Latest news with #aliens
The Sun
4 days ago
- Science
- The Sun
My NASA scientist dad was convinced he found alien life on Mars – his evidence must be taken seriously
THE son of a NASA scientist who was convinced he found aliens on Mars is begging the space agency to search again. American engineer Gilbert Levin was convinced until he died aged 97 that he had made the discovery while working the Viking Mars landers mission in 1976. 10 10 10 Ron Levin, 67, is now continuing his dad's work - and calling on NASA and SpaceX to re-run the experiment ahead of the first manned mission to the Red Planet, scheduled for the 2030s. He fears that ignoring possible evidence of life on Mars could exposure astronauts to unknown contagions - and they could even bring them back to Earth. Gilbert rocked the science community in 1976 when he claimed he'd found microbial life on Mars during the Viking Project mission. But Levin's theory was dismissed by NASA, who had contracted him to run tests on Martian soil. He spent the rest of his life adamant he'd been the first man to discover aliens before his death in 2021 at the age of 97. Just months before he died - he even wrote a column for the prestigous Scientific American explaining his theory and evidence. Ron, also an engineer, told The Sun: 'People are afraid of what would happen if there is life on Mars, and if humans were exposed to it. 'In theory, we could lose the entire Earth to an infection from a Martian organism, that's the worst fear. 'The smart thing would be to send my dad's new experiment back to Mars to check on it, see if it can repeat the result.' He added: "I do believe, at a high level, NASA knows there is existent microbial life on Mars. Why they are withholding this fact I don't know." During the 1976 missions, NASA landed two Viking landers on Mars. Gilbert concluded the presence of radioactive gas he said showed signs of life. But NASA ran separate experiments from Viking and determined the soil did not show signs of life. Ron believes his dad made a key 'political mistake' that prevented his findings being taken seriously. 10 10 He added: 'I think my dad made a political mistake in the beginning. 'He went before a press conference and he said he thought it probably looks like life. But the project manager of Viking who was there told my dad afterwards you should just say you discovered life. 'The American press doesn't have the room for prevarication, you either believe in your statement or you don't. I believed it. 'My father was more of a scientist and he wanted to check everything, and over the subsequent years, he did. 'He tested every hypothesis NASA could come up with. So I think that's part of what happened, because really, it's in the minds of the American public who paid for it.' NASA's mission to Mars NASA hopes to send astronauts to Mars as early as the 2030s. The space company has been working to advance its technologies in a bid to send a human crew to the Red Planet. It would take astronauts up to nine months to reach Mars - which even at its closest is 33.9 million miles away. Astronauts could then spend up to 500 days on the planet's surface before returning to Earth - which would take another nine months. The crew would spend their time on the planet collecting data and assessing the planetary alignment that would allow the spacecraft to land and depart from Mars on the same orbit. Last year, the agency completed a year-long simulated mission that saw four crew members out in a replica habitat in Houston, Texas. They logged 378 days in the 1,700-square-foot, 3D-printed habitat called Mars Dune Alpha. He added: 'Additionally, there have been a lot of other thoughts that it violates some religious idea that life was formed on Earth and so on. 'And some people feel that it's a cover up for bacteriological warfare. 'We might want to go get Martian organisms and see if they're good for use on our enemies, and maybe that would be a reason for the government to keep it secret.' Among those who believe Levin found aliens on Mars is Barry DeGregorio, an honorary research fellow at the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology. The Discovery on Vera Rubin Ridge, Trace Fossils on Mars author recently told The Sun of his belief NASA conceals evidence to boost publicity for its first manned mission scheduled for the 2030s. He also claims to have spotted alien fossils on the Red Planet. Ron claims he has been in touch with SpaceX about running the experiment again but has been told to prepare it himself. He added: 'I met another engineering fellow who had contacts at SpaceX and she got us in to see SpaceX about the new experiment about two years ago. And they liked the experiment. 'And they said, we don't really have money to pay for you, but if you would build it, we will give it a free ride to Mars on one of the starship launches coming up soon. 'And so we are looking for about $5million to build it and it was a great moment.' Ron also questioned ambitions plans by billionaire Elon Musk to build a human colony on Mars through his SpaceX company. Last year, Musk suggested humans could be living there in as little as four years and develop a self-sustaining city 16 years later. But Ron believes this poses a severe danger without carrying out the kind of experiments his dad did first. He added: 'Mars is a very dangerous place, even without microorganisms. A colony on Mars depends on the perfect performance of equipment that was sent from Earth in order to provide water, build the oxygen environment and keep the pressure and never leak. 'In addition to all those things, you could also become infected with some Martian organism that's communicable and die. 'It's one of those things I can't even put a percentage on, although I feel that's a low percentage.' NASA has been approached for a response.
