We Are Not Alone

"I find it impossible to believe that given all those stars, all those different potential areas, that we're the only ones" - Mr.Fitzpartick, Highschool Astronomy and Chemistry Teacher

"Left or right?" Amanda worriedly asked Sage. "Uhh, I don't know… I guess left?" Sage replied, uncertain. The two girls continued on the left trail of the gloomy forest. Little did they know, they had, in fact, gone the wrong way. Perhaps if they had listened while their P.E teacher explained the way, they wouldn't have ended up deep in the dim forest which surrounded the sketchy part of town. The further the girls went, the clearer it became to them that they had mistaken the way. "Umm… I don't think this is the way." Sage began. "Well, you were the one that suggested it!" Amanda shot back. There was no time for arguing though, because a mysterious neon green light illuminated the forest. "What's going on?" Amanda asked, frightened. "Before Sage had a chance to share her thought, the ground shook, and the two girls fell into the wet mud which lay beneath them. It felt as though an earthquake had struck, but in fact, it wasn't an earthquake; it was something much worse. Something science hasn't found a definite answer to—it was a UFO. 

This scene is common in most space-related movies but, most scientists would disagree. Here's the science behind it that they don't tell you about.

In the event that aliens would even reach us to begin with, which is highly unlikely, their technology would be remarkably outstanding and far more advanced than ours. This is the main reason why most astronomers believe we won't be seeing aliens any time soon. For example, the distances between galaxies are immense. Theoretically, something would have to travel at the speed of light (believed to be highly unlikely) to reach earth within a thousand years. Even at the speed of light, it still takes a thousand years to go from planet to planet. That would mean that if aliens or other beings left their planet now, they wouldn't get here for another 1000 years or more. Just because its unlikely for us to see them, doesnt mean they don’t exist, it only means its harder for us to physically get an encounter with them.

The Goldilocks Zone

Despite our solar system being so big and broad, there are only a limited amount of areas which allow for species to exist. These areas have adopted the name "The Goldilocks Zone." All of us are familiar with the Goldilocks tale. The concept is the same with planets. If you had a planet which was too close to the sun, all the water would evaporate, making it hard to live on such a planet. However, if the planet in question were too far from the sun, the water would freeze, still making it a terrible planet to live on. Only a limited number of planets are inside this zone, which limits potential areas for life. Scientists found planets inside the goldilocks zone, but these planets are estimated to be 16 and around the size of Jupiter. Sadly, according to the NASA exoplanet exploration, we still don't know much about them. 

Numerous studies have been launched around this topic, and many have had successful outcomes. So much so that the NPR Kepler telescope has discovered a new planet, which has taken the name Kepler-69. Kepler is a sun-like star, which is 70% larger than earth. Near Kepler 69 is Kepler 62, which is a dimer star and is closer to earth in size. Furthermore, these planets are giving astronomers hope of one day finding life - or living on such a planet. With the Kepler mission being so successful, the areas around these planets are being orbited with care.

Another challenge is the design of spaceships which does not contribute well to helping us or anyone going into space. With scientists always ready to make advancements in space technology, I believe that in the future, we will have lighter rocket ships that call for less fuel to exit the escape velocity zone. The escape velocity is the point at which a rocket travels so fast that it escapes the pull of gravity. In order for this to happen, the spaceship requires lots of fuel which is challenging to have, as you would need to make the spaceship bigger. 

Having said all of the above, I believe that aliens exist, but not quite in the way people have 'normalized.'

I do not believe in flying UFOs or sudden alien invasions, as we would have at least some idea about whether aliens were entering earth before they arrived. Scientifically, aliens are very likely to exist, considering all the potential areas for life in space. If our human species exists, there has to be some form of life within all the different layers of space. Although space hasn't been explored to every last inch, We have an understanding of what different layers of space look like. There are planets, galaxies, universes and multiverses, and you want to tell me earth was the one lucky planet that casually hosts a living species?

You may not believe in alien invasions or UFOs, but do you ever pause and ask yourself, Is something on its way to us? And is that something perhaps a living species? There’s lots of speculation and false statements out there, and I hope this helped you decide what you believe in. A s I say, the debates regarding this topic are ongoing, and there hasn't been proven to be any definite answer to this broad question yet; however, we aren't crazy- There is good reason to believe we are not alone.