How close to finding alien life?

The search for life beyond Earth has heated up. Here are some of the ways that scientists have
been thinking and talking about it.

EARTHSKY // SCIENCE WIRE, SPACE-JUN 25, 2015

In recent years, astronomers have become increasingly certain that planets
are common in our Milky Way galaxy. Its possible that every single star we
see at night has at least one planet. That would mean a hundred
billion planets, at least, in our Milky Way alone. According to a recent study,
its possible that most stars have planets in their habitable zones, an area
around stars within which liquid water and therefore life as we know it
can exist. How many of those worlds are inhabited by simple or complex
life forms? And when will we on Earth discover alien life? Follow the links
below to learn more:
Microbial life vs. little green men

Next steps in the search for life beyond Earth

Where is everybody?

Biologists recently measured chemical fingerprints for 137 different

microorganism species, in hopes that astronomers will use the colors
to recognize life on distant planets. Here are a few of the 137
microorganism samples used in the catalog. Read more about this
study.Image via Hegde et al. / MPIA
Microbial life vs. little green men It would be awesome if, like Jodie Fosters
character in the movie Contact, scientists involved in the Search for
Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) suddenly realized that incoming radio
signals could have originated only from an intelligent alien civilization. That
discovery would be world-shaking, to say the least.
But since we have absolutely no idea when or if that discovery might
occur ongoing discussions of life beyond Earth among most astronomers
today typically focus more simply. When you hear todays astronomers
speak of finding life on other worlds, theyre most often talking
about microbial life.

Microbes are single-cell organisms. Theyre so tiny that millions can fit into
the eye of a needle. Theyre Earths oldest form of life, dating back more
than 3.5 billion years, hundreds of millions of years before the age of
dinosaurs. Could there be microbial life on other worlds in our solar system,
and if so how close are we to finding it?
It seems that according to scientists were pretty close.
Earlier this month (June 16, 2015), NASA and university scientists hosted a
panel in Washington D.C. to discuss the latest advancements in the search
for life, with the focus on habitable planets. Another similar discussion
focused on water in the universe was held on April 7, 2015, also in
Washington D.C. At the April discussion, NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan
made a bold statement when she predicted that we would find strong
indications of microbial life within a decade and definite evidence of it
within 20 to 30 years.
At the same time, NASA also released an infographic outlining evidence for
or indications of water on a number of worlds in our solar system. Those
worlds with possible water include the dwarf planet Ceres, now being
orbited by the Dawn spacecraft, a world with two mysterious bright spots
that might be icy plumes. And NASA included Jupiters moon Europa on its
new infographic. This month, NASA announced that it was moving forward
with plans to send a spacecraft to study Europa, which was found recently
to have salt water in the dark fractures on its surface. That salt water is
presumably from the liquid ocean thought to lie below Europas frozen
crust.
Remember, water is needed for life as we understand it, even microbial life.
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Object 1

Next steps in the search for life beyond Earth On April 15, 2015,
astrophysicist Mario Livio,writing in Nature, said:
The most intriguing question in astronomy is, in my view, whether
life exists in our galaxy beyond the solar system. Thanks
especially to the Kepler space telescope, we know that the galaxy
is teeming with hundreds of millions of Earth-sized planets in the
habitable zones of their host stars that allow for liquid water on a
rocky surface
A more powerful telescope will be needed to place meaningful
statistical constraints on how common or rare life in the galaxy is.
One with a mirror at least 12 meters across and with a resolution
25 times that of Hubbles would be able to image a planet next to
its star and detect spectrally the presence of oxygen and
other biosignatures in its atmosphere.
WFIRST/AFTA [Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, a proposed
space

observatory

selected

by

National

Research

Council

committee as the top priority for the next decade of astronomy]

should be able to detect a planet 1 billion times fainter than its

star; a brightness contrast of 10 billion will be required to image
an Earth analogue next to a sun-like host star

A large sample of planets around 50 would have to be tested.

