SYDNEY: Extraterrestrial life beyond Earth is definitely out there. Many scientists agree with the latest findings that billions of exoplanets similar to ours can support any kind of alien life, especially microbial life.
This was the conclusion of a new study led by Tim Bovaird and Charley Lineweaver from The Australian National University. Their team integrated this age old idea of extraterrestrial life with the newest discoveries of thousands of new exoplanets by the Kepler space telescope.
Researchers suggest that a star system usually has at least two habitable planets located in what scientists call the Goldilocks zone. This is a zone not too far or not too near the host star where planets have the potential to form liquid water on its surface. When liquid water is present, a possibility for supporting any kind of life form can be expected.
According to Lineweaver, ingredients for life are aplenty and scientists now know habitable planets exist in the thousands, and host habitable environments, as well. Unfortunately, the universe isn’t teeming with aliens that can build spaceships and use mental telepathy to communicate, He noted that if these kind of advanced aliens exist, they would have contacted us by now.
Bovaird says that from a subset of stars that contain multiple planets and not just one or two, the team determined a specific pattern called the Titius-Bode relation, meaning there is a specific planetary sequence found in our solar system that is very similar to other exoplanet systems. This sequence fits the relation even better than our system does.
Scientists strongly believe the probability of planets supporting some form of life isn’t that rare. Planets with life could be just outside our galaxy.
These findings were published in the journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
