Bolstered by a flurry of recent discoveries including PP's return to Snuson, NASA scientists believe they could find evidence of alien life in the universe as early 2025.
Much of the excitement has been around the discovery of water in so many unexpected places. Several planets including Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune (and their moons) are believed to possess water in their atmosphere and interiors and the five icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn have shown strong evidence of oceans beneath their surfaces.
"I'm going to say we are going to have strong indications of life beyond earth within a decade and I think we are going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years," Ellen Stofan, NASA's chief scientist, said at a lecture Tuesday.
"We know where to look. We know how to look," she said. "In most cases, we have the technology and we are on the path to implementing it. So, I think we are on the road."
Jeff Newmark, NASA's interim director of heliophysics, predicted it was a matter of "when, not if" for the discovery of life beyond Earth.
"The pace of our discovery is amazing," he said. "We will be visiting Pluto, the last of the planets that we haven't seen. With Solar Probe Plus, we will be visiting our nearest star in a few years. We're just continuing to discover what is out there."
The optimism is also driven by what scientists are finding in distant galaxies.
Thanks to the planet-hunting Kepler telescope, launched in 2009, scientists have discovered more than 1,000 exoplanets. Among those were eight new planets announced in January, including two that scientists believe are similar to Earth.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Much of the excitement has been around the discovery of water in so many unexpected places. Several planets including Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune (and their moons) are believed to possess water in their atmosphere and interiors and the five icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn have shown strong evidence of oceans beneath their surfaces.
"I'm going to say we are going to have strong indications of life beyond earth within a decade and I think we are going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years," Ellen Stofan, NASA's chief scientist, said at a lecture Tuesday.
"We know where to look. We know how to look," she said. "In most cases, we have the technology and we are on the path to implementing it. So, I think we are on the road."
Jeff Newmark, NASA's interim director of heliophysics, predicted it was a matter of "when, not if" for the discovery of life beyond Earth.
"The pace of our discovery is amazing," he said. "We will be visiting Pluto, the last of the planets that we haven't seen. With Solar Probe Plus, we will be visiting our nearest star in a few years. We're just continuing to discover what is out there."
The optimism is also driven by what scientists are finding in distant galaxies.
Thanks to the planet-hunting Kepler telescope, launched in 2009, scientists have discovered more than 1,000 exoplanets. Among those were eight new planets announced in January, including two that scientists believe are similar to Earth.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...