Articles- Blog 7

There is plenty of evidence and speculation on how common life could be in the universe. But so far, we haven’t been able to find definite proof. NASA scientists have claimed that we are on the verge of discovering life outside of Earth.

A chief scientist at NASA, Ellen Stofan estimates that we will find strong evidence of extraterrestrial life within a decade and definite evidence within 20-30 years. “We know where to look. We know how to look. In most cases we have the technology, and we’re on a path to implementing it. And so I think we’re definitely on the road.” (

“If they know how and where to look how come they haven’t discovered life?” you may ask. The problem is that a massive project like this takes a lot of time and resources that NASA may not have yet. If we want to find life, NASA would have to narrow down the amount of planets that are habitable, and then look at every individual planet to determine whether it has life or not. This does not mean simply scanning over the planets. They have to look at atmosphere, land, and the possibility of water for thousands of planets.

Matt Mountain, a scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute, has claimed, “perhaps 10 to 20 percent of stars around us have Earth-size planets in the habitable zone. It’s within our grasp to pull off a discovery that will change the world forever.” 10 to 20 percent is a huge number when compared to the amount of stars in our galaxy. If this estimate is correct, their would be billions of stars with Earth-like planets orbiting them.

Some of the best scientists in the world are predicting not if, but when we will find extraterrestrial life. With our technology continually improving, and more evidence of life is being discovered, I believe that we will find other life in the universe very soon.


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