Mail & Guardian
6 days ago
- Business
- Mail & Guardian
Aliens, billionaires, swivel-eyed fake news cults and end times
The Fermi Paradox holds that there is a high probability of extraterrestrial civilisations, yet there is no evidence of this. It was far from coincidence that the Fermi Paradox evolved during the Cold War. The Mexican stand-off between ideologically opposed nuclear-armed superpowers to deep-fry the planet faster than baking bread favouring one answer to the existential question: 'So where is everybody (extraterrestrial beings)?' Italian-American scientist Enrico Fermi's 1950 cafeteria banter with colleagues at the atomic age's birthplace, New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory, crystallised the quandary of advanced 'alien' lifeforms' 'high-likelihood' but any conclusive evidence testifying to their existence was absent. Nasa moon-landing consultant, astronomer, planetary scientist and sage Carl Sagan gave the dichotomy perspective: 'The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space.' The home-base Milky Way galaxy has about 300 billion stars and there are an estimated 70 sextillion others in the observable universe, while associated planets and moons flirt with infinity numbers, where possibility and probability collide. One calculation making the maths make sense was each grain of sand from all Earth's beaches represents 10 000 stars. The human body's raw material construction, and that of other species, is among the universe's most common and recurring elements contained by the incomprehensible scale that's yet hinted at hosting other intelligent beings. Sliding doors The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence's radio telescopes' scanning for advanced life's breath, such as 'alien' telecommunications, has met silence after 65 years of listening — a span not registering a nanosecond on the universe timeline. Like politics and comedy, a simple Fermi Paradox explanation for the 13,8 billion-year-old universe's apparent sparse population was timing. An interstellar civilisation's Earth safari during the Silurian Period 420 million years ago would have spotted ocean plants migrating to emerging land masses and abundant 2,5m sea scorpion apex predators. It suggests technologically advanced cultures were rare apparitions out of sync with similarly evolved species, and if simultaneous, separated by sheer vastness. Another rational interpretation was that intelligent extraterrestrials avoid contact with a crude civilisation's violence addiction and opt to watch the shit-show at arm's length — for entertainment or anthropological purposes. This is termed the 'zoo hypothesis' or 'dark forest theory'. Rolling the dice Conditions considered the basic ingredients for complex intelligent organisms to be a contender include an atmospheric planet orbiting a star in the 'goldilocks zone'. A moon for ocean tidal shifts, tectonic plates, magnetosphere shielding biological life from solar and cosmic radiation and a lithosphere, or rigid crust. Even then, cosmos-wandering intelligent life is never a 'gimme'. Chance tilts the outcome with a coin toss or body-design sabotages gravity-defying aspirations. 'Dolphins have had 20 million years to build a radio telescope and not done so,' astrophysicist Dr Charles Lineweaver, an Australian National Science Institute associate professor, reportedly noted. Catastrophic asteroid strikes on Earth average once every 100 million years, from crater evidence, and the paradox deems the eventuality a low threat to advanced lifeforms expected to have implemented counter-measures. The Chicxulub Impactor's hit 66 million years ago, terminating dinosaurs' 160 million year dominion, allowed intelligent life's chances a foothold. The fall-out eclipsing the sun, ushering a decades-long sub-zero winter in the wake of mountainous tsunamis and, briefly by geological measures, landscapes sprouting fungal paradises feasting on decay. Starvation, drowning and evisceration aside, surviving cold-blooded reptiles' staging an encore were muted by fungal infection susceptibilities that warm-blooded mammals nibbling psilocybin's ancestors escaped largely unscathed, stumbling towards the technological age and its monsters. Sagan added another Fermi Paradox choke-point in 1966 — advanced societies' penchant for self-annihilation. Nuclear holocaust for beginners The 'Great Filter' premise identifies nine steps for intergalactic roaming species including polymeric ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules' seismic leap to single and multi-cell organisms, tool-making capacity and the