Courtesy of NASA
People stare up into the dark skies at night, sometimes taking a moment to wonder if something is staring back. Personally I’m always hoping to see a certain Blue Box flying towards me.
Courtesy of bitbillions
My body is ready, Doctor…
A Chief Scientist at NASA by the name of Ellen Stofan believes that finding “definitive evidence” of alien lifeforms on another planet could very well take place within the next 20 years.
This past Tuesday in Washington, D.C. there was a public panel, where Stofan discussed the idea of life forms being out in the darkness, just hanging around and doing their own thing. “I believe we are going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth in the next decade and definitive evidence in the next 10 to 20 years,” Stofan said, making sci-fi enthusiasts quiver in delight.
However, don’t expect these lifeforms to be of the usual green, blue, metal or Earth-destroying kind. They will more than likely me itty bitty organisms, maybe even just single-cell ones. Recent discoveries have led scientists to believe that they may even be found within our own solar system. Several moons surrounding both Jupiter and Saturn have shown evidence that they may be subterranean beings doing the backstroke through icy oceans, just waiting to be discovered.
You can check out this very cool photo featuring the different places scientists believe life could exist, comparing those planets to dear old Earth. All you have to do is click here! Do it, you’ll thank me later.
One of the planets in that infographic is Europa, and it could very well house these possible life forms. There was a proposal for a mission to Europa and it was approved earlier this year for the 2016 fiscal year. Scientists have $30 million dollars to work with in order to get the proper robot to Europa, as we currently have no solid evidence of what is on that distant moon. The launch date probably won’t be until around 2022 and it would take the rocket roughly 3 years to reach Jupiter and therefore, Europa.
The potential of things we could discover in the next few years is colossal. Keep looking up!
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