The Curious Case of Aliens

A discursive article composed by Samantha (Year 9) and artwork created by Mia (Year 10)

For thousands of years, humans have been gazing into the night sky wondering what lies beyond our world. The vagaries of our universe have strung humans along a rope of curiosity ever since they were able to conjure up stories of their own. Aliens

have been the subject of countless movies, books, cave paintings, sculptures and songs. So this begs the question, do they really exist? Or are they simply a figment of our imagination?

When the word "alien" is mentioned, images of wicked, slimy and vulgar beings with lifeless black eyes and countless distorted limbs may flood your mind. Contrary to the illustration your mind paints, aliens could merely be defined as a living organism found somewhere beyond our home planet. Upon proposing the notion of extraterrestrial life to Mrs. Lees, she shared her thoughts by saying: "Whilst I don’t necessarily think the typical alien lifeform we see in sci-fi movies exists, I do believe life on other planets is possible. Our Earth is perfectly positioned from our sun with the right conditions to enable life. In other solar systems, there may be planets which meet these same criteria, enabling some simple, or even complex, lifeforms to develop."

One box that needs to be ticked for astrobiologists when identifying a habitable environment, is the presence of water. According to NASA "liquid water is a necessity for every form of life known, with the possible exception of some plants or fungi that may get by on water vapour." With this principle being applied, there are multiple locations within our solar system that could very well be viable contenders to host life forms. One of them being Enceladus, Saturn's 6th largest moon. Known for its smooth, bright and icy appearance, it displays promising qualities in terms of habitability for numerous reasons. Beneath the icy surface of the moon, lies a salt water ocean. Jets in the south pole of the moon eject gas and ice. The Cassini spacecraft found water and organic chemicals like molecular hydrogen and amino acids amongst the composition of the gas. The significance of hydrogen in this instance, is that within our oceans it acts as food for microbes and could likely mirror this situation in Enceladus' ocean. Hunter Waite, a planetary scientist stated: "molecular hydrogen has the chemical energy to support microbial systems in the interior ocean." This opens up a new world of possibility and makes the question of whether aliens exist or not, closer to being answered.

The concept of life in other galaxies or planets could stir up various emotions for people. Fear, confusion, frustration; the list goes on. For many people, curiosity has consumed them and compelled them to investigate their quandaries. An example of this is the work of Jill Tarter, an astronomer that has dedicated her life's work towards searching for any clues that may allude to life beyond Earth. To conduct her investigations, she has been using various spectrometers and radio telescopes to analyse radio waves and electromagnetic radiation to determine whether the signals were artificial or not.

For over 35 years, Jill has worked tirelessly to find a signal that could possibly be produced by aliens but has yet to find such a thing. In 1997, she encountered a promising signal but was quickly snapped back to reality when she learned it was the SOHO spacecraft. The fact that Jill hasn't found concrete evidence of alien life doesn't entirely mean that aliens aren't out there, "Given the timeline of our universe, there is also the question of timing and if these lifeforms exist now, existed sometime in the past, or will come into existence well after we are gone”, stated Mrs. Lees.

So do aliens exist? Humanity continues to be strung along a rope of curiosity with questions constantly being tightly knotted around our thoughts. There is still so much to be discovered, whether it be what aliens could look like, what conditions they live in, where they exist, how they exist, what planets they live on and so much more. Who knows? Perhaps one day we will be granted with a credible answer but for now we just have to continue observing the starry sky, pondering the endless possibilities.

For more information regarding NASA and their search for alien life CLICK HERE