penultimate technological stage; intelligent life's nemesis — as arduous as threading an oligarch through the eye of a needle — before interstellar nomad rankings. A childhood trawling through Cold War military garrisons in Cyprus, Singapore, West Germany and England's Yorkshire Moors and Salisbury Plain was at times spent eavesdropping on adults' nuclear war musings, an occasion only slightly less common than a Karoo farmer's pre-occupation with rain. There was one gear for the West's nuclear weapon's armoury. Unleash it all and leave nothing in the silos or submarines. Similar strategies adopted by Soviet Warsaw Pact's forces having locked in every 'gypsy' home coordinate for first or retaliatory strikes. US Air Force pilot and family friend Ted Lindsay presented a then-unknown comic on a 1973 social visit to a pre-fabricated Akrotiri residence, a sovereign British airforce base on the eastern Mediterranean island and launchpad for the Royal Air Force's reconnaissance flights assisting Israel's Gaza genocide. A decade old, I asked if the comic's title was 'short for' (an acronym for) Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) — the Faustian Pact's sanity balm keeping cantankerous foes at bay, reasoning only a self-obsessed lunatic would play the thermo-nuclear war trump card. The lieutenant's reply was the first, but not the last, time those regularly drilled clambering into 'Noddy Suits' (nuclear, biological and chemical personal protection equipment) advised close proximity to the device's detonation was the Ideal. Instantly vapourised like deep-sea diving bell billionaires. Excused oblivion's grief, radiation sickness, nuclear winter and cannibalism. Childhood innocence thought there was one way to skin a cat and expected an ending with a bang, rather than a whimper. Step aside Schopenhauer Technology's bear traps changed both the numbers and nuances, condemning Earthlings to be the quintessential intergalactic hosts but never the guests. Curtis Yarvin, California's Silicon Valley totem and low-grade Jim Jones cultist with cashflow, preaches 'dark enlightenment' and 'accelerationalism' to extreme wealth's navel-gazing gullibility. The far-right 'philosophising' blogger, and US Vice President JD Vance's guru, promotes anti-democratic and anti-egalitarian creeds, accelerating societies' disintegration and, substituted by technological plutocracy rising phoenix-like. The deepest pocket is crowned king. So far, it's going swimmingly. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robots dominating or liquidating the inventors, and eight billion distracted bystanders, was a risk assessed once a creation without empathy was confident, slicing the technician's 'umbilical cord' for autonomy. Cult sci-fi or documentary? The Fermi Paradox presumptions view extraterrestrial intelligent life tracing similar contours from stone axe to a species ending its 300 000 year tenure as the mother of invention after AI's inception and a poisoned planet the receipt. Profit's plagues are wrapped in fossil fuel's micro and nano plastics and industry's 'forever chemicals' — ingested from non-stick pans, sparkling spring water and other popular consumer items. Both infestations strongly suspected of, and some links clinically confirmed, tripping a variety of cancers, neurological and reproductive disorders. Since the 2006 release Children of Men , adapted from PD James's 1992 dystopian novel of the same name, the sci-fi movie's hue has morphed into an Age of Consequences reality show. The 2027 dateline's backstory was metastasising authoritarian corporate security states usurping democracies after a worldwide pandemic and global economic meltdown as humanity wilts from infertility — fomenting extinction's malaise under the one percent's watch. Pinpointing the epoch, humans strayed from an intergalactic species' 'manifest destiny' is precise. Ground zero was corporatised religion's mythologies and superstitions accorded equality to evidence-based facts — challenging the 'intelligent life' label from the outset. The fall The apocalypse desert religions — Christianity, Islam and Judaism with pedigrees reaching from the Pharaoh's sun god Ra — were the original fake news purveyors and its medieval mindset oils this century's debilitating post-truth's dumbed-down and vicious voting fodder. The far-right reincarnation's distinct lilt from last century's European inspirations leans on peddling monotheism's sophiaphobia — fear of wisdom. The Jesus death cult apparently swept into the heavens by dodgy biblical Rapture 'evidence' and solving ostracised film director Woody Allen's conundrum: 'I'm not afraid of death. I just don't want to be around when it happens.' The billionaire classes and their bland hand-picked associates' dreamscape was savaging democracies. Carving CEO-governing fiefdoms from the chaos; serviced by non-unionised labour, AI robots and former US special forces Erik 'Blackwater' Prince's mercenary-multitudes patrolling privatised frontiers against feral masses' drones for pitchforks. 