The Search for Life

Fromhighly trained scientists toiling away at research institutesto amateur enthusiasts gazing upwardfrom their backyards, humanity boasts no shortage of people looking for life beyond Earth. Add to that the massive size of the universe estimates range in the trillions of galaxies and probability dictates that we should have already encountered another species by now.

And yet, we still have no evidence that we arent alone in the universe.

However, according to astronomy researcherChris Impey, this hunt for life beyond Earth may soon yield results. In an interview with Futurism, he revealed that he believes that we are less than two decades away from finding extraterrestrial lifebut it may not be the kind of life we were hoping for: I put my money on detecting microbial life in 10 to 15 years, but not at all detecting intelligent life.

While Impey is skeptical that intelligent life is within our sights, he does have a couple of suggestions as to where we should focus our search for extraterrestrial lifeforms, intelligent or not. The first is our own backyard, or, more accurately, our own solar system.

While Impey tells Futurismhe doesnt rule out the possibility that life still exists on Mars,he says that those lifeforms are likely below the surface and are, therefore, much harder to detect. As such, he asserts that we have a better chance of finding evidence of life that used to exist on the Red Planet: If we actually get Mars rocks back here to Earth from a place that we think could have been habitable in the past, then we might find evidence of prior life.

Other bodies in our solar system could potentially host life as well, according to Impey, including the water world Europa(one of Jupiters several moons). He thinksfuture missions targeting the satellite could yield helpfulif not entirely conclusiveresults, asserting that they should at least give us some better idea if that ocean could have life in it.

Of course, our solar system is just one very small corner of a very massive universe, so wed be remiss if we didnt look beyond it for signs of life. To narrow down the scope of our search, Impey suggests targeting the manyexo-Earths weve already uncovered. Instead of focusing on the planets surfaces, though, we should research their atmospheres.

In the next few years, well be able to use the James Web Space Telescope and other detection devices to look for biomarkers such as oxygen and methane in the atmospheres of these Earth-like planets, says Impey. This biomarker experimentcould find evidence of microbial life indirectly, he explains. The research should help us pinpoint the planets that are the closest to Earth as possible, not in distance, but in character, he adds, and since Earth is the only place we know life exists, finding the most Earth-like planets is our best bet for finding life.

Even if Impey is right, and humanity is still decades away fromfinding intelligent alien life, the discovery of microbial life on Mars, Europa, or one of the thousands of exoplanets weve identified would still be a huge development. It would mean Earth isnt unique, that something else living is out there.

We could use the knowledgewe glean from studying this microbiallife to narrow down our hunt for other, more complex organisms. By providing valuable insights into how other living beings are able to survive on worlds far different from our own, this microbial life could help in our quest to become a multi-planetary species. Even the discovery of past microbial life would be helpful, as it could serve as something of a cautionary tale, providing us with the opportunity to learn and ensure we dont meet the same fate.

As Impey notes, thanks to dramatic advances in technology, weve never been better equipped to discover life beyond Earth than we areright now: Every new SETI experiment done now is about as good as the sum of all previous SETI experiments put together.

However, even if all of the currently planned experiments and missions came up short, Impey doesnt envision humanity giving up the hunt for extraterrestrial life any time soon: The first SETI experiment was in 1959, so obviously it has been going on for over half a centurywithout any success. The people who do it dont seem put off by failure.

This interview has been slightly edited for clarity and brevity.

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Expert: We'll Find Alien Life in the Next 10 to 15 Years, but It Won't ... - Futurism