Life beyond Earth: We may be on the verge of the greatest discovery in history

There are scientific discoveries that change not only our knowledge, but also the way we perceive ourselves and our place in the universe.

One such moment was when the spacecraft sent back images of Earth for the first time.

Another may come soon: the discovery of life on another world.

This possibility is now being seriously considered after a trace of gas was discovered on the planet K2-18b, which is created on Earth exclusively by the action of simple marine organisms.

“This is one of the fundamental questions and we could be very close to the answer,” said Prof. Nikku Madhusudhan from the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge, who leads the team that discovered the gas.

But such discoveries raise new questions.

If we really find life on another world, how will it change us?

From flying saucers to exoplanets

It is known that people have always told stories about beings from the sky.

In the early 20th century, some astronomers claimed to see straight lines on the surface of Mars, sparking speculation about the existence of an advanced civilization.

During the Cold War, aliens were often portrayed as a threat in Western pop culture.

But the strongest evidence of life came not from Mars or Venus, but from a planet about 124 light-years from Earth, orbiting a star in a distant galaxy.

This is a distance difficult to imagine.

The nearest star to our Sun is just over 4 light years away, our galaxy has a diameter of about 100,000 light years.

Using today's technology, it would take humanity about 188,000 years to reach K2-18b.

Until recently, NASA was searching for life on Mars

Until recently, NASA had been searching for life almost exclusively on Mars.

But everything changed in 1992, when the first planet outside the solar system was discovered, reports the Telegraph.

Since then, about 6000 such planets, known as exoplanets, have been found. Many are gas giants like Jupiter or Saturn, while others are too hot or too cold for liquid water, which is considered essential for life.

But many exoplanets are in the so-called "golden zone," at a "just right" distance for life to exist.

Madhusudhan believes there are thousands of them in our galaxy alone.

The most powerful telescope in history has discovered the strongest sign of life beyond Earth

It is reported that with the arrival of exoplanets, scientists began developing instruments to analyze their atmospheres in order to find so-called "biosignatures", or molecules that are produced exclusively by living things on Earth.

Read too Historic discovery, strong signs of life found on distant planet beyond our solar system

This required observing microscopic amounts of light passing through the atmosphere of a distant planet.

The biggest breakthrough came with the construction of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in 2021, the most powerful telescope ever.

It is JWST that has now detected gas on K2-18b, which is considered the strongest sign of life beyond Earth.

But even JWST has its limitations.

It cannot observe smaller planets like Earth clearly enough, especially if they are close to their host star.

That's why NASA is already planning a new project, the Habitable Worlds Observatory, which should be able to study planets similar to ours in the 2030s.

In parallel, the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) is being built, which will observe the sky from the Chilean desert.

Its large mirror, 39 meters in diameter, will provide a detailed picture of the planets' atmospheres.

More and more discoveries, but also more and more questions

Prof. Madhusudhan hopes to have enough data in the next two years to finally confirm the presence of biosignatures around K2-18b.

But even if it succeeds, it doesn't immediately mean that we have found life.

Then a new debate will open: Is this gas of biological origin, or is there a non-living explanation?

"The more time astronomers spend with telescopes, the clearer they will have a picture of the chemical composition of these atmospheres," said Prof. Catherine Heymans, a Scottish astronomer.

"We won't be able to say for sure that it's life, but if the same pattern appears on more planets, our confidence in that hypothesis will grow."

Otherwise, similar to how small technological innovations led to the creation of the internet, it may be that the greatest scientific, cultural, and social change in human history occurs silently, almost invisibly, meaning that only later do we realize that the balance has been irreversibly altered.

Research in our solar system

The most definitive proof of life would be the discovery of living organisms within our solar system, enabled by robotic probes with portable laboratories.

Some samples could perhaps be returned to Earth for detailed analysis.

Interest in searching for life in the solar system has grown in recent years and new missions are already planned.

The European Space Agency's ExoMars rover is scheduled to drill beneath the surface of Mars in 2028 in search of fossilized traces of life.

China's Tianwen-3 mission is also planned for 2028, with the aim of returning samples to Earth by 2031.

NASA and ESA have sent probes to Jupiter's icy moons to investigate the existence of oceans beneath their icy surfaces.

However, none of these missions are directly directed at finding life, but rather to collect data that will help future missions try.

NASA's Dragonfly is scheduled to land on Saturn's moon Titan in 2034, a world of lakes and clouds of carbon compounds, surrounded by an orange haze. Along with water, these compounds are key ingredients for the emergence of life.

"If we have heat, water and organic molecules, the chances of life evolving increase dramatically," Dougherty said.

What if we're not alone?

If simple life is proven, it doesn't mean that advanced beings exist somewhere.

"From simple life to complex is a big step, and from there to intelligence is an even bigger step," Madhusudhan declared.

"It took a very long time for multicellular life to appear on Earth. We don't know whether it required a planet with oceans and continents exactly like ours, or whether it could have arisen elsewhere," adds Dr. Robert Massey of the Royal Astronomical Society.

"Every new discovery in astronomy takes us further away from the center of the universe. And the discovery of life would take us even further away from the idea that we are special," he adds.

But for some, this may be an encouragement, not a threat.

"It would be a big transformation"

"If we looked at the sky, we would no longer just see physical objects, stars and planets – we would see a living sky. The social consequences of this would be enormous," according to astronomers.

"It would be a huge transformation in the way we see ourselves in the universe. It would fundamentally change the human psyche – the way we see each other and the world around us. Any language, political or geographical barriers would disappear because we would understand that we are all one. This would bring us closer together," Madhusudhan said.

"This would be the next step in our evolution," he concludes. /Telegraph/