In the following years, alien life will be found on other planets, according to a leading British astronomer.
It is “increasingly likely,” according to Professor Sasha Hinkley, an associate professor of astrophysics at the University of Exeter, that the telltale indications of extraterrestrial life will be discovered “within his lifetime.”
He said that sophisticated instruments like the $10 billion (£7.4 billion) James Webb satellite telescope are poised to detect “biosignatures”—atmospheres on exoplanets that include molecules generated by living organisms, such as oxygen, that may suggest life.
Even if “biosignatures” were discovered, Prof. Hinkley continued, they might not represent evidence of an extraterrestrial civilisation on a far-off globe. Even if “biosignatures” were discovered, Prof. Hinkley continued, they might not represent evidence of an extraterrestrial civilisation on a far-off globe.
That comes after a task committee of specialists from the US, UK, and Switzerland declared that in the next 10 to 20 years, extraterrestrial life would be discovered in thousands of worlds, making it the most significant discovery in human history.
According to Prof. Hinkley, there is a good chance that life exists in the universe in some form. It is becoming increasingly likely that life will be discovered on an exoplanet within my lifetime. But, the astronomer cautioned that even if telltale signs of life were found on far-off worlds, they might not always indicate contact with extraterrestrial species.
In his piece for The Spectator, he clarified, “To be clear, the identification of life on another planet will not necessarily mean an alien civilisation existing on that world, nor that we are going to establish some form of communication with such lifeforms.”
In our galaxy, an estimated 100 million worlds can support extraterrestrial life, according to a ‘conservative’ projection from NASA. And the space agency asserts that over the next 20 years, we will be able to find that life, with a very high probability that it will be outside our solar system.
In 2021, the James Webb space telescope and other instruments will be launched, and they are already providing previously unheard-of views of the cosmos. Its goal is to increase human knowledge of the formation and evolution of planets, stars, and galaxies.
Additional cutting-edge space equipment is already in the works, according to Prof. Hinkley, with Nasa now tasked with creating a space mission to look for biosignatures on exoplanets by the 2040s.
