World-leading astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger says folks may not know we’re living at “a momentous time in history,” a time when we could finally know if there is life in the cosmos.
Kaltenegger works in an office that previously belonged to the astronomer Carl Sagan, host of the compelling Cosmos series in the 80s. His groundbreaking experiment 30 years ago found ways to identify life on Earth from space on the Galileo robotic spacecraft. He also famously co-created the Arecibo message sent to space in 1974. As we know, he never got his answer from the message designed for intelligent life. But now, those who followed in his footsteps are on the threshold of learning much more.
Carl Sagan talks about communicating with alien life via the Royal Institution:
On The Verge of Finding Life in the Universe
As the founding director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University, Kaltenegger is about to publish a book called ‘Alien Earths, The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos.’ Today’s scientists have advanced technology that Sagan didn’t have access to, allowing investigations that could give definitive answers to the question, ‘Are we alone?’
“Our work at the Carl Sagan Institute is not just about finding planets; it’s about understanding their environments, atmospheres, and potential for sustaining life as we know it,” Kaltenegger said in an interview with SpaceWatch.Global (see video below)
In an interview with the New York Times, Kaltenegger said she’s excited about the prospects and inspired by seeing similar interest from many others.
“I wrote this book because I think a lot of people might not be so aware of where we are right now, and that they are living in this momentous time in history. We can all be a part of it,” Kaltenegger said.
Due to advances in technology, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, we may be “just at the verge of being able to find” life in the universe, she says. Instead of something to fear, finding any signs would be something worth celebrating. It would suggest there is life everywhere!
“There are a lot of ways that if we don’t find life, that doesn’t mean it’s not there. But if we were to find life, even on one planet, that would mean it must be everywhere because we are so bad at finding it…Honestly, we are so bad at finding it. It’s our cosmic doorstep. It has to be in the air or on the surface and colored differently for us to be able to catch it. So, if we found just one planet with life, that just means it’s everywhere,” she told SpaceWatchGlobal.
A New Epoch of Exploration
At a Vatican Observatory conference where a pessimistic Stephen Hawking spoke before her, Kaltenegger took a much more positive view of ET life: If intelligent life exists elsewhere, it has probably had a very long time to observe us. Yet, here we are. Thus, they probably wouldn’t be like the hostile extraterrestrials in ‘The 3 Body Problem.’
“We are two billion years too late to worry about it. Anybody who would have looked at us for two billion years would know that there’s life on this planet. Basically, the cat’s out of the bag,” Kaltenegger said.
The book review points to what may be coming as “an incredible new epoch of exploration.” Rather than discovering new continents like explorers before us, we could find new worlds. Some of these worlds may be homes to incredible lifeforms.
Even so, she understands that the subject could be challenging for some folks while also noting lots of overall excitement.
“But I think it is a very valid concern in terms of social science or sociology because we don’t want to do anything to scare people. It is worth asking the question to ourselves, too: Are we at the point, all of us, where we’d actually like to communicate with other civilizations? And what would we want to ask?” she continued.
Lisa Kaltenegger discusses the quest for another Earth with SpaceWatch.Global:
Welcome to Jurassic Worlds?
If we don’t find intelligent life, it’s possible worlds are home to life more like what used to live on Earth: dinosaurs. In the Age of Dinosaurs, oxygen and methane levels were higher, which allowed giant-size animals to thrive. Therefore, if scientists find exoplanets with similar conditions, it’s possible similar creatures could exist.
According to a study co-authored by Kaltenegger, Earth’s past ‘light fingerprint” from the time of dinosaurs could be the best model for identifying life in the universe. As their research has shown, telescopes can more easily detect exoplanets where such chemical signatures are present.
“This gives us hope that it might be just a little bit easier to find signs of life – even large, complex life – elsewhere in the cosmos,” Kaltenegger said.
If not like Jurrasic World, life on exoplanets could be beyond our wildest imaginations. Or else, it could be so alien that it would be hard to even recognize it from our earth-bound perspective. Whatever is out there, the near future could be out of this world.
Video from Cornell about “Are We Alone in the Cosmos?” for upcoming book launch:
Featured image is AI-generated