Despite skeptical views of the public majority, alien life forms – developed or at least simple – most likely exist somewhere in the vast expanses of the Universe. Moreover, many scientists agree that to deny it is pointless. Of course, this does not mean that it is necessarily about some stereotypical grey aliens with big heads and eyes, and blinding people. But just from the point of view of numbers and statistics, somewhere in the Universe right now just some space germ or “space mosquito” is engaged in its usual daily business. So let’s look at 10 reasons according to which we can at least believe that extraterrestrial life somewhere out there still exists.
The law of large numbers
Even if the actual number of discovered planets is constantly changing, and in some cases even decreases due to the lowering of status of certain celestial bodies and formation of their lower rank, for example, in the category of dwarf planets, in a General sense, scholars agree that in space there are billions of worlds, solar systems and galaxies.
If the Universe is considered as a kind of infinite space, from the point of view of mathematics it is necessary to take into account the likelihood that in this infinite space there is also a countless number of planets. In addition, it also speaks about what to find in that endless variety of something really worthwhile will be very difficult. Too huge scale of the search.
If we assume that only 1% of these planets can be a habitat for life, it’s just an astronomical number of potentially habitable worlds. Among this variety may be present and some fraction of planets very similar to Earth with its multiplicity of inhabited types. In this case, we can say that aliens in outer space even more than we can imagine. But again, until science can give solid evidence, all such arguments in society will always be considered far-fetched and premature.
Water is everywhere
If water is the key to the emergence of life, then we have good news, because water is available almost everywhere in the Universe. Again, according to scientists. However, most often it is found in solid form, i.e. in the form of ice. But again, not necessarily everywhere. Only one in our Solar system has several planetary satellites where there is water. And with high probability it exists there in liquid form.
On the same Mars and it has water in one form or another, scientists still argue, but with respect to other celestial bodies like those of the satellites of gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, they just show all the signs of the presence of liquid water. Perhaps the most obvious among these is Saturn’s moon Enceladus, emitted from cracks in its icy surface of an enormous jets of water vapor and ice particles into space. Among other things, this suggests that the satellite is still geological activity, which in turn may contribute to the emergence and development of life.
The variety of types
Now science is mainly aimed at search of life forms that would be similar to us or at least those forms of life whose emergence and development has required the conditions and elements that were present on Earth. However we somehow ignore the option according to which life forms on other planets might appear and exist in completely different conditions and environments. So other that these life forms do it would seem to us unreal and alien.
Options, again, can be a great many. Why not assume that somewhere in the Universe life exists in liquid or gaseous form? Maybe life on other planets has a completely different genetic code and are based on completely different chemical elements and can exist in a completely intolerable from the human point of view conditions.
This assumption is partially supported by an ever increasing number of discoveries of so-called extremophiles, i.e. organisms able to survive and exist comfortably in very harsh conditions on Earth. Find them and in the permafrost, and even inside volcanoes. So why not to assume that such organisms can exist in the same frozen environment of Mars or in the same fiery hell of Venus?
Could it be that we haven’t found aliens not because they are not, and just because we don’t know what they represent? It’s possible that alien life exists in that much of a surprise to us the forms that we can’t even understand life at all.
The rapid development of life on Earth
Again, speaking relative terms, life on Earth and particularly man appeared on the planet just yesterday. According to some researchers, such rapid emergence and evolution of life forms can indicate that this is not just an oddly good luck. On the contrary, it may indicate that this could happen somewhere else in the Universe. In other words, maybe we’re not special, and our appearance is a normal reaction to planetary evolution.
Some believe that a long time ago on Mars there was life. This was when the planet still had a fairly dense atmosphere and had on its surface a liquid water as on Earth. Similar opinions are expressed and to Venus. Say, she, too, was once like Earth, but some large-scale catastrophic events gave rise to a powerful “greenhouse effect,” which significantly raised the temperature on its surface and eventually turned into a lifeless space body.
The universe is rejuvenated thanks to supernova
Scientists say: if you put the human body atoms, it turns out that his molecules is 97 percent composed of the same elements, and galaxies in the Universe. In other words, we are all children of the stars, no matter how loudly it may sound.
Our universe is full of countless cycles of death and birth of new stars, flowing through a series of stellar explosions called supernovae. Scientists believe the cloud of gas and dust forming new stars, contain organic molecules, the so-called building blocks of life. These molecules are transferred from one area to another Universe by comets and asteroids, until eventually not fall on planets and satellites formed around stars.
Despite the fact that scientists generally agree with the theory of emergence of life on earth by the comets contained the building blocks of life, they don’t know where and, more importantly, when this process first appeared. The correct answers to these questions may be contained in data collected using the “Atkarskoy a large antenna array of millimeter range” (ALMA), the most powerful network of radio telescopes in the world. The fact that ALMA have detected the chemical signatures of life in interstellar gas surrounding young stars in the constellation of Ophiuchus, which is approximately 400 light years from Earth.
“This family of organic molecules involved in the synthesis of peptides and amino acids, which in turn are the biological basis of the life that surrounds us,” explained Audrey Cutins from University College London.
Scientists believe that the find ALMA proves our assumptions about how life appeared in our Solar system. If so, then the emergence of other new stars, may have led to the emergence of other forms of life somewhere in the Universe.