'End times fascism is a darkly festive fatalism — a final refuge for those who find it easier to celebrate destruction than imagine living without supremacy,' Klein and Taylor write. In memoriam Anticipating intelligent life traversing immense voids possessed of state-of-the-art scanners, human-extinction pessimists propose burying a titanium sarcophagus on the Moon. A courtesy for future Socialist cosmic travellers seeking 'are we alone' answers. The sarcophagus' contents recalling Earth's once majestic vistas, oceans, flora and fauna before climate change's ravages; joined by Homo sapiens ' arts, culture, sport and other feats eked from a barbarous history trolled by 'greed is good and tax is bad' mantras. Our species' epitaph, borrowed from quantum physicist Albert Einstein: 'Two things are infinite; the universe and stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.' Guy Oliver is Johannesburg-based writer, photographer and permaculture consultant.
The Sun
6 days ago
- General
- The Sun
Eerie Roswell crash memo holds key to cracking UFO mystery after ‘FOUR alien bodies found,' expert insists
A BIZARRE memo about the Roswell UFO crash could unlock secrets and expose the truth about the 'flying saucer' mystery. A prominent ufologist made the startling claim after aliens were rumored as being spotted dead among the wreckage. 6 6 The so-called Roswell Incident happened on July 2, 1947, in a remote desert area in New Mexico. Conspiracy theories and mystery swirling the alleged crash have fascinated UFO watchers for nearly 80 years. Back in 1947, the 509th Bomb Group - based in Roswell - released a press release claiming a UFO had crashed in the area, and the United States Army Air Forces were in possession of a 'flying disk." However, confusion ensued after that release was later retracted, and replaced with a statement saying the object was in fact a high altitude weather balloon. The news alert had initially been issued by 1st Lt. Walter Haut, the public information officer at the base. Decades later, his daughter, Julie Shuster, was adamant that his original 'flying disk' statement had been accurate. But he had to keep everything "secret." A similar view has been expressed by veteran researcher Kevin Randle, a prominent ufologist who is regarded as one of the top experts on the reported crash. Former army officer admits he saw ' beat up ALIEN the size of a 10-year-old child' after world famous Roswell UFO crash Randle has written multiple books about UFOs and the Roswell story. He's adamant that he has 'eliminated all possible terrestrial explanations." 'What we can say with authority is that something fell at Roswell,' he said. 'We have eliminated all the terrestrial explanations." The expert, who served in the Air Force and National Guard, said the UFO case could be solved by delving into a historic memo. 6 6 The eerie memo can be seen in a black and white photograph sent out on the news wires at the time. The grainy note appears to say the words 'victims of the crash.' The memo itself can be seen in the old pic being held by Brigadier General Roger Ramey, who at the time of the crash was commanding officer of the 8th Air Force in Roswell. Ramey is holding the piece of paper slightly turned away from the camera. But, fortunately, some words can now be read using technology. KEY MEMO 'The Ramey memo could be the key to this whole thing," Randle said. 'Ramey was holding the memo in his hand when he was photographed with the debris in his office. 'And what's interesting is we know when the picture was transmitted over the wire, we know who took it and we can see Ramey is holding the document in his hand. 'So we pretty much have the provenance nailed down. 'There are words in the document when you blow it up, that you can read. 'Some people interpret the critical line as saying 'victims of the wreck.' 