Many astronomers are optimistic of detecting life signs on a faraway world within our lifetimes - possibly in the next few years. And one scientist, leading a mission to Jupiter, goes as far as saying it would be “surprising” if there was no life on one of the planet’s icy moons.
Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) recently detected tantalising hints at life on a planet outside our Solar System - and it has many more worlds in its sights.
Telescopes can now analyse the atmospheres of planets orbiting distant stars, looking for chemicals that - on Earth at least - can be produced only by living organisms.
The first flicker of such a discovery came earlier this month. The possible sign of a gas that, on Earth, is produced by simple marine organisms was detected in the atmosphere of a planet named K2-18b, which is 120 light years away.
The planet is in what astronomers call '‘the Goldilocks zone’ - the right distance away from its star for the surface temperature to be neither too hot nor too cold, but just right for there to be liquid water, which is essential to support life.
While some look to distant planets, others are restricting their search to our own backyard, to the planets of our own Solar System.
The most likely home for life is one of the icy moons of Jupiter, Europa. It is a beautiful world with cracks on its surface that look like tiger stripes. Europa has an ocean below its icy surface, from which plumes of water vapour spew out into space.
Nasa’s Clipper and the European Space Agency (ESA)'s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) missions will both arrive there in the early 2030s.
But the numbers point to the probability of other life as high.
200-300 billions stars in the Milky Way - not even a big galaxy. Perhaps a trillion galaxies in the universe. So conservatively 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars - many with planets.
After 13,000,000,000 years that looks like even random occurrences would have thrown together a bunch of molecules into something that can be defined as life.
Now intelligent life? It seems its doubtful that has actually happened much here let alone elsewhere.
There is an estimated 200 billion trillion stars in the observable Universe, 100 billion in our own Milky Way. We know the formation of planets around a star is commonplace. As of 21 September 2023, there are 5,523 confirmed exoplanets in 4,112 planetary systems, with 932 systems having more than one planet. The nearest habitable planet may be 12 light-years away, according to the scientists. As of June 2021, a total of 59 potentially habitable exoplanets have been found.
At least 50 types of Ammio Acids, essential for building blocks of life have been detected extraterrestrially in meteors.
Astronomers have discovered high amounts of the amino acid tryptophan in interstellar material throughout a nearby star-birthing region of space. Tryptophan is one of 20 amino acids responsible for forming key proteins essential for life on Earth. Carbonic acid (HOCOOH), has been discovered lurking near the centre of our galaxy which is a member of carboxylic acids, a class of chemicals often thought to be some of the building blocks of life—have also been detected in space.
In 2014, the branched carbon structure of the organic molecule isopropyl cyanide is a common feature in molecules that are needed for life – which are the building blocks of proteins has been confirmed to exist in gaseous star-forming region Sagittarius B2.
The odds of there being life, whilst not absolutely certain is however overwhelming given the sheer numbers involved and the fact we are discovering the very building blocks of life exist beyond our solar system. We could yet find evidence of life on Mars and there is the potential existence of water on several moons which may be home to bacterial life.
As of 21 September 2023, there are 5,523 confirmed exoplanets in 4,112 planetary systems, with 932 systems having more than one planet. - Wiki
The nearest habitable planet may be 12 light-years away, according to the scientists. - Wiki
As of June 2021, a total of 59 potentially habitable exoplanets have been found. - Wiki
Astronomers have discovered high amounts of the amino acid tryptophan in interstellar material throughout a nearby star-birthing region of space. Tryptophan is one of 20 amino acids responsible for forming key proteins essential for life on Earth. - space.com
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I’m going to be a Plagerist when i grow up…
it is my non scientific opinion that we would have to be very arrogant to think we were the only life out there…by the same token why cant WE be the most intelligent ?..
who built the Pyramids… well if time travel is possible why not my grandkids grandkids ? they might travel back in time and using their pet robot build the pointy things…
As @Lincolnshire said the odds are in life’s favour but the sheer distances involved make it very unlikely that different life forms will be aware of each other.
We have been making radio transmissions for just over 100 years so only solar systems within about 100 light years of us have had any chance of being aware that we are here.
Considering our galaxy is 100,000 light years across and we are in an outer arm gives some idea of the scale and how unlikely it is for any alien life form to be aware of us even if they are far more advanced technologically than us.
The nearest star system to us is over 4 light years away so even if there were a similar life form to us there it would take us 6000 years to get there.
I can only quote Douglas Adams
“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to space.”
