Is there anybody out there? (Image: Lynette Cook /SPL)
THANKS to the Kepler Space Telescope, we know the galaxy could hold as many as 30 billion planets similar to our own. The next generation of eyes in the sky, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, slated to launch in 2018, will search the atmospheres of such exoplanets for signs of life. Some think it’s just a matter of time before we find out we’re not alone. In April, NASA’s chief scientist Ellen Stofan predicted we would have “strong indications of life” on other planets by 2025. If she is right, how will we deal with the news?
What we detect will make a big difference to how we react, says Steven J. Dick, a former NASA historian and current astrobiology chair at the US Library of Congress in Washington DC. Any discovery that is less obvious than little green men landing during the World Cup final is likely to be met by years of questions and examination. Sara Seager, a planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is searching for another Earth, agrees. It will probably take time to confirm any initial findings, she says. “There may not be an ‘aha’ moment.”
A chemical imbalance in an exoplanet’s atmosphere could be a sign of microbial activity. But an indirect result such as this will probably have only a short-term impact, says Dick. The apparent discovery of Martian nanofossils in meteorite ALH84001 in 1996 led to a media frenzy, and even US congressional hearings, before the furore died down in the face of increasing scepticism. Most now think that the meteorite does