Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life
Aliens, UFOs, little green men: Whatever you call it, life that did not start on the Earth has yet to be found, but a number of respected scientists speculate that extraterrestrial life exists. Some such as Frank Drake have even attempted to estimate the number of civilisations in our galaxy based on what we know about the Universe and life on Earth.
Scientists have also identified places in the Solar System such as Jupiter's moon Europa that have the potential to support life. Future missions to these places may find some form of life.
Image: Could an advanced civilisation exist in one of the thousands of galaxies shown in this Hubble image? (credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith/STScI, HUDF Team)
Watch and listen to clips from past programmes TV clips [8] Radio Programmes [2]
Jupiter's moon Europa will warm as the Sun ages and may support life. Scientists speculate it could become a watery world.
Sir Patrick Moore and comedian Michael Bentine discuss the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
In 1979 Sir Patrick Moore asked the great radio astronomer Sir Bernard Lovell whether he thought we could ever contact other advanced civilisations.
Sir Patrick Moore spoke to Dr Carl Sagan in 1974 about the search for other civilisations.
Launched in 2009, the Kepler space telescope's mission is to find Earth-like worlds orbiting distant stars. In this clip, NASA's William Borucki explains how it will work.
About Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life (from the Latin words: extra ("beyond", or "not of") and terrestris ("of or belonging to Earth")) is defined as life that does not originate from Earth. Referred to as alien life, or simply aliens, these hypothetical forms of life range from simple bacteria-like organisms to beings far more advanced than humans.
The development and testing of theories about extraterrestrial life is known as exobiology or astrobiology; the term astrobiology, however, includes the study of life on Earth, viewed in its astronomical context. Many prominent scientists consider extraterrestrial life to be plausible, but no direct evidence has yet been found.
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