NASA has been looking for signs of extraterrestrial life on Earth and in space after several incidences of unidentified anomalous phenomena had been reported. An expert weighed in on the matter, and here's what he said.
Signs of Extraterrestrial Life
Chris Impey, an astronomer at the University of Arizona, penned a new book titled "Worlds Without End." Impey has been an author of 200 peer-reviewed publications on observational cosmology, galaxies, and quasars, and the upcoming book is his 14th.
He recently appeared on the Fiction Science podcast, weighing in on the signs of extraterrestrial life. He believed that NASA's James Webb Space Telescope could help us detect alien life by determining the spectroscopic biological activity in the atmosphere.
He claimed that the public would not be interested in spectroscopic data as they are more into photos. Thus, spectroscopy doesn't get attention as it is more esoteric. Nevertheless, it was reportedly the tool for finding signs of extraterrestrial life, per Universe Today.
Impey said it's still less than three decades since the first exoplanet was discovered, and we had already detected over 5,000. He wasn't interested in the number of exoplanets found but admitted that he was intrigued by the techniques used to check for signs of life on those planets.
Two decades ago, SETI astronomers claimed that signals of alien life would be detected by 2025. We are still two years away from it, but scientists aren't sure about the timetable.
Impey admitted that he thought the first signs of extraterrestrial life would be discovered on Mars. However, the search on the Red Planet is still ongoing, and the expert feels it will take longer to nail down the evidence of biological activity on our neighboring planet.
He believed life may also be found in the Jovian moon Europa or Saturnian moon Enceladus. However, NASA's Europa Clipper won't be operational until 2030.
Are There Extraterrestrials on Earth Today?
During a subcommittee hearing this week, a witness claimed that the U.S. government was aware of extraterrestrial connections as far back as 1930, and they have been around us. However, Impey wasn't convinced.
According to him, astronomers wouldn't subscribe to such a claim as it requires solid evidence, noting that videos and images are not enough proof as they can be altered. Also, the data would be ambiguous even if they aren't altered.
He also reacted to Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb's claim that Oumuamua might be an alien artifact or that the metallic object recovered from the Pacific Ocean proves extraterrestrial life. According to him, Loeb's statement was interesting as one could learn from it either way.
It presents new information about planetary science and interstellar visitors and artifacts. However, in his opinion, those are natural phenomena.
In a previous report from Science Times, Loeb recovered the remains of the IM1 meteor, which he believed originated from interstellar space. He claimed it was made of steel-titanium alloy, which is more durable than iron in most meteors, so an advanced extraterrestrial civilization could have created it.
The officials of Papua New Guinea were furious as Loeb's team allegedly duped them. George Penua Polon, the deputy administrator of Manus Province, claimed that they arrived and left secretly without contacting the government, where the rare find was recovered. Thus, they accused Loeb of stealing the meteor.
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