NASA 'On The Cusp' Of Discovering If Life Exists Beyond Earth, Says Top Scientist

[Peace Patriot]

31. Yes, I'd say it's close to 100% certain that there is other life in our solar system...

...as well as throughout the Milky Way and the other billions of galaxies. The discoveries of the conditions for life--and just for life as we know it (not counting life forms that we can't yet imagine except in science fiction)--over the last few decades has really changed those odds during that time. What would be flabbergasting, at this point, is if there is no other life. That's close to impossible.

I've previously felt that there is life elsewhere, but it was more like a hunch based on the sheer numbers of stars and galaxies, as those numbers exploded upward beginning with Hubble's discovery of other galaxies--a discovery that I became conscious of as a young adult--and to the present day with the Hubble telescope itself and its truly mindboggling images of billions and billions of galaxies. How can there NOT be other life? There are just SO many galaxies, half of them spirals like our Milky Way, including trillions and trillions of suns like our own.

But it's not a hunch any more. Until life elsewhere is actually discovered, I can't say 100% certainty. Say, 99.99%. Virtually every condition that astronomers and others have posed as necessary to life-as-we-know-it has been discovered not just to be present elsewhere but to be abundant elsewhere. And I'd venture a guess that this is what drives most scientists at NASA and related institutions today: they aren't just rock hounds or stargazers; they are embarked on the greatest adventure of all time, humanity's search for other life.

And they will pursue it, adequate funding or no adequate funding, as they've proven time and again over the last half century. This is what people who say "they're just after money" don't understand. The scientists who are pursuing extraterrestrial life need money, of course, but they are not doing it for the money.