The search
for alien life has been dampened by the countless hoaxes and fake stories that
characterizes the UFO craze. The belief of extra terrestrial life is
discredited because it is associated with the fantastical belief in the
supernatural (Bigfoot, Ghosts, the Loch ness monster etc.). It must be made clear that there is a
difference between belief that life exists on other planets and the belief of UFO’s. Neil Dagnall, a senior lecturer at the head of the Psychology department at
Manchester Metropolitan University Research Institute, conducted a study
investigating the relationship between belief in ET life, UFO-related beliefs
and paranormal belief. In his findings,
he states, “UFO-related beliefs were more highly correlated with paranormal
beliefs than belief in extra-terrestrial life.”
The many faux stories of UFO sightings and abductions that characterize
the UFO craze have kept many from becoming true believers of possible alien
life. Although no UFO sighting has ever
produced authentic, verifiable proof of alien life, that doesn’t mean they
aren’t out there.
The
truth is, there is an alarmingly high probability that aliens do exist in the universe. The number of planets in the universe that could
potentially contain life are staggering.
Last December, astronomers discovered a planet called Kepler 22b with
characteristics so similar to our Earth; they began dubbing it as a “super
earth”. In his article, author Paul Raeburn writes “Located 620 light-years
away, it is the first planet found by NASA's Kepler space telescope to reside
in its star’s habitable zone—a region that can support liquid water, a key
requirement for life on Earth” (Raeburn 1).
There are thousands of other candidates that astronomers have found that
reside within their solar system’s “habitable zone”, which supports the claim
that we are not the only ones in the universe.
Even if the conditions aren’t ideal, alien
life could still find a way to exist.
Just ask the scientists and geologists who have been to the most
hostile, dangerous locations on earth and discovered life continuing to thrive.
Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, articulates this in an
NBC article. Seth states, "life can
adapt to really tough conditions and, of course, most of the universe is going
to be filled with habitats that are tough" (NBCNews 1). If life can find a way to adapt to such
extreme circumstances (like deep beneath the Antarctic Ice and in hydrothermal vents), what’s to say that alien life can’t do the same?
The development of new technologies will help enable
us to finding real aliens. In his
article for Reuters Magazine, Chris Wickham writes “The next decade will see
two record-breaking telescopes come on line; the Square Kilometre Array (SKA),
a huge radio telescope sited in South Africa and Australia, and Europe's
Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) that will sit on a mountain top in Chile's
Atacama desert and be the largest optical telescope ever built.” (Whickam 1). With these powerful new telescopes,
scientists will be even closer to finding actual evidence that aliens might
exist.
Are we
alone in the universe? We have been
searching for the answer to this question and fantasizing about the
possibilities for as long as we can remember.
Even the world’s oldest religions and ancient civilizations depict
scenes and stories of extra terrestrial visitors. Maybe Tardigrades, the first
known animal to survive in space, are really aliens from one of the thousands
of earth-like planets who hitched a ride on an asteroid to earth thousands of
years ago. Either way, we must move away
from speculating on empty claims and stories reminiscent of the UFO craze and
instead invest ourselves in science and astronomy, fields that have produced extensive
research that supports the likely existence of actual extra-terrestrial life.
Work Cited
a) Dagnall, Neill.
"THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BELIEF IN EXTRA- TERRESTRIAL LIFE, UFO-RELATED
BELIEFS AND PARANORMAL BELIEF." Journal of the Society for Psychical
Research 74.898 (2010): 1. EBSCOHost. Web. 15 Oct 2012. <http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/48647275/relationship-between-belief-extra-terrestrial-life-ufo-related-beliefs-paranormal-belief>.
b) Raeburn, Paul. "Big Idea Detect
Alien Life on a Tight Budget." Discover Magazine. 17 2012: 1-2.
Print.
<http://discovermagazine.com/2012/sep/25-detect-alien-life-on-a-tight-budget?
c) "Six
Frontiers For Alien Life." NBCNews. n.d. 1-1. Web. 7 Nov. 2012. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28148553/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/six-frontiers-alien-life/
No comments:
Post a Comment