Introduction
As of yet, the existence of alien life has not been confirmed by any government agency. According to Handy, it is yet unclear whether humanity will discover alien life in the future or if it even exists. The search for alien life begins with the search for habitable planets. There are billions of planets in the universe and many of them might be able to sustain life. Scientists have been searching for Alien life for the last three decades and till now they have found over 4000 exoplanets.
The Discoveries
Here are some biggest discoveries made by the scientist about Alien life and planets:
- Teegarden’s Star – In June 2019, scientists reported finding two earth-like planets that had a red-dwarf circle which is called Teegarden’s Star. It was also estimated that this Earth-like planet lies only 12.5 light-years away from the earth. Scientists estimated that there are some possibilities of liquid water on this planet and as such, chances of having some lifeform increases though it is not confirmed yet.
- Three Suns – NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) discovered a huge variety of new exoplanets in a three-star system in which the surface temperature is found to be about 320 degrees Fahrenheit. These exoplanets are found to be 22.5 light-years from the earth. Scientists are not sure about the alien life in these exoplanets despite having stars in triplicate.
- Football-shaped exoplanet – In August 2019, some scientists reported that they found a strange football-shaped exoplanet. They also discovered that the exoplanet is shedding its atmosphere at a rapid rate and losing some heavy metals like iron and magnesium in the process. Scientists called this exoplanet WASP-121b and nicknamed it Hot Jupiter. The temperature of this exoplanet is found to be hotter than 4600 degrees Fahrenheit in the upper atmosphere. Thus, there is only a small chance of having any alien life in this exoplanet.
- Exoplanet water vapor drama – Scientists have reported finding water vapor in an exoplanet called K2-18 b in September 2019. After extensive research, scientists confirmed that there is water vapor in this exoplanet but still they could not confirm the possibility of alien lives in this exoplanet.
- Exoplanet collision – As per a research report, it was found that there is a huge amount of warm dust in the star system known as BD +20 307. It contains an exoplanet which is about 300 light-years from the earth. Due to this warm dust, it might harbor life but scientists are not sure of it since this dust might be the evidence of a fairly recent planetary collision.
This observation was confirmed in 2019 in the month of April but the research about this exoplanet started a decade ago. Scientists are optimistic and reported that the formation and evolution of the planetary system is possible.
Conclusion
According to Handy, an encounter with alien lifeforms might completely change our way of living. Still, the search for alien lifeforms will continue to go on due to our curious nature and thirst for knowledge.