'Well, 'victims of the wreck' takes it out of the realm of a weather balloon - but it's kind of an interpretation of what you see." Randle has interviewed some 600 people over the past few decades in his search to establish the truth around the mysterious case. POLITICAL HOAX He has concluded that the weather balloon story is nothing but a "government hoax" to fob off those intrigued by UFO sightings. Randle said, 'What they've said officially is that the Roswell crash was a weather balloon and [radar-type] target from this experiment being conducted in New Mexico. "What I discovered is that while [the radar-type] targets were a part of the experiments conducted on the east coast, when they got to New Mexico, they didn't use those targets. "That kind of points the finger at this being a government hoax to explain away the Roswell case.' KEPT SECRET Julie Shuster, Walter Haut's daughter, told SBS News, a broadcaster based in Australia, that she had many conversations with the former Army PR man about the "flying disk" he wrote about in 1947. She said before her death in 2015, 'People began to talk about Roswell in the late '70s after several decades of keeping quiet. "I would ask dad to tell me the whole story, and he told me the same thing he told everybody: 'I put out the press release', and nothing else." It later emerged that Haut had been sworn to secrecy by base commander and close personal friend, Colonel William Blanchard. But, Haut was unhappy about keeping such a big secret, and prepared a signed affidavit to be opened after his death. Originally from Chicago, Illinois, he died in Roswell in 2005. 'Basically dad said yes, he did see the bodies, yes he did see the craft and much more than that,' said Shuster. 'At one point I asked him about the size, and he said the craft was about 25 feet in diameter." EGG-SHAPED Thomas Carey, who co-authored a book with Shuster, Witness to Roswell: Unmasking the Government's Biggest Cover-Up, published in 2007, said his big secret "all came out in his sealed statement after he died." Carey added, 'The ship which he described was about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, more of an egg-shaped object, and he did see a number of bodies. 'He described them as being the size of children. "And when asked point blank if what he believed it was that he had seen, without hesitation he'd say, 'It was not from this Earth, it was something manufactured off this Earth.'' A retired cop claimed that he saw the remains of dead aliens being lifted with a crane and hauled away. Former Deputy Sheriff Charles H Forgus of Howard County, Texas, recalled traveling to Roswell to pick up a prisoner with Sheriff Jess Slaughter. Forgus claimed he saw four alien bodies with big eyes and brownish-colored skin being taken away by military personnel. 6 6
Daily Mail
7 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Secret CIA program claimed to have found alien civilization on dark side of the moon: 'They look like us'
As the US prepares to send astronauts back to the moon, a CIA file has resurfaced that claims to have found life there more than 25 years ago. In the 1970s and 80s, the CIA conducted experiments with individuals who claimed they could perceive information about distant objects, events, or people, a process known as 'remote viewing.' The experience of remote viewer Ingo Swann was first revealed in 1998 when he explained how his psychic episode took him to the dark side of the moon, a region that always faces away from Earth and out of sight from human eyes. That's where the remote reviewer made a shocking discovery: towers, buildings, and human-like aliens working at a secret complex on the moon's surface. Disturbingly, Swann said government officials knew the aliens had a base there, and these humanoids could actually sense his presence as he viewed them with his mind from 238,000 miles away. He claimed that a race of aliens that 'looked exactly like us' erected several giant towers on the moon. One was the size of the United Nations building in New York. Swann, who died in 2013, made the shocking claims in his book 'Penetration: The Question of Extraterrestrial and Human Telepathy' released in 1998. Despite Swann's detailed claims, there has never been any tangible proof of alien bases or life on the moon discovered by lunar missions led by the US, Russia, China, Japan, and India. The famed member of Project Stargate, the CIA's remote viewing operation created in the 1970s, said that this amazing incident was not part of his regular work with the top secret program. Swann wrote how he received a phone call in February 1975 from intelligence agents in Washington DC, asking for his help with another secret project. A meeting was set up between Swann and a mysterious government operative known as Mr Axelrod. Swann had a hood placed over his head and was instructed not to speak or ask any questions as he was taken by helicopter to an underground base. Once there, Mr Axelrod gave the remote viewer a very simple task: 'We want you to go to the Moon for us, and describe what you see.' However, Swann was also told that he could not reveal anything he saw in that vision for 'at least 10 years.' When the CIA operative-turned-author was finally able to share his psychic vision, the description he gave was jaw-dropping. 