We know now that in our galaxy, the Milky Way, many of the stars are surrounded by planets. Scientific discoveries have already found out that many of the planets are similar to earth in many ways- with liquid water and life-generating substances. And yet, we are unable to answer the question of whether life has developed on them or not. In this article, Matthew Davies discusses if alien life really exists.
Here are a few things listed below that suggests that we might not be the only living beings in the universe:
- With so many stars there’s a huge probability- There is a huge probability for alien life to exist due to the number of stars scattered in the universe. Many of them (about 50%) have their planets. Thus, it is very much possible that there’s alien life yet to be discovered on planets we haven’t come across to date.
- Trace of liquid water is found on many planets- Liquid water has been found in our local solar system-on many of the planets. For example, a liquid ocean is found in Europa, a moon of Jupiter. Discoveries also suggest that in the Jovian moons Callisto and Ganymede and Saturn’s moons Titan and Enceladus, there might be liquid oceans too. Again, Mars and Venus might have a bit of liquid water in their atmosphere.
We all know, life stems from water and sustains it. The environments of our known planets, for example, Mars are much harsh and extreme when compared to that of Earth. But scientists claim that lives thrive in extreme environments- be it beneath the deep dark oceans or under the Antarctic ice. Water is the sole basic ingredient from which life germinate. Thus, it cannot be said doubtlessly that we’re the only living beings in our galaxy.
- Maybe life evolved quickly on Earth- A number of scientists claim that earthly lives might have generated and evolved quickly, that didn’t happen in cases of other planets. Now, what does that mean?
Well, scientists estimated that Earth is about 4.5 billion years old and the first life on Earth (In the form of bacteria, of course) generated about 3.4 billion years ago. They uphold the idea that the evolution of life on Earth might have been the quickest among other planets, so there might be lives developing on some other planets too.
- There are ‘evidence’- No, we’re not talking here about people claiming to have witnessed a glance of a flying saucer or an otherworldly object. In the radio telescopes of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute, a signal was detected on 15th August 1977, during a search with Ohio State University’s Big Ear Observatory. Many years have gone by and it hasn’t been possible yet to explain it- from where, and from whom it came.
Although there’s no concrete evidence of any life beyond Earth, to assume that lives only exist on Earth wouldn’t be wise either. Matthew Davies suggests you be open-minded regarding the existence of alien life just like many of the scientists around the globe. We are all suspended in a tiny speck of dust, the planet we call our home, Earth in this huge universe and a large portion of it is unknown and yet to be discovered.