"Are we alone in the universe?" The question has fascinated, tantalized and even disconcerted humans for as long as we can remember.
So far, it would seem that intelligent extraterrestrial life—at least as fits our narrow definition of it—is nowhere to be found. Theories and assumptions abound as to why we have neither made contact with nor seen evidence of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations despite decades-long efforts to make our presence known and to communicate with them.
Meanwhile, a steady stream of discoveries are demonstrating the presence of Earth analogues—planets that, like our own, exist at a "Goldilocks zone" distance from their own respective stars, in which conditions are "just right" for liquid water (and thus life) to exist. Perhaps even more mind-blowing is the idea that there are, on average, as many planets as there are stars.
"That is, I think, one of the amazing discoveries of the last century or so—that planets are common," said Philip Lubin, an experimental cosmologist and professor of physics at UC Santa Barbara. Given that, and the assumption that planets provide the conditions for life, the question for Lubin's group has become: Are we looking hard enough for these extraterrestrials?
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-09-experimental-cosmologists-photonics-andromeda-alien.html#jCp
"Are we alone in the universe?" The question has fascinated, tantalized and even disconcerted humans for as long as we can remember.
So far, it would seem that intelligent extraterrestrial life—at least as fits our narrow definition of it—is nowhere to be found. Theories and assumptions abound as to why we have neither made contact with nor seen evidence of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations despite decades-long efforts to make our presence known and to communicate with them.
Meanwhile, a steady stream of discoveriesare demonstrating the presence of Earth analogues—planets that, like our own, exist at a "Goldilocks zone" distance from their own respective stars, in which conditions are "just right" for liquid water (and thus life) to exist. Perhaps even more mind-blowing is the idea that there are, on average, as many planets as there are stars.
"That is, I think, one of the amazing discoveries of the last century or so—that planets are common," said Philip Lubin, an experimental cosmologistand professor of physics at UC Santa Barbara. Given that, and the assumption that planets provide the conditions for life, the question for Lubin's group has become: Are we looking hard enough for these extraterrestrials?