Extraterrestrial has a simple definition, but it raises pressing questions on life. Hear from the scientists themselves on whether or not aliens exist.
If you hear “extraterrestrial,” what do you picture? Google it, and chances are you’ll find at least one visualization of a humanoid alien, maybe even waving at the camera.
“We should not assume there’s anything notable or particular, in a cosmic sense, about our situation, or the Earth, or the sun, or any part of our proximate universe,” Impey says. “The final frontier of that would be to decide that biology is not special to Earth.” The field of exoplanet science is also a big player in the hunt for life. Sara Seager, an MIT professor and one of the early pioneers of exoplanet study, has watched the field grow first-hand.Exoplanets are planets that exist outside our solar system. Exoplanets can vary in size and composition, and most are tethered to host stars. All sorts ofStudying exoplanets can give us a broader understanding of our universe.
“When we start to get data back from JWST or the next big telescope, there’s going to be a huge debate to convince ourselves and other scientists and the rest of the world that this actually is or is not an indication of life,” Caldwell says.began with a NASA-funded project on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and eventually grew into the nonprofit research organization it is now.
“It’s not necessarily like we’ll see life that’s waving at us and it’s obvious,” Caldwell says. “It’s gonna be more like, ‘Okay, this is weird, and life seems to explain it. But we’re not certain.’”
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