Aliens have fascinated humanity ever since they were conceived as an idea. The possibility of life on other planets, different and yet similar to our own has indeed a sort of allure to it that is pretty much unavoidable. A team of researchers from Australia, however, came up with a reason as to why we haven’t found any evidence of alien life yet – the Gaian Bottleneck might be the answer to the Fermi Paradox.
- The Fermi Paradox refers to the fact that despite the Universe teems with potential for life we haven’t yet found any evidence of it
- The newly theorized Gaian Bottleneck says that most life in the Universe is snuffed out in its inception
- It also claims that Venus and Mars may have been habitable 4 billion years ago
- Life on Earth may have played a part in stabilizing the planet’s environment
- Most fossils on other planets may be those of microbial life
The new Gaian Bottleneck theory refers to the fact that because of the extremely unpredictable processes going on on a planet, most forms of life are most likely killed soon after appearing.
It came as a response to the Fermi Paradox, as scientists are growing increasingly baffled with the apparent lack of life in the Universe.
Led by Charley Lineweaver of the ANU Planetary Science Institute and Dr. Aditya Chopra of the Australian National University Research School of Earth Sciences, the study looked at how a planet’s habitability may be dependent on the evolution of the life forms on it.
So what the team of researchers is suggesting is that we may not be able to find life on other planets due to a vicious circle.
According to this vicious circle, life barely appears on some planets due to their extreme conditions, but when does, it doesn’t have time to evolve fast enough to stop the climate from becoming inhospitable once again, and ends up going extinct.
Several other scientific minds don’t really agree with the theory, however.
Of course, the idea is very plausible and it does have a sense of futility and nihilism associated with reality, but seeing as there was at least one planet which managed to generate life that actually evolved, and we’re still living on it, the possibility remains there for other planets.
However, plausible or not, the idea has at least one major merit – the team theorized that most fossils on other planets might be those of single cellular organisms, so exploratory teams in the future might actually bring equipment to test for those.
Image source: Wikimedia
BitterReality4U says
It is highly unlikely that another lifeform could evolve down to the stupidity level of the average human. Aliens would simply avoid the dumbest race in the universe and the earthlings wouldn’t even grasp the possibility.