There are countless reports across the world about UFO sightings. There are plenty of mysteries and wonders out there in the world. How could a civilization of thousands of years old build something so complex and precise as the Egyptian Pyramids, for instance? We’ve made a lot of movies and SF literature about visitors from other planets. Last but not least, the Universe is pretty big, so how could it be possible for it to host just one planet capable of sustaining complex life?
In other words, aliens have to be out there somewhere. It has to be only a matter of time before we find them or before they find us. Hopefully, our interstellar friends won’t be hostile toward us. On the other hand, the distances between stars could represent the biggest obstacle. But even so, we shouldn’t lose hope.
Humanity will get in contact with aliens within the next 25 years
Dr. Sascha Quanz of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology is very optimistic when it comes to the chances humanity has of encountering alien life. He believes that in a maximum of 25 years, we’ll come in contact with some extraterrestrial friends, according to Space.com.
One argument that Quanz invokes is the progress humanity has made in exploring the Universe, which is pretty reasonable. He believes that exploring exoplanets in more detail is the key.
Quanz explained, as the publication mentioned above quotes:
In 1995, my colleague [and Noble Prize laureate] Didier Queloz discovered the first planet outside our solar system,
Today, more than 5,000 exoplanets are known and we are discovering them on a daily basis.
But there are likely a lot more exoplanets out there that weren’t discovered yet. In our Milky Way galaxy alone, there are somewhere between 100 billion and 200 billion stars. Astronomers believe that the vast majority of those stars have planets revolving around them.
Quanz also stated about exoplanets, as Space.com also quotes:
What we do not know is if these terrestrial planets have atmospheres and what these atmospheres are made of,
We need to investigate the atmospheres of these planets. We need an observational approach that would allow us to take pictures of these planets.
The James Webb Space Telescope is also pretty inclined toward exoplanets, and we’re talking about the most powerful space telescope in the world. Furthermore, James Webb will even be improved soon enough.
A few weeks ago, the James Webb Space Telescope was even used to take its first image at an exoplanet: the remote world known as HIP 65426 b.
But even under such circumstances, astronomers still have a lot more work to do. Dr. Quanz stated, as Space.com also quotes:
We need to gain deeper understanding about the plausible building blocks of life, the pathways and the timescales of chemical reactions and the external conditions to help us prioritize target stars and target planets,
We need to verify to what extent the traces of life are true bioindicators, because maybe there are other processes that could lead to the creation of the gasses in these atmospheres.
The James Webb Telescope has also been using its powerful instruments to image Mars. The next-generation telescope operated by NASA has used its Near-Infrared Camera and Near-Infrared Spectrograph to capture the first images of the Red Planet. Thus, astronomers are able to study different regions of the surface of our neighboring planet. They can also learn about the composition of the planet’s atmosphere by using the NIRSpec instrument.
Surely we can expect a lot more from the James Webb Space Telescope, and information about its exploration of the Cosmos will keep arriving!
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