• Question: do you think there is another solar system with life on it out there?

    Asked by Jody to Angus, Hermine, Christine, Guy, Ollie on 2 Mar 2018. This question was also asked by 238sptm39, 944sptm25.
    • Photo: Angus Gallie

      Angus Gallie answered on 2 Mar 2018:

      I think there might be! Astronomers are doing a lot of work to try and find a star with a planet which might be a bit like our earth. I worked on a telescope in the Canary Islands which is doing this kind of work. My main project right now is working on the design of the world’s largest telescope. This telescope will hopefully be able to provide actual images of an earthlike planet!

    • Photo: Hermine Schnetler

      Hermine Schnetler answered on 8 Mar 2018:

      Most likely. We just have to find it! 🙂

    • Photo: Guy Rixon

      Guy Rixon answered on 8 Mar 2018:

      Yes, and I think we’ll find one within the next ten years. I think that the life will be quite simple, like bacteria. We wouldn’t be able to see the lifeforms directly (if Angus’ telescope can actually see even big animals a few light years away I will buy him a beer!), but we’d be able to detect the chemicals they leave in the planet’s atmosphere.

      We *might* get really lucky and find somewhere with “advanced” life, like fish or even dinosaurs. Nobody’s sure how many planets have this kind of life; my hunch is that very few do, so few that we probably won’t find one soon.

      If we did find a planet with advanced life, then it’s possible that some of those creatures might be intelligent like us: they would be people. But Earth has had advanced life for better than 400 million years and intelligent life for only 2 or 3 million, so the chances are not great.

Comments