![]() Now in the early conceptual stages, the proposal is an answer to recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences as part of a “decadal survey” released in 2021. “There are calculations that show it’s possible.”įarther off, one of the most anticipated life-seeking technologies is a possible future space telescope, NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory. “It’s not clear to me that the instruments coming online in the early 2030s will be capable of that or not,” Way said. Hopes are also high for the next generation of ground-based telescopes, massive instruments 100 or 130 feet (30 or 40 meters) wide. “In the short term, of course, we’re hoping is able to make detection of biosignature gases in the atmospheres of a couple of terrestrial worlds,” said Michael Way, a physical scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York who creates computer models of possible exoplanet atmospheres. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is already adding to inventories of ingredients in exoplanet atmospheres more powerful and sensitive observatories are being readied for the future search for life signs – also called biosignatures. “Suddenly we have this giant, vast possibility of things to search on.”Īnd the right technology to conduct such a search is just coming online. “Think about all the exoplanets out there,” she said. How soon will it be before we actually get into those? It becomes more an issue of access and not of, I think, greater probability.”Įxoplanets, on the other hand, despite the challenges of remote detection, offer a vast number of targets: thousands of planets confirmed so far in our galaxy, which likely contains hundreds of billions. “How long will it take before we’re able to drill into the subsurface? For Enceladus and Europa, we’re talking about being in a subsurface ocean below kilometers of ice. ![]() “The best hope on Mars is the subsurface,” Voytek said. Life on Other Planets: What is Life and What Does It Need? ![]()
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