We are too invisible on the background of the cosmos
Skeptics of the theory of the existence of life anywhere in the Universe often say that Earth is unique in its kind. Supposedly it is the only planet in the Universe where there is life. Some agree with the uniqueness of the Land, but do not always agree with the reason for this uniqueness. In General, if you look at our Solar system and does not take into account the Ground, it actually seems completely lifeless. Or at least devoid of intelligent and technologically advanced civilization.
So why not to assume that among the variety of already discovered and even more diversity has not yet found us worlds located in the habitable zones of their stars may have at least one planet where living some kind of reasonable and even highly technologically advanced civilization, but for her, our Solar system may seem completely uninhabited? Maybe this is our uniqueness? Maybe we’re just too visible in the background of everything else?
What if right now some extraterrestrial intelligence is watching our system sees it as some kind of blue planet, but it does not attract because according to the standards included in the group of lifeless, according to his standards? Besides, why should we exclude the possibility that the mind is watching our planet, but as we are increasingly in respect of other exoplanets, hesitantly makes the assumption that there blue ball anything living? To answer exactly to this question, as we are, he can’t because he lacks evidence of knowledge or just the right level of technology.
Asteroids, meteorites and comets
Many scholars at different times (as, indeed, now) was convinced that extraterrestrial life could reach the Earth (and any planet in the Universe) riding on some asteroid, meteorite or comet. Significant support for this hypothesis was at the end of the 20th century, when after the analysis have fallen to our planet from space, scientists made an amazing discovery.
Probably the most noteworthy case occurred in 1984 in Antarctica, when scientists discovered a meteorite from Mars, later named ALH84001. After his research assistants made a loud conclusion — on the red planet once existed life. In 1996, during the analysis object in its internal structure were discovered fossils of once living microbial forms. At that time it was the most compelling evidence that at least the simplest forms of life ever to dwell on the surface on Mars. Can this lead to the conclusion that life on our planetary neighbor still exist? And could she over this time to evolve? Find answers to these questions right now are a few Mars Rovers and orbital probes.
If you calculate how many different comets and asteroids dropped on the planet… well, who knows how many germs as a result of they were popping out and assimilated within the ecosystem of our planet. The best-known case of a meteorite on the Ground is considered an event that occurred in 1908 in the expanses of Siberia and later called the Tunguska meteorite. Somehow, it seems that if the researchers of that time the opportunity to explore the place of incidence with the current of modern scientific tools, that people would expect a lot of interesting and very important discoveries.
Life is not limited to planets
Of course, not only planets are considered by modern science as a potential habitat of different life forms. To take at least our Solar system. Some scientists are so convinced that some of the satellites of the planets can be inhabited, at least microscopic organisms that almost personally want to go there and all to prove it.
As already mentioned in previous articles, some of the satellites of our gas giants have all the signs of geological activity, the atmosphere and even the presence of water in liquid form. Therefore, when possible, more details to explore the far frontiers of outer space we probably will be able to find satellites more suitable for life than their relatives exoplanets.
Hints in our past
Proponents of the theory paleocontacts believe that evidence of the existence of aliens seen in some ancient monuments of human culture: rock art, sculptures, legends, and epics of the past.
In addition to the ancient Scriptures are either indirectly or almost directly, according to the supporters of the theory, hinting at a visit to our planet alien beings, much emphasis is put on some unexplained periods of human evolution. In particular, we are talking about is not entirely clear the process that allowed some pathetic amoeba virtually instantly (in the cosmic sense, of course speaking) to develop such a so complex, versatile and efficient as the human brain.
If it turns out that extraterrestrial intelligence really has somehow influenced the course of human history, it is not just prove the existence of aliens. This will prove that our space neighbors we have much more in common than many might think. This leads to the fact that we have to reevaluate what we knew about their collective past.
The testimony of “witnesses”
Don’t misunderstand: most of the stories about the alleged encounter with a UFO and even aliens, were planted in the fields and stealing livestock and even people, are nothing more than the ravings of a crazy, misguided or just too insecure personalities. Virtually all cases of UFO sightings can be explained from a scientific point of view. And the fact that it is impossible, again, is a subject of science, which has not reached the level to do it. While scientists are not ashamed to admit it.
However, such statements accompany the history of mankind for hundreds of years. They come from a variety of people, ranging from the banal fraud, seeking fame and fortune (books of the “events” someone says, in the end), to quite decent people who are risking their reputation by telling such things.
Again, as once said popularizer of science Neil Degrasse Tyson, if you by any chance find yourself on a spaceship, aliens, whatever you saw will be an invaluable subject of the proof of the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life. Science is not enough of your statements that you saw something. In the entire history of its existence it has repeatedly argued that the witnesses are the lowest form of evidence. So being on a space ship alien, do not rush out to do legs. Better try to divert their attention from themselves and grab any thing that comes in your hand. Even that thing, like a cosmic ashtray. Because such form of evidence of interest to scholars.
But it is absolutely all of these stories are only a subject of imagination, misunderstandings and misconceptions of people? Or among them there are some cases of real contact?
10 reasons to believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life
Nikolai Khizhnyak