Alien Life Exists? Scientists Close to Proving It?

After decades of scanning the universe for signs of life in other planets, NASA scientists have declared that they are close to discovering alien life, Mashable reported.

"I think we're going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth within a decade, and I think we're going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years," announced Ellen Stofan, chief scientist at NASA, during a discussion on efforts to find alien life and other habitats in space hospitable enough for humans.

"We know where to look. We know how to look," she went on during Tuesday's event. "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."

Affirming Stofan's declaration, ex-astronaut John Grunsfeld said "we're one generation away in our solar system, whether it's on an icy moon or on Mars, and one generation on a planet around a nearby star."

"We now recognize that habitable zones are not just around stars, they can be around giant planets too," explained Paul Hertz, who heads NASA's Astrophysics Division. "We are finding out the solar system is really a soggy place."

"We can see water in the interstellar clouds from which planetary systems and stellar systems form. We can see water in the disks of debris that are going to become planetary systems around other stars, and we can even see comets being dissipated in other solar systems as [their] star evaporates them," he continued.

These discussions were triggered by the recent string of discoveries of water in other places within the Solar System.

"Jupiter's moon Europa has long since been considered a primary candidate for finding life, as many astronomers theorize that a vast ocean lies beneath its icy crust. Recently, a study conjectured that Saturn's moon Enceladus is home to sandy hot springs. And just a few weeks ago, NASA announced the discovery of a saltwater ocean on Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon," Popular Science recalled.

Then there are the dwarf planets other moons of other planets, which are suspected to also have water.

"The energy needed to fuel life could come from hydrothermal vents - the same sort that exist on Earth's ocean floor and have given rise to entire ecosystems that live off the chemicals dissolved in the hot water," Vox explained. "To actually find direct evidence of life, we'll need to send probes to these places."

As such, NASA has lined up mission trips to Europa as early as 2022. Aside from this, an $8 billion-dollar "instrument" will be sent out in 2018 to survey the atmospheres of neighboring "super Earth" planets. Further, NASA may be launching the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope sometime in the 2020s to observe exoplanets. It is hoped that these, and other similar efforts, will indeed make the discovery of alien life a reality.

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