Since the mid-20th century, active research has taken place to look for signs of extraterrestrial life, encompassing searches for current and historic extraterrestrial life, and a narrower search for extraterrestrial intelligent life. The writings of these thinkers show that interest in extraterrestrial life existed throughout history, but it is only recently that humans have had any means of investigating it. Descartes wrote that there was no means to prove that the stars were not inhabited by "intelligent creatures," but their existence was a matter of speculation. He theorized that all extraterrestrial bodies could be inhabited by men, plants, and animals, including the Sun. Nicholas of Cusa wrote in 1440 that the Earth was "a brilliant star" like other celestial objects visible in space, which would appear similar to the Sun from an exterior perspective due to a layer of "fiery brightness" in the outer layer of the atmosphere. William Vorilong, in the 15th century, acknowledged the possibility that Christ could have visited extraterrestrial worlds to redeem their inhabitants. Pre-modern writers typically assumed that extraterrestrial "worlds" would be inhabited by living beings. In his first century poem De rerum natura (Book 2:1048-1076), the Epicurean philosopher Lucretius predicted that we would find innumerable exoplanets with life-forms similar to, and different from, the ones on Earth, and even other races of man. Multiple early Christian writers discussed the idea of a "plurality of worlds" as proposed by earlier thinkers such as Democritus Augustine references Epicurus's idea of innumerable worlds "throughout the boundless immensity of space" (originally expressed in his Letter to Herodotus) in The City of God. Speculation about the possibility of inhabited "worlds" outside the planet Earth dates back to antiquity. The science of extraterrestrial life in all its forms is known as astrobiology, the multidisciplinary field that investigates the deterministic conditions and contingent events with which life arises, distributes, and evolves in the universe. The Drake equation speculates about the existence of sapient life elsewhere in the universe. Such life might range from simple forms like prokaryotes to intelligent beings, possibly bringing forth civilizations that might be far more advanced than humankind. No extraterrestrial life has yet been conclusively detected, although efforts are underway. Robotic exploration of the Solar System (image: Curiosity rover on Mars)Įxtraterrestrial life, colloquially referred to as alien life, is life that may occur outside Earth and which did not originate on Earth.Listening for extraterrestrial signals indicating intelligence (image: Allen array).The search for extrasolar planets (image: Kepler telescope).Forgot your password? Click here to sign-in and subscribe via a link sent to your email.Some major international efforts to search for extraterrestrial life. Please ensure your password has at least 8 characters, an uppercase and a lowercase letter, and a number or symbol. Use at least 8 characters, an uppercase and a lowercase letter, and a number or symbol. You can unsubscribe whenever you want.īy clicking 'Sign in and Subscribe' you agree to us subscribing you to our newsletter in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Legal Notice.Įmail: (change email) Create Account and Subscribe Sign in and Subscribe We will not share your email address with any third parties. Already have an account? Don't already have an account?īy clicking 'Create Account and Subscribe' you agree to us creating an account for you and subscribing you to our newsletter in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Legal Notice.Įmails, which may be sent daily or less frequently, may include marketing elements. Please click 'Create Account and Subscribe' to create a new account and subscribe to our email alerts. We don't have an account for this email address. Please click 'Sign in and Subscribe' to continue. Please check you have typed it correctly.Īn existing account was found for this email address. We are sorry, but the email address you entered does not appear to be valid. Create Account and Subscribe Sign in and Subscribe Subscribe to our email alert of the day's top stories from the UK and around the world. Sign up for a FREE NewsNow account and get our email alert of the day's top stories from the UK and around the world.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |