The space agency now believes that it has the scientific knowhow and the engineering expertise to answer the age old question, are we alone? This is why NASA has established the Center for Life Detection Science (CLDS) which brings together a heap of scientists and researchers to use their minds collectively in the hunt for ET. NASA described the formation of CLDS as a “critical moment in the field of astrobiology”, which is the study of the origins of life.

A statement from read: “Decades of research have led scientists to look deeply into the nature of life itself — what it is, how it began on Earth, and what other worlds might also support it.

“A shift in focus is now emerging as scientists recognise that with a strategic push the possibility of detecting could be on the horizon.”

The centre will be based at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California and will bring in scientists from Ames, the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and selected teams from Georgetown University in Washington, DC and Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

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