News Beat
Are Aliens Actually Real? Scientists Say It’s Possible.
The question of whether aliens exist is not a new one. In science fiction films and books, people have wondered if we’re the only life in this universe and what that can imply for universes beyond ours.
There has to be, right? It can’t just be us?
Of course, ‘alien’ can mean many things and the depiction of aliens that we’ve seen in films like E.T and Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise probably won’t translate to our potential galaxy companions, but isn’t it exciting to wonder who is out there?
Not only is it exciting but it could actually be scientifically sound…
Are aliens real? Most scientists think so
Well, when recently surveyed, 86.6 per cent of astrobiologists recently said they either agreed or strongly agreed that extraterrestrial life likely exists somewhere else in the Universe.
When asked the same question but for complex or intelligent life, the agreeing percentage only drops to 58.2 per cent. More believe than don’t.
BBC Science Focus explains: “Many who study extraterrestrial life believe that Earth’s habitable state, combined with the development of diverse intelligent life, is a sign that the same is possible elsewhere.
“And given the sheer scale of the cosmos, some scientists argue the question isn’t if aliens exist, but where.”
Additionally, The Planetary Society says: “To frame the question of whether alien life exists in another way, we might ask how likely it is that Earth is the only world in the Universe where life has developed.
The observable Universe may contain 2 trillion or more galaxies. Our Milky Way galaxy alone is thought to contain at least 100 billion stars. As exoplanet research continues to uncover the prevalence of planets around other stars, it looks increasingly likely that the vast majority of stars in the Universe have at least one planet around them.
“And as the exploration of our Solar System has shown us, moons can also be hospitable to life as we know it.”
If this hasn’t sent you into a bit of an existential spiral, they assure that it’s unlikely that we are the only ones out here, saying: “Although there’s no evidence yet that aliens are out there — let alone that they’ve come to visit us — the likelihood of extraterrestrial life is so high that we simply must keep searching.”
