• Question: have you found any life forms on other planets?

    Asked by PRI to Daniel, Hannah, Maggie, Ry, Scott on 7 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Hannah Middleton

      Hannah Middleton answered on 7 Nov 2017:

      No life has been found on other planets so far. But the universe is so big and there are so many planets out there that I really think there must be other life somewhere out there!

      Lots of planets around other stars have been found (if you have a look at the NASA Kepler mission, that has found lots of new planets around other stars ). Looking for planets which are similar to the earth might be a good bet to find life, but then again aliens might live in completely different conditions to the life on our planet. There is also a group called SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) who are looking for signs of life elsewhere in the universe.

    • Photo: Ry Cutter

      Ry Cutter answered on 7 Nov 2017:

      Short answer no. But we’re trying.
      There are lots of ways we can look for life, this can range from directly seeing it (super hard) but we can also look for key signatures like oxygen atmospheres or specific light emission like radio waves. We still haven’t found anything, but we should keep trying.

      Recently water was found on Mars which is very promising for the red planet being able to host life. There have been some very low resolution image come in that look as if there is fossilised bacteria in Mars’ soil, but it’s not clear enough to be certain!

      With how big the universe is, I think it’s very unlikely we’re alone. But it’s very exciting either way!

      Great question,

      Ryan

    • Photo: Maggie Lieu

      Maggie Lieu answered on 7 Nov 2017:

      So far we haven’t found any extraterrestrial life, but that doesn’t mean we are all alone. The Drake equation takes how many galaxies there are in the Universe, and how many stars there are in those galaxies and how many planets like ours are in those solar systems. This tells us that we should expect the Universe to be filled with life!

      BUT. The Universe is so big, we probably have little chance in reaching it. I mean look at Voyager, it only took like 30+ years just to get out of the solar system :S

      Anyway if we do manage to find life within the solar system, its more likely to be a micro-organism, in which case we need to be very careful that its not just some interplanetary contamination from Earth!

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