Amid the remark by former US President Barack Obama on aliens and PresidentDonald Trump’s promiseof releasing files on the subject, the real question is — how close are we to finding aliens or microbial life?
Many astrobiologists believe we could find evidence of microbial life within the next 10–20 years — not intelligent aliens, but chemical or fossil signs of simple organisms.
Biosignatures are chemical, geological, or atmospheric patterns that are very hard to explain without biology.Scientists are looking for four main categories:
1. Chemical Biosignatures: Certain molecules are strongly associated with life. For example, methane and oxygen together in an atmosphere. They destroy each other chemically, so both existing together suggests constant replenishment — possibly life. Phosphine in oxidizing atmospheres (controversial example on Venus in 2020). Or even complex organic molecules with biological patterns. These wouldn’t prove life instantly — but they’d trigger massive scrutiny.
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2. Isotope Ratios: Life prefers lighter isotopes (like carbon-12 over carbon-13). On Earth, this leaves a chemical fingerprint in rocks. If Martian samples show similar fractionation patterns, that would be powerful evidence.
3. Microfossils: Tiny structures preserved in rock that resemble fossilized bacteria. This was claimed in 1996 in a Martian meteorite studied by NASA scientists — but the claim didn’t hold up under scrutiny. Future Mars samples returned to Earth could be examined with far more advanced tools.
4. Atmospheric Disequilibrium on Exoplanets: The NASA-led James Webb Space Telescope can analyze exoplanet atmospheres. Scientists look for oxygen, methane, carbon dioxide and water vapour.
A strong detection wouldn’t means we found aliens, but it could be the strongest evidence yet of biological activity beyond Earth."
But so far, we have no confirmed detection of life — only intriguing clues.
Source: World News in news18.com, World Latest News, World News