Calculations show, for example, that if no biosignatures are
detected in more than about three dozen Earth analogues, the
probability of remotely detectable extrasolar life in our galactic
neighborhood is less than about 10%.
Note Livios use of the word biosignatures. Thats an important new
buzzword in the alien life search. A biosignature is any substance any
element, isotope, molecule, or phenomenon that provides unmistakeable
scientific evidence of past or present life on another world. Scientists who
study extrasolar planets, aka exoplanets planets orbiting distant stars
are increasingly optimistic that we will eventually find biosignatures on
worlds far beyond our solar system, many light-years away.
In July, 2014, NASA representatives said at a public talk on extraterrestrial
life that the agency would continue the search for life with the launch of at
least three future space observatories. They are:
The Transiting Exoplanet Surveying Satellite (TESS), scheduled for launch
in 2017. Itll search for exoplanets, using the same technique as the very
successful Kepler Space Telescope. Thanks to Kepler, we now know 4,601
exoplanet candidates, with 1,021 planets confirmed, but only eight of
Keplers discoveries are small planets like Earth in their stars habitable
zones. TESS is Keplers successor. It will use an array of wide-field cameras
in an all-sky survey, scanning nearby stars for exoplanets. With TESS data,
astronomers will study masses, sizes, densities and orbits of exoplanets,
including, NASA hopes, an increased number of rocky worlds in the
habitable zones of their host stars. Will they look for biosignatures from
these worlds? No, not with TESS. For that sort of study, you need to be
able to split starlight into its component colors, or spectra, which is why
some astronomers are looking to
The James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for launch in 2018. Kepler
and TESS (and a multitude of other searches) reveal exoplanets. But the
search for biosignatures will be conducted via the powerful spectrographs
of the largest ground-based telescopes and by the James Webb Telescope.

 The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope WFIRST/AFTA, mentioned

above), hopefully to be launched early in the coming decade.

Artists concept via Shutterstock

Where is everybody? As we mentioned at the top of this post, astronomers
now believe that virtually every stars in our galaxy has at least one planet.
Its easy to see why we havent found microbial life on any of these worlds.
We havent been to very many worlds or returned samples from many
worlds (although sometimes, as in the case of Martian meteorites,
interesting samples of other worlds do sometimes come to us).
So we havent found microbial life yet because our technology hasnt
advanced far enough to let that happen. But it very probably will happen,
and probably within the timeframe 20 to 30 years suggested by NASA
chief scientist Ellen Stofan in April.
Intelligent extraterrestial life is a different question. Hundreds of billions of
planets in our galaxy alone? Surely some have intelligent life. If so, some of
those intelligent aliens must have developed interstellar travel by now;
were discussing how to do it, after all. If we can conceive of it, perhaps
some have done it.

Physicists Enrico Fermi and Michael H. Hart thought of many of those same
arguments in 1950. The sun is a typical star. There are billions of planets.
Assuming Earth is typical, some planets should have intelligent life and
should have developed interstellar travel. They added that:
Even at the slow pace of currently envisioned interstellar travel,
the galaxy can be completely colonized in a few tens of millions of
years.
And, of course, our galaxy is vastly older than that, some 13 billion years
old.
Whatever you personally believe about visitations by aliens, Fermi saw no
convincing evidence of it. He famously asked:
Where is everybody?

That question is known as Fermis Paradox, and while no one knows the
answer to it for certain, there are some standard answers. For example,
maybe interstellar travel simply uses too much energy, and hence it too
costly to undertake. Or maybe we have been or are being visited, and,
for some reason, alien intelligences have declined to make themselves
known.
As it stands now, some astronomers like those at the SETI Institute in
California will continue searching for intelligent life.
Many other astronomers, especially young astronomers just entering the
field, will likely join in the search for biosignatures among the planets in our
solar system and among the thousands of exoplanets discovered so far,
orbiting distance stars.
Why search for life? At the June 16, 2015 NASA panel discussion,
panelist John Grunsfeld a physicist and former astronaut and Associate
Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in
Washington, D.C. said:
Were trying with the science to answer some fundamental
questions where do we come from?

Whats the evolution, the path, by which the Earth was formed in
such a way to allow life to form?

Whats the future of the Earth and solar system, and whats our
role in that future?

Are we alone? Is there any other life out there?

As always, there are more questions than answers, but its a safe
assumption that in the weeks and months and years ahead were going
to be hearing a lot more about this subject!

View larger. | Artists illustrations of 12 extrasolar planets, known to

orbit in the habitable zones of their parent stars. These exoplanets
have the right temperature for water to be a liquid on their surfaces,
and so water-based life like that on Earth might be able to survive
on them.
Bottom line: If youre looking for a precise answer to the question how
close are we to finding alien life, you can stop reading. No one knows the
answer for certain. However, over the past year, the search for alien life has
heated up in the scientific community. This post outlines some of the ways
that scientists are thinking about, talking about and implementing the

search for life beyond Earth.

Posted by Thavam