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5 Jul 2008

Are we Alone In The Universe?

- 10 Aug 2004
By Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal   
Page 4 of 7
Europa
NASA

Is there life under the icy crust of Europa?


We know this happened on Earth, but we'd dearly like to discover a second example where even the earliest stages of life might exist. Mars remains the best place to look. Three years ago, American scientists announced evidence for fossil 'bugs' on a meteorite that had come from Mars. This claim, hyped up at a press conference attended by President Clinton himself, was dubious and premature -- NASA has been backtracking on it ever since. We'll learn more from a series of space probes that will be sent to Mars in the next decade, to study its surface, and eventually return samples to Earth. And there are longer-term plans to search elsewhere -- for instance, a submersible robot will probe the ice-covered oceans of Jupiter's moons Europa and Callisto.

All this depends on the space programme. For most of the present century, space travel was a futuristic concept, familiar from comics and corn flakes packets. But in July 1969, Neil Armstrong's 'one small step' made space travel a reality. Those of us who are now middle-aged can remember viewing 'live' the murky TV pictures of that event: it seemed a high point in a decade blighted by the arms race and the Vietnam war.

Another lasting image from the 1960s was the first photograph of the entire round Earth, taken from the Moon. Our habitat of land, oceans and clouds was revealed as a thin delicate-seeming glaze. Our home planet -- the 'third rock from the Sun' -- is very special. The beauty and vulnerability of 'spaceship Earth' contrasts with the stark and sterile moonscape on which the astronauts left their footprints.

Astronaut on moon
NASA

Neil Armstrong's giant leap for mankind was fuelled by the Cold War.


In the 1960s, the first brief excursions to the Moon seemed just a beginning. We imagined follow-up projects: a permanent 'lunar base', rather like the one at the South Pole; or even huge 'space hotels' orbiting the Earth. Manned expeditions to Mars seemed a natural next step. But none of these has happened. The year 2001 will not resemble Arthur C. Clarke's depiction, any more than 1984 (fortunately) resembled Orwell's.

 
Have your say
 
It's quite scary to think that we might be alone, but then again we might not be, for all we know our species came too late. Perhaps long long ago there was life everywhere but until we find evidence of life I will just stick with my theory that we should carry on searching (if you catch my drift).
Posted by: theoreticperson - 2008-05-27 - 17:16 GMT

I don't know if we are alone or not, but I know there is a vast space out there. I hate to think that only we are using it - what a waste if we are the only ones.
Posted by: guest - 2008-05-12 - 12:05 GMT

My own theory is this:
There is something bigger than us but we are too small to see it. Take a good example: from the invention of the microscope we are able to see microscopic life. We are part of another microscopic life of ag reater magnitude such as the Universe. We are trying do decipher something so big that we still have a lot of questions.
Jaime F. Navarro

Posted by: Fernixx - 2008-05-12 - 12:05 GMT

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