Aliens are from planets beyond Earth, and the idea of them being real is something many people wonder and think about. From ancient civilizations, strange carvings and statues, and science fiction movies, the question of whether aliens are real doesn’t just fall into the category of yes or no questions, and it has become a largely talked about topic that has grown over time and continues to grow.
First, we live on Earth, which is a very tiny place in our massive Milky Way galaxy, which is just one galaxy in the list of many galaxies. These contain billions of stars and planets. This means there are trillions of places where human life could be present, and thinking we are the only life form in the universe is a bit crazy. Astrobiologists have been talking about the sweet spot around a star where a planet has the perfect temperature for liquid to exist. This is called the “Goldilocks zone.” Planets with water have also been found, which indicates an even higher chance of life being present outside of our Earth.
When people think of aliens, they think UFOs, but they don’t think of bacteria or other life forms. There is as much evidence that supports the idea of aliens flying in UFOs as there is to deny it. In 2021, the Pentagon released a report describing an aerial phenomena that couldn’t be immediately identified or technologically understood. Some became suspicious of this incident, and others wrote it off as nothing. UFOs capture the people’s imagination while the real search for aliens occurs in observatories and labs. Institutes like SETI(Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) have been listening for faint signals, radio waves, and other patterns that might indicate an advanced civilization trying to communicate with us. Nothing significant has yet to be discovered through these actions, but as technology improves, so will our ability to discover aliens, if they are out there.
NASA has sent a rover to Mars to search for signs of past life on the red planet filled with sand, rocks, and canyons. Some future missions include a trip to the planet’s moons, which include Europa and Enceladus, with the plan to probe and search through their icy oceans. The idea has sparked that these moons could have life because they have oceans, but a scientist can’t decide with absolute certainty if it is possible or not
So, are aliens real? Maybe. Do we know? Not yet. The universe is too large and complex, and we do not have enough technology to answer the question yet. Another question about whether something is real or not is “Is Santa real?” As technology improves and more information is known, these questions will be answered in time.