The Quest to Uncover Extraterrestrial Life Beyond Our Solar System

In the night's quiet embrace, we can't help but wonder: Are we alone in this universe? It's a question that pulls  at our curiosity and twists our imagination. But it's more than just stargazing; it's about our identity and the stories we tell ourselves. As technology brings us closer to reality, we must confront the antiquated  question: Are we truly alone, or is there more to the universe than meets the eye?

I am writing about this article because this question has always interested me and I wonder a lot about : are we alone? There is a famous saying from  Carl Sagan: "If we are alone in the Universe, it sure seems like an awful waste of space.” I can’t help but feel he is right, how can we possibly be alone in the universe when you realize just how massive it is.

But how would we know if  we are alone  in the universe? It’s one of the biggest questions that haunts our imaginations. Astrobiologist Adam Frank argues in his new book Light of the Stars that we have never been in a better position to answer that question, thanks to a revolution in our knowledge gained by powerful telescopes like Hubble, The James Webb Space Telescope and space probes like Voyager and the upcoming Europa Clipper whose reconnaissance mission to Jupiter’s moons will search for life sustaining conditions.

 It is believed that the chances that there has never been another civilization in the universe are as low as one in ten billion trillion. But whether there is still one out there today is a more complicated question. What we do know for sure is that the universe is big, very big. There are over 2 trillion gaLaxies in the universe, our galaxy, The Milky Way, is a relatively average sized galaxy with 100 billion starts and an estimated 3 trillion planets. Big Galaxies such as the IC 1101 has 100 trillion stars and countless planets. With all these planets in the Universe, the chances of finding intelligent life out there has to be considerable. The Drake Equation gives an official search calculation  for alien life and uses the fact that only one in a million million planets has the right combination of chemicals, temperature, water, days and nights to support planetary life as we know it (Known as the Goldilocks zone). Using this fact and the number of planets that exist, The Drake equation calculation arrives at the estimated figure of 100 million worlds where life has or could be  found. 

It is believed that the closest planetary body to Earth in the Goldilocks Zone is Jupiter’s moon Europa, which the Jupiter Clipper is scheduled for launch on 10th October 2024. The chances of finding evidence of life here are the highest we have ever experienced in space travel, but any life would be basic life forms such as cells or microorganisms. 

Intelligent life is another matter altogether, if there is intelligent life on IC1101 for example, it would take 1.045 billion years traveling at light speed to get to Earth. Our understanding of the laws of physics makes this an impossibility without phenomena not recognised by humans. 

But who is to say humans understand everything? Some people certainly believe that aliens have visited earth. Some of these claims are more credible than others

Recently on the 27 of july 2023 A former US intelligence officer testified to congress that the u.s is concealing a program that retrieves and reverse engineers unidentified flying objects. There are many individual stories about people seeing UFOs but not as  big as this one. There are many people talking about this whistleblower's story but we still don't have proof beyond his testaments. 

But that raises another question, why would the U.S government want to hide that they found intelligent life from outer space?  If there really is evidence of UFOs what is truly gained by keeping it secret from the general public? Maybe they don't trust the world because they think everyone will go crazy with this information and people will start panicking. Or just maybe  countries fear the consequences of allowing alien technology to be in another countries' hands.  These are all thoughts but the government doesn’t publicize any information supporting this.

Some say it's obvious we're not alone, others scorn the very idea of extraterrestrial life. However, with the improvement of recording technology and basic mathematical probability suggesting the likelihood of alien life, skepticism is harder won these days. 

                                                                by, Ghalia Mlika