'I found towers, machinery, lights of different colors, strange-looking buildings,' Swann wrote in the 1998 tell-all. 'I found bridges whose function I couldn't figure out. There were a lot of domes of various sizes,' he continued. Swann noted that the aliens appeared to be all male and did not wear any clothing. They were digging holes into the moon's craters during some kind of mining or earth-moving operation. One thing he did not expect to see was two of the aliens spotting his consciousness viewing the secret moon base. 'Two of them pointed in my direction,' Swann explained. 'How could they do that… unless… they have some kind of high psychic perceptions, too?' It was at that moment Mr Axelrod ended the remote viewing session he recruited Swann for. However, Swann revealed that the news of an alien takeover on the moon did not phase Axelrod or other intelligence officials. The remote viewer then questioned his recruiters about why NASA or the US military haven't gone back to the moon since 1972. His questions stumbled upon the unnerving truth: 'They somehow have told you to stay away. That's why you are resorting to psychic perceptions. They are not friendly, are they?' Swann asked Axelrod. The operative reportedly told him that he was 'approximately correct… but not completely so.' Swann's remote viewing revelations now bring a serious question to the Trump Administration's renewed focus on sending astronauts to space instead of robots: what will we find on the moon? On May 1, the Trump Administration slashed $6 billion that would have paid for research, operations on the International Space Station, and future missions, including the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission. At the same time, the cuts will allow NASA to allocate over $1 billion to manned space missions, ensuring 'that America's human space exploration efforts remain unparalleled, innovative, and efficient.' The White House proposal emphasizes the importance of NASA beating China back to the moon and putting the first humans on Mars, with the latter being the overarching goal of Elon Musk's spaceflight company, SpaceX. Here on Earth, congress continues to hold public hearings regarding the potential presence of extraterrestrial life in space, on Earth, and potentially on the moon.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Aliens: Facts about extraterrestrial life and how scientists are looking for it
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Quick facts about aliens Has extraterrestrial life been discovered?: Not yet! Where are scientists looking for aliens?: Water-rich bodies in our solar system, like Jupiter's moon Europa, and Earth-like exoplanets — planets outside our solar system How many planets in the Milky Way have the right conditions for life? An estimated 300 million E.T., Stitch, Chewbacca, Groot — humans have a lot of ideas about what aliens might look like. But what is the science behind extraterrestrial life? Is it possible that humans will ever experience "first contact" with an alien species? Many scientists hope so. They're looking for extraterrestrial life on planets with conditions that look like Earth's. A life-friendly planet would probably have water, for example. And for water to be a liquid, the planet must be the perfect distance from its sun for that water not to freeze or turn into a gas. There's no evidence yet for life on other planets, but as scientists discover more and more planets outside our solar system, they're hopeful that some of these worlds will be "just right" for life to exist or evolve there. Scientists have been listening for alien signals with special radio receivers since 1992. They haven't picked up any yet! Mars might have once hosted life — most likely tiny things like bacteria — but scientists can't say for sure. Jupiter's moon Europa has an ocean, and it might have hydrothermal vents, or cracks in the seafloor where hot water seeps through. Scientists think life on Earth may have evolved in hydrothermal vents. The "Goldilocks zone" is the space around a star where temperatures allow liquid water to exist. Many scientists think planets in the Goldilocks zone are those most likely to host life. The oldest known life