NASA Scientist Predicts We’ll Find Signs Of Alien Life In The Next 10-20 Years

There have been many movies based on aliens- right from the classic E.T the Extra-Terrestrial to the recently released PK. Some movies show aliens as the evil ones, trying to take over the world, while some show them as just- well, plain confused. Turns out, we might actually find out more about aliens, since scientists at NASA believe that we might get answers in the next decade.

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The presence of water is one of the fundamental signs of the existence of life in the universe. Hence, the search for alien life begins with searching the universe for signs of liquid water, which contains some of the essential building blocks of life.

In a new study published in Nature, researchers announced the first-ever spotting of complex organic molecules in the planet-forming region of a young star system.

These are the ones necessary for building amino acids and proteins. This could mean that these building blocks are actually pretty common, and that many star systems have the capacity to seed life on their planets.

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NASA’s chief scientist Ellen Stofan said this at a panel on Tuesday: “I believe we are going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth in the next decade and definitive evidence in the next 10 to 20 years.”

So far scientists have found plenty of evidence of water. Within our own solar system, Europa, an icy moon belonging to Jupiter, is probably the greatest object of speculation.

Scientists believe that there could be a massive, liquid collection of water beneath the freezing cold surface.That environment might not be so different from the deep frozen lakes of our own polar regions, which we now know to contain intrepid microbes.

The amazing research by NASA scientists have opened up endless possibilities of not only finding life in the universe, but also investigating our origins.

“In our lifetime, we may very well finally answer whether we are alone in the solar system and beyond,” says Stofan.

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Remnants of Ancient Streambed on Mars in 2012

Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA, said: “We now recognize that habitable zones are not just around stars, they can be around giant planets, too. We are finding out the solar system is really a soggy place.”

But don’t worry; they are not talking about weird-looking aliens trying to take over your body in order to conquer the world. “We are not talking about little green men,” Stofan said. “We are talking about little microbes.”

News Source: WashingtonPost

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