Life on Other Planets: What Are Scientists Searching For?

As our earth is known to be a haven of flourishing life, because of its equally numerous and diverse creatures, a burning question arises: is the earth the only celestial body in the universe that is home to such life?

Experts have been dealing with this topic for countless decades in the past. They have used a wide variety of strategies and methods to get to the bottom of this galactic mystery. Researchers will search for extraterrestrial life forms in the future.

THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE

It was 1975 when Nasa initiated the most extensive investigation of Mars to date within the framework of the Viking program, in which two unmanned space probes were placed on the surface of the red planet.

Mankind was to obtain high-resolution images of our galactic neighbor for the first time. One of the most important mission objectives of this undertaking was to answer the question of whether plant or animal life forms exist on Mars. The results obtained during the experiments did not paint a revealing but rather confusing picture.

Credit to https://pbsinternational.org/

Although noticeable changes could be observed within the three biological test series, it was completely unclear whether these were caused by As previously stated, microorganisms grown in the laboratory were also to be examined.

The data obtained by this method was then transferred to a special computer algorithm for machine learning, and the device proved to be so accurate that it could categorize the relevant samples as living or non-living with 95% accuracy and innovative type of analysis could take the search for life forms in the galaxy to a whole new level.

THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE

According to the optimistic predictions of some scientists, another new technology will help answer the question of the existence of extraterrestrial life forms in just a few years. The technical equipment in question is a highly complex telescope that is expected to provide evidence of life on alien planets in just 60 hours.

Caprice Phillips A doctoral student at Ohio State University believes it is likely that we will find signs of life on other celestial bodies within the next 5 to 10 years.

James-Webb telescopeCredit to NASA/Desiree Stover & https://weather.com/

In addition to so-called super-earth, gas dwarf planets are also a particular focus of scientific interest. However, experts find it incomparably difficult to detect ammonia or other hypothetical signs of life in the atmospheres of celestial bodies due to the measuring instruments currently available plans call for the James Webb space telescope to enter service in November 2021.

This instrument, which was developed as part of a joint project between ESA, NASA, and the Canadian Csa, will search for traces of galactic life forms around 1 million miles from Earth other tasks of the infrared space telescope include the search for the first luminous formations and galaxies that were formed immediately after the big bang, but the formation processes of celestial bodies and other galactic structures will also be investigated as part of this ambitious project.

Accordingly, the euphoric scientists are firmly convinced that mankind now has, for the first time, the technological possibilities and the scientific background knowledge to approach the question of the existence of other life forms in a promising way. However, it's unclear whether the JWST will begin its work this fall due to massive delays. The project has already had to be postponed several times in the past.

EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE: PROBABLE?

In the Milky Way alone, there are estimated to be up to 400 billion stars. At the same time, our home galaxy is only one of more than 100 billion galaxies in the visible universe. Given this exuberant abundance of potential homes for extraterrestrial life forms, it is likely that From today's perspective, it seems anything but likely that Earth is the only planet on which life exists.

Researchers agree that a celestial body must be in the so-called habitable zone of its ancestral system so that living beings can develop there. Thus, for example, the American astronomer Seth Shostak estimates that alone in our home galaxy, 10,000 extraterrestrial civilizations could exist.

The assumption of Tom Westby, professor at the University of Nottingham, is that with 36 hypothetical civilizations a more restrained estimate of the number of 10,000.

WHAT WOULD EXTRATERRESTRIAL LOOK LIKE

Since no proof has been furnished so far of the existence of extraterrestrial living beings, it is difficult to answer this question validly. Despite this, many experts agree that the appearance of extraterrestrial inhabitants would differ significantly from their earthly counterparts.

This would be mainly because the corresponding living beings are subject to completely different external influences than we find on our blue home planet.

However, the so-called panspermia thesis is opposed to it. According to this theory, extraterrestrial life forms did not originate on Earth but were brought there by asteroids, suggesting that humanoid life forms may exist on other celestial bodies. Another assumption is that the hypothetical extraterrestrials are lower life forms or tiny microorganisms.

OUR PLANETARY SYSTEM'S LIFE FORMS

Employees of NASA's astrobiological department believe that we don't need to look too far away galaxies for extraterrestrial life forms, so Venus, Mars, and some of our solar system's moons, such as Jupiter satellites Ganymede and Europa, are promising candidates for the search for extraterrestrial life forms. further, we go into the outer reaches of our solar system.

The smaller the probability that the celestial bodies located there are home to live. The remote icy worlds of Uranus, Neptune, and company are beset by bitterly cold average temperatures which are often below negative 310 degrees Fahrenheit, but even the innermost planet Mercury, with its strong temperature fluctuations between negative 290 and 860 degrees Fahrenheit, is not suitable as a home for life forms.

The case of Saturn's moon Titan, with its dense nitrogen methane atmosphere, is quite different; the large satellite of the ringed planet likely has many parallels to the conditions that once prevailed on primeval Earth.

INTELLIGENT LIFEFORMS

Many scientists think that the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life forms is not improbable. However, at the same time, experts believe that the distribution of intelligent life in the universe is very rare.

Therefore, it's likely that enormous distances lie between us and our hypothetical galactic neighbors. Thus, the space probes Pioneer 10 and 11 were equipped with golden plates to communicate our human presence.

Large data disks are carried by the Voyager probes, which are currently in the outermost reaches of our solar system. Stephen Hawking considered this threat so great that he advised mankind not to actively search for extraterrestrial life forms but to do everything possible to remain hidden from the eyes of extraterrestrial beings.

What do you think about the search for extraterrestrial life forms? We look forward to your comments. Feel free to take a look at the other exciting topics.