Sometimes rare cosmic events, such asVenus’ path across the sun, which hasn’t happened for 115 years previous to June 5, 2012, can help scientists get a view of the planet’s atmosphere that they wouldn’t have otherwise seen. Events like these help scientists refine their tech so they can use their tools in the future for more informed observation.
Astronomers say that there’s a suggestion of extraterrestrial life at the Philae comet. Features of the comet such as black crust and icy lakes suggest the existence of microorganisms living beneath the ice. The Rosetta spacecraft has also been said to have picked up what seems to be organic material resembling viral particles. However, the craft that have landed on the comet are not equipped to properly search for direct evidence of any kind of life. We do, however, have suspicions, that comets very well could have spawned life on Earth, maybe even other planets. In 2009, NASA published an article that reported the finding of glycine, a fundamental building block for life that was found in a comet. This finding supported the theory that many of life’s building blocks came from space and smashed into the earth via meteorite and comet impacts.
It certainly seems that humans are close to finding life outside of the earth but hard proof still has not been obtained. It doesn’t stop any of us from asking, “Are we alone?” As Neil deGrasse Tyson writes, there is compelling evidence suggesting that we are not but until the proof presents itself, all anyone can do is hold their breath and carry on.
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