Speculative Fact #284: Looking For Alien Life

In Macroscope by Piers Anthony, a massive space telescope used fictional particles called macrons to observe alien worlds.
            The SETI program attempted to spy on alien civilizations by listening to stars and trying to pick up telltale emissions like radio signals.
            Sara Seager wondered if we could look for signs of alien life by analyzing the chemistry of a planet’s atmosphere. The trace gasses in Earth’s atmosphere are changed by the presence of life (e.g. plants making Oxygen and animals making methane).
            There are over five hundred confirmed exoplanets in a variety of sizes and types. Astronomers speculate that there might be billions of Earth-sized planets in our galaxy. As we find more planets our hope is to kind an Earth analog in the habitable or “goldilocks zone” (where water is a liquid) and scan it for signs on life.
            In the future, finding proof of alien life might become simple and commonplace. We might have to radically alter our textbooks as we rush to catalogue a plethora of new biochemistries and variations of life.

-Jonathan Hernandez

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