NASA is 100% sure that alien life exists and that we are not alone in the Universe. The agency strongly believes that in the upcoming 10 to 20 years we are going to have exact evidence of alien life, explained NASA’s chief scientist Ellen Stofan.
She added that researchers know exactly where to look for alien life, how to look for it and that technology is not an issue.
Another NASA scientist, Jeffery Newman, made a clear statement saying that finding proof that alien exist is not a matter of “if”, but a matter of “when”. But if when thinking about the word alien, you are imagining the little green creature with big black eyes, you might be disappointed, as the outer space creatures expected to be found are microbes.
During a presentation that lasted an hour, NASA officials have talked about their discoveries which imply that humans are about to find out where in our solar system life exists.
A study that was mentioned in the presentation was about a research that focused on Mars’s atmosphere, which implied that for almost 1.2 billion years, half of the northern hemisphere of the Red Planet was covered with oceans up to 1.609 meters deep.
If scientists would succeed in sending geology and astrobiology specialists on Mars, that would be an amazing achievement and would increase the chances of finding fossils of the living beings that inhabited Mars a long time ago.
Jupiter was also brought into the debate, and was explained that studies on Ganymede, Jupiter’s moon are aiming to prove that there is a huge water ocean underneath the ice layer. NASA is planning exploration missions to Europa, another of Jupiter’s moons which is also covered with an ice sheet. However, explorers have no idea what to expect in finding there.
NASA specialists have changed their conception about the meaning of the term “habitable zones” and recent studies have lead them to believe that those habitable zones are not just around stars, but can be surrounding large planets as well, explained researchers. What they found out, is the fact that our solar system is a very humid place.
The magnetic field appears to be critical when it comes to developing and maintaining life forms on a planet. Earth’s magnetic field, protects our planet from its waters and atmosphere to be blown away by the solar wind. NASA is trying to understand more about this process as it might give them a lot of clues. For example, Mars’s magnetic field is very weak, and because of this, the wind blows away its water and atmosphere.
The studies will expand beyond our solar system, around planets in the proximity of other stars, explained astrophysics director at NASA, Paul Hertz. He added, that they are working on developing a new type of telescopes technology, which will allow researchers to analyze if there are any signs of life, in the atmosphere of planets located near distant stars.
What most excites NASA’s scientists is the curiosity about how the new life forms living on other planets will look like. Mars was formed from the same substances as Earth did, but searching for life beyond it,chances that life forms resemble to the ones found on the Red Planet are very low, explained John Grunsfeld,associate administrator at NASA.
But this scientific dream might be passed on to the future generations of researchers and explorers, as it might take some time. However, scientists are looking at it from an optimistic approach and are hoping that it won’t take so much time. The scientific field is making fast steps in developing and every day is a breakthourgh.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.