August 25th 2023.
Nasa scientist Dr Michelle Thaller believes that there is ‘absolutely’ life beyond Earth, and it may be much closer than we think. When speaking at a deep space exhibition in New York, she said, “I definitely think we’ll find life on another planet. I think that in our own solar system, we’re quite close to it, but once again we don’t have that 100 per cent thing.”
Dr Thaller suggested that our neighbor Venus could, surprisingly, be a source for alien lifeforms. Despite its intense atmosphere, which has crushed all landers sent to explore its scorching, toxic surface, life could possibly be found in its clouds. She commented, “I never expected Venus, [but] Venus is now one where we see something in the atmosphere that looks very much like it could be produced by bacteria.”
Dr Thaller isn't alone in this school of thought. There have been a number of scientific studies that propose the same theory. A number of missions are set to explore Jupiter’s icy moons from 2030 in search of signs of life. She said, “We see possible signs of life in the atmosphere of Venus, and possibly underneath the ice in the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn. The solar system may be teeming with simple life, microbial life. We just have to get that 100 per cent certainty to say that we found it and we don’t have that yet.”
Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus was found to contain all the essential elements needed for life this year, yet no definitive signs have been detected. Dr Thaller expressed her cautiousness by saying, “That’s the thing, we’re waiting until there’s nothing else it could possibly be because can you imagine the kind of trouble we’d get in. We don’t have absolute proof yet. Do I think there’s life out there? Absolutely.”
The search for extraterrestrial life is a fascinating and exciting one. So far, no aliens have responded to our message saying hello, but the possibilities of what we could discover are endless. Who knows, maybe one day AI will be the one to make contact with alien life and ignore us humans entirely.
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