Topics: Aliens, Science, Space, World News, NASA, International Space Station
An astronomer has revealed where he thinks we'll find alien life within a decade.
With people flocking to social media almost daily with 'evidence' of alien life in the form of alleged UFO spottings, you may believe there's already clear signs of extraterrestrial life. However, none have been approved by NASA.
Associate Professor at McMaster University in Canada, Jonathon Stone, has since stepped into the debate, predicting a a scientific journal will break the news of having claimed to discover evidence of 'life elsewhere' and that it'll happen a lot sooner than we think.
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Stone believes the answer to extraterrestrial life lies within current research surrounding exoplanets - which is 'any planet beyond our solar system,' according to NASA.
At the time of writing, NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program has confirmed the existence of 5,539 planets 'by two or more discovery methods' and a whopping 10,009 are candidates, but have yet to be confirmed.
So far, NASA is yet to have discovered any exoplanet which can 'support life like Earth'. However, it has found 'many Earth-sized rocky exoplanets, some of which are in the habitable zones of their stars' such as Proxima Centauri b.
"The next step in studying them is to analyze their atmospheres for 'biosignature' molecules, which may be a sign of life," NASA explains.
While NASA notes 'unless we get lucky, the search for signs of life could take decades,' Professor Stone has predicted evidence of alien life could be found much sooner.
Stone elaborates: "The claim probably will be offered by astronomers indirectly examining atmospheres around planets in solar systems other than our own.
"In that sense, yes, I predict that we will."
Whether or not these scientific journal claims will actually be proven, is another matter entirely.
However, don't get your hopes up for meeting any alien life forms anytime soon, as the professor notes: "Visiting another planet and actually observing aliens, or their visiting us, remains as a possibility but probably cannot be entertained, as such, at least in my lifetime."
And he doesn't think it's likely that we're living among any aliens already either, Stone reflecting on the 'overwhelming majority of data' which suggests 'every living entity that we so far have discovered on Earth ultimately descended from a common ancestor'.
So, sorry ET fans, it doesn't sound like you'll be helping hide an extraterrestrial lifeform in your home anytime soon.