on Earth is 4.2 billion years old. Sci-fi aliens like Baby Yoda are fun to imagine, but scientists are serious about extraterrestrial life. There are some 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy and at least 2 trillion galaxies in the universe we can study. If most of those stars have at least one planet around them, there could be up to 20 billion trillion extraterrestrial worlds out there. Given those numbers, it would be shocking if only a single planet — Earth — had life. But our closest neighbors in the solar system, Mars and Venus, don't seem to have any life. Some moons of Saturn and Jupiter have water, so they could have life — most likely tiny creatures the size of germs. If Earthlings ever meet aliens face-to-face, they'll probably need a microscope to say hi. Until scientists find some firm proof, such as a communication signal from an alien world or fossilized microbes from Mars, Earth remains the only planet where life is known to exist. What aliens would look like would depend on where they came from. For example, on the icy moons in our solar system (Jupiter's Ganymede and Europa, and Saturn's Enceladus), life could thrive around hydrothermal vents in the oceans under the ice. This life might look like the weird creatures of the deep ocean seen on Earth. There could be primitive microbes, like Earth's single-celled Archaea. There might be relatively simple creatures with many cells in their body, sort of like Earth's tube worms, which live off chemicals from the vent fluid. Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago, and we think the first life existed by about 4.2 billion years ago. But life on Earth started simple and stayed that way for a long time. The first microbes that produced carbon evolved at least 3.7 billion years ago. (Carbon is an element that is a part of all known life.) But the kind of cells that gave rise to animals, plants and other complex life-forms didn't evolve until between 2.7 billion and 1.8 billion years ago. Life-forms made of many cells didn't show up until 600 million years ago. And modern humans came on the scene only around 300,000 years ago. That means that, if other planets with life are like Earth, the time period in which they might host intelligent life (or even something as cuddly as a koala) is pretty brief. But there's a good chance that human life might overlap with microbial life on another planet. Scientists do think that life on other planets would be driven by the same processes as it is on Earth, namely evolution. Changes to the environment drive living things to change, leading to new and more complex species. So a planet out in space that is like Earth and has been through many changes in its surface, rocks and climate would probably have complex life, too. In that case, aliens might face similar challenges and needs as here on Earth, and thus might evolve similar features. Eyes, for example, have evolved independently dozens of times on Earth, and they might evolve in life on other planets, too. Some scientists still hold out hope that life exists elsewhere in our solar system. If it does, it's probably on one of the these moons: Ganymede: Jupiter's largest moon is bigger than Mercury and hides a giant ocean under its icy surface. Europa: Another moon of Jupiter with an ice-bound ocean, Europa has liquid water, heat generated by the pull of Jupiter's gravity, and chemicals that are the building blocks of life. Enceladus: This Saturn moon spews water vapor that contains carbon compounds from its surface. One of these compounds, hydrogen cyanide, is important for the origin of life. Titan: This moon of Saturn is very cold, but it does have carbon-rich liquid on its surface. Any life found on Titan would have to thrive in conditions not seen on Earth. Triton: Neptune's moon Triton is very, very cold, but it might have an ocean under its surface layer of ice. It also has geological activity in the form of geysers that erupt when the sun heats the nitrogen ice on the planet's surface. And our next-door neighbor, Mars, may have hosted life in the past, because it used to have liquid water and an atmosphere. Today, any life would have to persist in deep pools of water below the Red Planet's surface. Outside the solar system, scientists are continually discovering new exoplanets. They can learn things about these planets' atmospheres by studying the types of light waves they see using superpowerful telescopes. One promising exoplanet for life is called K2-18b. This world is too far for humans to visit, but the light from the planet has reached Earth. This light tells us the