Looking for cosmic company
Mentioning aliens in a conversation will likely paint you as someone who has a wall pinned full of newspaper clippings and cryptic pictures connected by a web of red yarn at home. Though the question of extraterrestrial life is a genuinely fascinating and thought-provoking topic, its problem lies in PR. Recently, however, governmental agencies have begun showing targeted interest in the question; for example, earlier this year, China proposed a mission called Closeby Habitable Exoplanet Survey (CHES) to explore worlds with the potential for life. The US Pentagon admitted to over 400 unexplained UFO sightings at the first briefing on the topic in over 50 years on May 17th, after an already significant 144 sightings published in their preliminary report last year. And most recently, NASA announced that they are creating a dedicated study on the topic. But the notorious connotations of ‘looking for aliens’ raises the question as to why government agencies would risk their authority and reputations for something like this.
To understand the search for aliens and its motivations, one must first grasp one of the task’s underlying concepts: the Fermi paradox. It is the contradiction between the estimate of a relatively high probability of intelligent life somewhere else in the universe, and the fact that we humans have not (yet?) come across evidence of them. Though the question may first have been posed by Russian physicist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi is associated with it because, when discussing UFOs with his colleagues in 1950, he blurted out ‘don’t you ever wonder where everybody is?’.
The basis of the Fermi paradox lies in numbers. The probability of life, let alone intelligent life, developing is miniscule. But with an estimated 70 sextillion stars in the observable universe, and up to 400 billion in the Milky Way alone, even this microscopic probability suggests that a tiny fraction of those should have life-supporting planets, and a tinier still fraction of those planets should have developed intelligent life. The sun is quite young, so if there are any civilizations, chances are that many would be older than ours, and therefore may be more technologically advanced. In turn, they may have solved some puzzles we face now, such as travelling the long distances between stars. Given this logic, chances are that by now, we should have at least found a probe, or something.
*** (It is worth noting that the Drake equation, developed by American physicist Frank Drake in 1961, quantifies this theory somewhat, but because not enough is known to determine statistics for most of the variables, results vary by a large margin depending on the estimates. In a nutshell, the variables involved are: how many advanced civilizations exist, the rate of new star formation, how many of those stars have planets, how many planets those stars have, how many of those planets are suitable for life, how many of those planets will actually develop life, how many of those planets will develop intelligent life, how many of those intelligent civilizations are advanced enough to send out messages, and how long those civilizations dispatch said messages for. It’s a mouthful, and we just don’t know most of these numbers. As a result, outcomes range from less than one to 100 million civilizations in our galaxy) ***
The Fermi paradox is a rabbit hole so deep one could spend an entire career studying its concepts. But why is it relevant to us and our search for alien life? There are many hypotheses that may explain why we have not found other life, such as the jarring thought that life is, in fact, so incredibly rare that we are alone. Another theory suggests that it’s too hard, expensive, or useless for aliens to visit our corner of the universe. Yet another one tells us that extraterrestrial life is periodically wiped out by either natural causes, or itself. All of these delightful theories and more can be found online if you’re in the mood for some sleepless nights, but their possibility requires thought, research, and preparation. Learning about alien life, or the lack thereof, can help us understand not only the nature of our home, the universe, but also our own fate, and can help prepare ourselves for the preservation of our being.
Apart from potentially telling us our destiny, researching aliens can revolutionize science. This is because as of now, most of science outside of astronomy relates to our planet. Applying terrestrial concepts to entirely new worlds will require interdisciplinary ventures and thinking about old theories in new contexts. The term ‘astrobiology’ has already been coined, with scientists studying chemical traces of life on other worlds. For example, in 2018, the Mars Curiosity rover discovered ancient organic molecules on the planet, helping scientists understand its past landscape, whether it once supported life, or whether it can do so in the future (NASA). Obviously, discoveries like these can help to determine what situations are viable for life, and are therefore extremely helpful for future missions to Mars and beyond. Further development in this field may also mean more insight into the variables of the Drake equation, which in turn will help us understand our fate. But it can also help us understand where we came from. Recently, the Hayabusa2 mission, developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), discovered amino acids (or the building blocks of life) on the asteroid Ryugu (Science Times). This supports the theory of pseudo-panspermia, which states that organic molecules originated in space. Without combining the disciplines of biology, physics, and chemistry (among others) in the name of searching for signs of extraterrestrial life, this extremely important discovery as to where life itself came from would not have been made.
