There are few things in the world that fire our imaginations, as well as our hopes and our fears, like the possibility of finding extraterrestrial life. Science has come remarkably far here in the 21st century:
- uncovering much about the history and origins of life on Earth,
- exploring planets, moons, and distant worlds in situ in our own Solar System,
- discovering thousands of exoplanets around stars beyond the Sun,
- measuring billions of stars in the Milky Way,
- and learning that there are trillions of galaxies within the observable Universe.
But despite everything that we’ve discovered and all the scientific and technological capabilities that we’ve unlocked, we have yet to find any surefire signatures of life in the Universe beyond the life whose home is right here on Earth.
We’ve fooled ourselves many times as far as thinking we’d found evidence for extraterrestrial life goes. Were there canals on Mars carved by intelligent aliens? Did we detect life on Mars in a Viking lander experiment? Was the Wow! Signal evidence of alien communications? Did a Martian meteorite possess microfossils that indicated the presence of life? Did the dimming of Tabby’s star indicate the presence of alien megastructures? And have UFO/UAP videos revealed the existence of alien spacecraft on Earth?
The answer to all of these questions appears to be “no,” as follow-up and searches for confirmation of these extraordinary hypotheses have all come back negative. However, we have every reason to hope that we aren’t alone in the Universe. Here are our best scientific bets for finally finding evidence for life beyond Earth.
The author is full of shi*, BTW.
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