The head of NASA, BILL NELSON, has acknowledged that he believes alien life exists somewhere in the Universe.
Mr. Nelson was speaking at the Investing in Space Summit hosted by the Financial Times. The US space agency’s chief spoke with Science Editor Clive Cookson about a range of topics, including his relationship with Roscosmos and the risks that humans currently face in space. Mr Cookson questioned Mr Nelson at the end of his interview if he “personally” felt that “extraterrestrial life is out there.”
Former senator: “The short answer to your question is yes.
“The longer answer is to look how big the universe is.”
He mentioned earlier in the debate that NASA telescopes “a million miles from Earth” are collecting infrared spectrum light from 13.5 billion years ago.
These rays traveled at roughly 300,000,000 meters per second, or 186,000 miles per second.
Mr. Nelson remarked that this serves to highlight the vastness of the cosmos, adding, “We know in the universe, having been created about 13.8 billion years ago, that we have for example in our galaxy, millions if not billions of stars and sun.
He continued: “We know in addition in our galaxy, there are millions if not billions of galaxy with millions/billion suns.
“Is there a possibility in a universe that big that conditions like the Earth have been created?”
“Of course, there’s a possibility,” according to him “and there’s something so big that my mind cannot even understand how big that is.
“One thing we are going to do with the space telescope, we have already identified a bunch of planets – exoplanets we call them- that are already revolving around other Suns.”
Mr. Nelson noted that NASA will be able to have a closer look at these planets using the new James Webb Telescope, which was launched in December, and identify the chemical composition of their atmosphere, as well as determine if they can have a “positively habitable atmosphere.”
James Webb is the most powerful space telescope ever launched into space, bringing with it greatly increased infrared resolution and sensitivity. It is regarded as the spiritual successor to the Hubble Observatory.
This means that the telescope will be able to observe things that are too far away, dim, or old for Hubble to detect, such as the universe’s first stars and galaxies.
NASA scientists will use the remarkable satellite to examine the colossal black hole known as Sagittarius Aor Sgr A, which lies at the heart of the Milky Way.
The exoplanet Proxima Centauri b is the nearest known planet to Earth. It is located 4.2 light-years distant, which is equivalent to a distance 265,000 times that of our planet’s distance from the Sun.
The James Webb, the most expensive telescope ever built, is expected to revolutionize the study of these exoplanets, according to researchers.
According to NASA, “Among the investigations planned for the first year are studies of two hot exoplanets classified as “super-Earths” for their size and rocky composition: the lava-covered 55 Cancri e and the airless LHS 3844 b.
“Researchers will train Webb’s high-precision spectrographs on these planets with a view to understanding the geologic diversity of planets across the galaxy, and the evolution of rocky planets like Earth.”
Image Credit: Getty
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