2020 Space Discoveries That Show We May Not Be Alone

 

with countless numbers of potentially  life-supporting planets  dotted throughout the universe the  chances of being the only life in the  cosmos  is pretty low in fact we're discovering  evidence of life beyond our own  more and more as time goes on want to  see the evidence  welcome to  and in today's  article we're rolling out the  extraterrestrial welcome mat  in 2020 discoveries that show we're not  alone  et phone home astronomical researchers  at mit intercepted a repeating signal of  unknown origin  coming from the realm of deep space  normally burst of radio waves are a  singular event  emitted by stars that have undergone a  supernova transformation  as well as orbiting quasars and  supermassive black holes  it's hard to tell what makes this so  significant is its uniformity  they say there are no straight lines in  nature and certainly there's no  absolute continuums in the universe it's  for this very reason that these signals  stood out  they follow a pattern with such  precision on a level  never before seen in our observations of  the cosmos  the repeating fast radio bursts come  from a galaxy over 500 million light  years away  and consisted of four days of recorded  signals followed by 12 days of silence  then repeating the pattern with four  more days of radio bursts  scientists have no idea where these  signals are coming from  it could be an undiscovered celestial  anomaly though the use of alien  technology  hasn't been ruled out yet  moonwalk without a spacesuit could there  be air on the moon  on the higher altitude surfaces of the  moon iron has been observed undergoing  oxidization  meanwhile other iron deposits found in  the deeper trenches and craters have a  metallic form with none of the red or  orange discoloration were accustomed to  seen here on earth  now this is bizarre as iron is  physically incapable of undergoing the  reaction needed to form rust  without the presence of oxygen this is  significant as it hints toward there  being oxygen on the moon  and as we well know humans need oxygen  to breathe small amounts of oxygen from  the very limits of earth's atmosphere  are swept up to the moon by burst of  solar wind  emitted by intense solar flares on the  surface of the sun  sadly this doesn't amount to enough to  make a breathable atmosphere  but it does make you think  close cousins a super earth is  classified as any rocky planet outside  of our solar system between 1 and 10  times the mass of earth  there are over 155 billion of similarly  class planets in our milky way galaxy  alone  while this may not seem that impressive  it gets better  some of these super earths sit in a  distance from their solar system sun  where temperatures allow for the  presence of liquid water  those that fall into this narrowband are  called goldilocks planets  here the planet is cool enough for water  vapor to solidify but warm enough to  prevent the formation of ice  as far as we know all life needs water  to form and survive so it makes sense  that the best  chance of finding organisms not  originating from earth would be in areas  that have a substantial stock of liquid  water  it's thought that twenty percent of all  solar systems in the milky way have one  or more planets within the habitable  goldilocks zone which is a huge  number totaling over six billion  potentially life-containing planets  the odds are definitely stacked in favor  of there being at least  one if not many planets that have  developed life even if it's only  microscopic and not the little green men  we're hoping to meet    great martian lakes we may not have to  look too far afield to find  evidence of liquid water it could be  right here in our solar system  scientists have long debated whether  there could be a large saltwater lake  under the ice cap on mars north pole  well this year the presence of that lake  has been confirmed  as well as the discovery of three more  just like it  the lakes cover a combined area of 75  000  square kilometers an area one-fifth the  size of germany  the current atmosphere of mars is not  substantial enough to make the presence  of above-ground  liquid water possible however there is  evidence that it once did  great river systems feeding into a  central delta appear eerily similar to  the structure of the nile delta here on  earth  scientists are so sure of this that this  ancient martian delta will be the  landing site for the perseverance probe  carrying the new and improved robotic  rover when it touches down on the red  planet in mid-february 2021  this hypothesis is strengthened by the  fact that collodial clay deposits have  been detected in this waterway area  another indicator that rivers once  flowed the rover will take samples of  the soil in this area and leave little  eggs behind as it travels on its journey  for collection by either manned or  unmanned craft launched at the next  phase of martian exploration in the  coming years  our evil twin venus is another  near-neighbor that could technically be  classified as an earth-like planet  the big difference is the venetian  surface is like the gates of the  underworld  although it has an atmosphere it's a  dense cloud that acts like a greenhouse  and heats up the land under it like a  furnace  topping out at 470 degrees celsius  a temperature hotter than the melting  point of lead  it's a hot dry place with barren  desolate plains broken up by ridges of  mountains that feature bands of  volcanoes dripping with fossilized lava  flows  the surrounding air is so thick that it  has enough density to crush you  with the clouds fed with enough  poisonous carbon dioxide gas  to shower the land with acid rain it  sounds anything but habitable  imagine scientists surprised however  when they detected the presence of a gas  called phosphine in its atmosphere  normally this gas can accumulate in  small amounts caused by natural  processes  but in venus's case the huge quantity  found can only be formed in the presence  of living microorganisms  to be precise this phosphine gas is  produced by the respirational  cycle of sulfuric loving microbes that  don't require oxygen to thrive  this rewrites the book and has made the  scientific community rethink what they  thought the limits were for life to  prosper  it may well be that life can exist in  temperature ranges much hotter or colder  than we once thought  in environments that we thought would be  too hostile to support a host of  microscopic life  like looking into a mirror we all make  mistakes  once a celestial body is classified the  data is often filed away  never to see the light of day again this  is the case of an exoplanet sitting 300  light years away  kepler 1649c whose existence was missed  the first time around  fortunately for this little rock data  collected back in 2018 by the kepler  telescope was re-examined by chance  the discovery was a whopper the most  promising earth-like world to date  a one in a million or to be more  accurate probably closer to a one in a  billion  find it's so similar to earth that it  could be our twin  it's just six percent larger made up of  a similar composite of minerals  absorbing roughly the same amount of  light and energy from its star  that we do from the sun this could be a  potentially habitable planet though  there is one downside  the star at the center of this system is  prone to flare-ups meaning the surface  of kepler-1649c  could get roasted on a fairly regular  basis killing  anything living there au  mic au microscopy is an emerging star  system that's not too far away in the  cosmic scheme of things  a mere 32 light years away the star in  this system is a baby  in comparison our sun is 150 times older  interestingly there's a little exoplanet  in a consolidating debris field  surrounding the star  a field formed by the remnants of its  birth this is a u-mike b  so close to its star that it completes a  solar cycle or year  in just 8.5 earth days the nearby star  is going through the terrible twos and  just like any toddler it's prone to  tantrum  only in this case instead of spitting  the dummy it throws out waves of deadly  ionizing radiation that bombard the  surface of a you might be  making it impossible for life to form  there the upside is that this system  gives scientists a look back in time as  to how our solar system was born  and how the earth was formed at that  time  so what do you think where do you think  we have the best chance of finding  little green men  or at the very least remnants of long  extinct life  if you love our content please let us  know in the comments section below  why not give us a like and subscribe  while you're at it so you don't miss out  on any of our other amazing content