Search for Alien Life Moves Well Beyond Mars



[ad_1]

On Mars, a robotic robot called Perseverance has been searching for life since the dawn of time. Scientists, however, are looking for signs of life in even stranger places, from clouds on Venus and methane lakes on Titan, to alien atmospheres in worlds surrounding distant stars. They search for extraterrestrial radio signals, look for signs of industrial pollution on distant exoplanets, and scrutinize the confusing interstellar objects that have intercepted our solar system.

The growing search for clues about life beyond Earth – and signs of alien intelligence – fits into the mainstream of astronomy and planetary exploration. In addition to NASA’s currently ongoing Mars rover missions, dozens of research teams are looking for biosignatures of early microbial life, while the search for plausible evidence of alien civilizations is gaining respectability.

Indeed, for the first time in a generation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is supporting efforts to search for signs of advanced civilizations elsewhere in the cosmos, the researchers said. If life exists beyond Earth, whether primitive or advanced, scientists may soon find some trace of it.

“If you’re talking about seeking life, even intelligent life, maybe this is the special time,” says Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, a nonprofit organization in Mountain View, Calif., who is looking for intelligent beings. have the technological ability to find life on other worlds and this ability is improving. “

To further its research into primitive life, NASA is preparing a $ 4.25 billion mission to Europe around Jupiter for a launch in around 2024 to study whether the moon’s frozen oceans and ice volcanoes are favorable to alien biology. In 2027, the agency plans to send its billion-dollar Dragonfly mission to a Saturn moon called Titan to analyze its lakes for liquid methane. “We believe Titan has all the ingredients for life,” says Sarah Hörst, a planetary specialist at Johns Hopkins University, who studies alien atmospheres.

[ad_2]

Source link