If you believe a woman named Helen Stofan, in the next 30 years, humanity will have some evidence of extraterrestrial life. In fact, Helen is NASA's chief scientist, and she certainly knows what she is talking about.
For decades, reputable scientists and the media have been trying to convince us that the existence of life outside our planet is a real nonsense and in fact there is no one else in the whole Universe, but in recent years, the opposite trend has been noticed, associated with a lot of incredible discoveries, which completely refute past views. These discoveries give us hope that a gigantic Universe with trillions of stars, planets and planetary systems was created not only for humans and somewhere far in the depths of space life may well seethe.
6. More recently, NASA has proven that life can appear even in outer space.
Although the fungus can begin to grow even on the wall of your bathroom, a fulfilling life cannot suddenly appear anywhere. And deep space, oddly enough, is not the most suitable space for this. However, NASA experts recently proved that the existence of building blocks of protein and the development of DNA in a vacuum is quite possible.
According to experts, in space there can be a mass of miniature living creatures. The thing is that the main elements of DNA and RNA (thymine, cytosine and uracil) are resistant to ultraviolet radiation. So the theory that life came to our planet from a distant cosmos can be called quite reasonable.
5. It turns out in space there are billions (!) Of planets on which life could arise
You, of course, agree that not every planet can become an ideal place for the birth of life. But the Earth, for that matter, is far from the most unique celestial body.
In order to dispel all your doubts, let's take a look at least only at our galaxy - the Milky Way. It extends from our planet for as many as 100 thousand light years (for comparison, in one light second alone, about 18 million kilometers).
More recently, in 2013, California astronomers conducted a study to determine how many planets there are in the Milky Way on which life similar to Earth could have occurred. How many planets do you think they counted? Ten, twenty, maybe a hundred? Not! In fact, scientists have managed to find more than 20 billion planets on which life could be born.
But the most amazing thing is that this huge number is constantly growing: only in the period since 2010, astronomers have discovered more than 15 thousand new stars, of which more than 4 thousand are twins of our Sun. Moreover, 20% of the stars in the Milky Way have planets that revolve around their orbits.
Scientists have also found that the closest twin of our planet is 12 light-years away. And another interesting fact: in addition to the Milky Way, in our Universe there are at least several HUNDRED BILLION OF OTHER GALAXIES. That is, theoretically in the whole Universe there are trillions of planets, which in many respects are similar to ours. Think for a second about this figure.
4. Scientists have found that life on Earth began a billion years earlier than we thought
Almost everyone still remembers from the school biology course that for a full-fledged life to emerge, it is not enough to have a good planet with optimal living conditions. In addition to this, it is very important that the planet is also of the “right” age. We were all taught that the Earth is 4 billion years old, and life on it has existed for "some" two billion years. And these data sounded quite justified, because at the very beginning of its existence, our planet was completely unsuitable for life and was a giant garbage dump, flooded with toxins literally "from head to toe."
However, according to recent news from NASA, this is not the case. According to scientists, life on Earth appeared about 3.2 billion years ago - just such an age was established in the process of researching the rare stones found in Australia. Traces of the conversion of nitrogen and carbon dioxide to oxygen were found on these stones, which means one thing - already then bacteria existed on our planet. And this, in turn, means that life can occur in the most unsuitable places for this, so the likelihood of life on other planets increases hundreds of times.
3. Biologists constantly find on our planet various organisms in places where there can be nothing living in principle
If you need proof that life can exist even in dangerous and sometimes very extreme conditions.
Scientists have found a terrible fish at a depth of eight kilometers. Therefore, one can only guess what else can be in the dark depths of the ocean or, for example, deep in the soil.
If this is not enough for you, look at these creatures:
By their appearance they resemble huge shrimp. But the most interesting thing is that these creatures live at a depth of more than 10 kilometers and can do without food for about a year.
Recently, scientists found in the bowels of the earth's crust a real virus, which, according to approximate estimates, is already more than 30 thousand years old. One can only guess how it survived there during this period.
All these findings each time prove one thing - for the emergence of life, you can do without the comfortable conditions that all scientists had imagined before. So finding a new planet on which life could be born is only a matter of time.
2. In space there are many organisms that can travel through it without any problems
Most recently, scientists examined the outer surface of the ISS and found on it spores of real mold, which remained intact, despite the harsh conditions of outer space. Some of these spores died under the influence of UV light, but another part continued to live.
Some organisms were so tenacious that they caused NASA a lot of harm. Microbes that enter the station are even capable of destroying the special paint used to paint the ISS interior.
So what is capable of preventing such bacteria from traveling quietly in outer space, being in an anabinoid state, until they find a suitable planet to conceive a new life there? Absolutely nothing.
1. There is a lot of water in the solar system
For a long time, it seemed to scientists that water, as the most important component for the existence of life, exists only on our planet. But recent NASA research has shown that our entire solar system is an incredibly gigantic water park.
Water in a kind of "wells" is relatively close to us - on the same Mars or Pluto. By the way, there are even traces of active geysers on the surface of the latter. And since there is water, then life should be there too.
Most importantly, according to scientists, just over 4 billion years ago, Mars was a real tropical paradise. Its northern hemisphere was a gigantic sea, in which there were many times more water than in our Arctic Ocean. And in its area, this sea surpassed even the Atlantic Ocean.
This begs the logical question - what if life was originally born on Mars, and after a global catastrophe fell on our planet? It’s worth considering.