Scientific disciplines are not the only thing the study of aliens brings together; it could help us unite as a species. Looking for potential extraterrestrials forces one to look at the Earth, and life itself, from a whole new perspective. We have no choice but to accept ourselves as the small speck of dust we are as we search for other specks of dust in the haystack that is the universe. From the handful of people that have seen Earth from the outside perspective of potential alien visitors, we know of the ‘overview effect’; looking down at Earth, astronauts describe truly realizing, for the first time, our planet’s fragility, beauty, rarity, and simultaneous insignificance and infinite meaning. According to them, all of Earth’s problems seem ridiculous when viewed against the void. Voyager 1’s famous photograph ‘Pale Blue Dot’, taken when the spacecraft was at a distance of 6 billion kilometers from Earth, evokes the same feelings. One almost has to zoom in to see our planet, literally just a dot against the blackness of space.
Knowing this rarity of life, the increased study of extraterrestrial life may, as it were, smack some sense into ourselves; in an excellent point made by Ian Crawford of The Conversation, it may help us realize we need to make ourselves look presentable on a galactic level. And if no evidence of other life is found, that point becomes even stronger; if this tiny blue dot is the only life in the universe, you’d think those on it would act smarter than humans tend to. Granted, this is a very optimistic view, both in the sense of potentially finding aliens and people getting their act together. Still, whether or not we actually find life, a forced new perspective on our planet may indeed come out of the quest; in the name of global warming, wars, and all the other problems our planet and its inhabitants face, it is one that is dearly needed.
The above points are all fine and good, but it would require that people actually pay attention to developments in space: something they generally do with lukewarm interest. Taking the example of the US and NASA, public opinion of the agency is very high: a poll conducted by the Outer Space Institute and the Angus Reid Forum USA showed a total of 72 percent of Americans agreeing to the importance and funding of astronomy (with a 30 percent chunk of those strongly agreeing).
But while Americans still appreciate space, the enthusiasm cannot be compared to its height in the 1960s, with NASA’s funding peaking at 5% of the government’s budget and the whole Western world watching space (BBC). It has been argued that NASA’s PR depends strongly on its missions rather than general interest; as written here, ‘NASA as an organization put minimal thought into how to sell the lunar program to the public, working instead under the assumption that the public was interested, would remain interested, and would best be served by large quantities of unfiltered and unspun information’. Also, despite positive public opinion, another poll by Morning Consult showed that Americans listed Space Research and Exploration as the 25th priority for the Biden administration – out of a list of 26. So, Americans don’t hate space, they just don’t care all that much.
But people love aliens. The entire genre of science fiction would be proof enough, but remember the craze surrounding Area 51 in 2019? For weeks, even months, people convinced themselves that ‘the government’ was stashing aliens in the mysterious base, with varying degrees of seriousness. Though a conspiracy theory (or is it…?) meets internet fad gone wild, this episode clearly highlights the public interest in the topic. Space is an intimidating subject; cool, but intimidating. Despite what it seems, you don’t have to be an astrophysicist to enjoy and try to understand it, but aliens provide enough of a popular culture bridge for the general public to get excited about it. Therefore, by announcing a dedicated study to investigate them, NASA (to continue the example) may be playing a clever strategic gamble to get people more pumped about space. Its reputation could take a hit, but a governmental organization pursuing a popular topic like this could lend extraterrestrial research the gravitas it needs to stir up even more enthusiasm. As the situation on Earth becomes more and more dire, and space may seem like something only rich people can aspire to, it is unfortunately no surprise that the science alone may just be too abstract a concept to fuel an excitement and unifying effect of something like the moon landing.
Though another human lunar program – NASA’s Artemis – is underway, and will bring many new breakthroughs with it, there is no denying that we as a species have been there, done that. But aliens are not only groundbreaking and mysterious; they are something people can relate to on a personal, day-to-day level, whether you’re a sci-fi fan or if it’s just something you regularly flick past on the late-night History channel. Among all the reasons pursue the topic – determining our fate, learning about where we come from, gaining new perspectives, and channeling public interest – the basic fact remains that aliens are just neat. And from a purely scientific standpoint, that is reason enough to search for them.