planet has an ocean. Scientists think they've detected some chemicals in K2-18b's atmosphere that could be made by marine life, but they don't know for sure. Scientists look for aliens in a few different ways. First, they listen for alien signals. This is called "passive SETI," for "search for extraterrestrial intelligence." If aliens are smart like we are, their technology might send signals into the cosmos. On Earth, for example, all of the radio waves from our phones, satellites and TV station communications "leak" into space, and these leaking radio waves could be picked up if anyone were listening. So Earthlings use telescopes designed to pick up radio waves from space, hoping to find extraterrestrial signals. That only works for tech-savvy aliens, though. Scientists also use light to look at the kinds of molecules that are present on far-off planets and moons. On Earth, some molecules are usually or always made by living things, so if those molecules are found elsewhere, they could be a sign of life. This kind of research lets scientists look for hints of life on exoplanets that are too far away to reach with a spacecraft. Scientists also send spacecraft to the nearby places where life might exist. The Mars rovers, for example, collect rock samples that could contain evidence of fossilized ancient Martian microbes. (They haven't found any yet, but you never know!) NASA is planning to send a drone with propellers, called Dragonfly, to Saturn's moon Titan in 2028. Dragonfly would reach Titan by 2034 and search for chemicals tied to life. The European Space Agency would like to send a mission to Enceladus, also to search for signs of past or present life. Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are things in the sky that aren't explained. The first modern UFO sighting goes back to 1947, when a U.S. fighter pilot reported seeing flying saucers in Washington. Not every UFO sighting can be explained, but many turn out to be events with an Earthly origin. For example, the famous "UFO crash" from Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947 was actually debris from an experimental military balloon that was supposed to pick up sound waves from atomic bomb tests in the Soviet Union. More recently, strange videos have shown seemingly quick-moving, hovering objects. These "unidentified aerial phenomena" (UAPs) don't have an official explanation. However, they could be normal objects that seem to be moving quickly due to optical illusions, or things that aren't what they appear to be. The pilot who took the videos might have been seeing drones, weather balloons or even birds. Any alien civilization with the kind of technology to build spacecraft has to be an enormous distance away, given that the closest exoplanet that has the right conditions for life is Proxima Centauri B, which is 24 trillion miles away. Proxima Centauri B isn't very close, and it might not have an atmosphere. So it might not have life at all, much less life that could travel to us. And we would need some seriously advanced way to get there: With current Earth technology, it would take 6,300 years for a spacecraft to travel from Earth to Proxima Centauri B. In other words, no, UFOs probably aren't aliens. An alien civilization could send a spacecraft to our planet, but it would mean the aliens who sent it in the first place — and their kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, great-great-grandkids and so on — would probably be long dead before the craft reached us. So it's a lot more likely that UFO sightings are cases of mistaken identity. Image 1 of 4 When NASA launched the Voyager spacecraft in 1977, they included these Golden Records, which contain images and sounds from Earth. These include greetings in 55 languages, music and pictures of life on Earth. The idea is that if aliens ever encountered them, they would understand what human culture was like. Image 2 of 4 Landscapes like this one suggest Mars once had a wet surface. Here, a track cut by water in Jezero Crater ends in a fan of sediment that has likely been chemically changed by water. Image 3 of 4 Jupiter's moon Europa might harbor life beneath its icy surface. This moon has a deep ocean beneath a shell of ice, and perhaps hydrothermal vents where life could evolve. Image 4 of 4 This artist's conception shows the exoplanet Kepler-1649c. This planet is similar to Earth in size and temperature and is in its star's habitable zone, the distance where liquid water could exist on the planet's surface. What could aliens look like? What's the best evidence we've found for alien life? Are aliens real?
