The achievements of astrophysics have made it possible for scientists
to look into the depths of space, having learned that in our own
galaxy, the Milky Way, there are billions of planets, one way or
another similar to the Earth. Most scientists are inclined to think
that life exists in the vastness of the Universe. Publicist Alex
Berezov writes about this in his article published in Big Think
magazine. Currently, the academic debate is not about whether
life exists, but about what form it takes. Many assume that the most
common form of life is microbial. A fair guess, given that humans
are a relatively new invention on Earth, while microbes have been
around for 3.5 billion years. Therefore, astrobiologists are making
every effort to study the atmospheres of exoplanets for signs of the
existence of bacteria there, writes Berezov. Scientists are arguing
about what alien life might be like, he said, but such a debate clearly
suffers from a lack of perspective. Berezov notes that in order to
detect alien life, two unlikely facts must be confirmed: First, the
hypothesis that the origin of life in itself is not a unique process,
but its development is easy. However, as the publicist notes,
decades of studying the mechanism of the origin of life from
inanimate matter actually yielded nothing. This clearly indicates
that life is not born as easily as we would like it to be, notes
Berezov. He also notes that most of the exoplanets discovered
have absolutely no conditions for the emergence of life on them.
According to the results of the latest research, it turned out that
most of the stars in our galaxy are not able to support plant life
through photosynthesis. Collecting solar energy is the first step
towards the evolution of life, but evolution cannot even begin
if there is no such energy. At the same time, Berezov also notes
that given the huge cosmic distances, the fact of the possibility
of interstellar travel must also be confirmed.
In my opinion, this is even more unlikely than an easily nascent
life. We know that life has evolved at least once, on Earth, but
we have no idea if interstellar travel is possible. Of course, we
could board a spaceship and go to Proxima Centauri, but it will
take us about 6300 years to travel, the author of the article
notes. According to Berezov, the idea that humanity or other
hypothetical civilizations are capable of traveling through galaxies
is only pure speculation. However, even if travel at the speed
of light were possible, the distance between stars is almost
incomprehensible. For example, the other side of the galaxy is
more than 100 thousand years away, the researcher notes. He
also mentions science fiction ideas such as space-time warping
technologies or wormhole travel. But again, such assumptions
are purely speculative. Aside from the quirky mathematics that
suggests such maneuvers are theoretically possible, we have no
idea if this could actually happen. Just because unicorns and
mermaids are theoretically possible doesn't mean they exist.
Putting it all together, you can draw a sobering conclusion: it
doesn't matter if intelligent alien life exists somewhere in the
universe. We will never find her, and they will never find us.
In other words, we are actually alone in the Universe, Berezov
points out.
