News about the likely existence of extraterrestrial life — and our chances of detecting it — tends to be positive.
We are often told that we can discover it at any time. Finding life beyond Earth is “just a matter of time“, they told us in September 2023. “We are close” was a headline from September 2024.
But what does the relevant community of experts really think? Are optimistic predictions common or rare? Is there even a consensus?
In a new article in the magazine Nature Aastronomy the answers to these questions are found.
During the period from February to June 2024, four surveys were carried out on the probable existence of basic extraterrestrial life, complex e intelligent. The team sent e-mails a astrobiologists (scientists who study extraterrestrial life), as well as scientists from other areas, including biologists e physical.
Not totally, 521 astrobiologists responded and were still received 534 responses from non-astrobiologists.
The results reveal that 86.6% of astrobiologists surveyed responded that they “agree” or “strongly agree” that it is likely that extraterrestrial life (at least of a basic kind) exists somewhere in the universe.
Under 2% disagreed e 12% remained neutral. Thus, it is possible to say that there is a solid consensus that extraterrestrial life, in some form, exists somewhere out there.
Os scientists who were not astrobiologists essentially agreed on an overall score of 88.4% agreement. In other words, it cannot be said that astrobiologists are inclined to believe in extraterrestrial life, compared to other scientists.
When the team The Conversation turned to “complex” extraterrestrial life or for the “intelligent” aliensits results were 67.4% agreement e 58.2% two astrobiologists e 58.2% agreement for other scientists.
Thus, scientists tend to think that extraterrestrial life existseven in more advanced forms.
These results become even more significant due to the fact that the disagreement being low in all categories. For example, only 10.2% of astrobiologists disagreed with the statement that intelligent extraterrestrials are likely to exist.
Are scientists just speculating? Normally, we should only be aware of a scientific consensus when it is based on evidence. as there is no adequate evidence, scientists may be guessing.
However, scientists were given the option to vote “neutral“, an option that was chosen by some who felt they would be speculating. Only 12% chose this option.
In fact, there are many “indirect” or “theoretical” evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial life. For example, we know that habitable environments are very common in the Universe.
We have several in our own Solar System, including the subsurface oceans of the moons Europa and Enceladus, and possibly also the environment a few kilometers below the surface of Mars.
It also seems relevant that Mars may have been highly habitablewith lakes and rivers of liquid water on its surface and a substantial atmosphere.
It is reasonable to generalize from here to a truly gigantic number of habitable environments throughout the galaxy and the universe at large. We also know that life can start from non-life — after all, it happened on Earth.
And what do the readers think? Is there life or not?
Teresa Oliveira Campos, ZAP //
