Are we alone in the Universe?

Are we alone in the Universe? Mankind has asked this question since we first stared up into
the night sky wondering if there is anyone else out there, somewhere amongst the billions of
stars, or if we are really alone in this vast universe.
Speculation about the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe goes back to
ancient times. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there was intense speculation,
based on telescopic observations, about the existence of intelligent life on Mars. The
possibility of intelligent alien life was a topic for science fiction writers. Many films in this
genre have been hugely popular, e.g. ‘Independence Day’, ‘ET - the Extraterrestrial’, etc.

Probability of Life
The universe is a pretty big place, and if life was able to evolve here on Earth, I see no reason
why it couldn’t evolve somewhere else having a hospitable environment. Some scientist
claim earth is unique, but life could evolve to the conditions present in that planet. Well that
life might not survive on our planet and vice versa. I believe that there are, in fact,
extraterrestrial life forms out there.
Our Universe is home to trillions of galaxies
There are over 300 Billion stars in our home galaxy ‘Milky way’ presumably, many billions
of planets. It is estimated that around 10 million planets have habitable zones, so if there are
10 million possibilities in our own galaxy think about the Universe, the possibility is so high
for us to imagine. Many scientist believe it is most certain that intelligent life forms have
developed somewhere in the universe some of them may be far more advanced than us. In
1960 Frank Drake formulated an equation to calculate the potential number of extraterrestrial
civilizations in our galaxy, the Milky Way, its called drake equation. If such intelligent
beings are there, why there is no evidence, why didn’t they try to contact us?

The distance
Interstellar distances are staggering millions of light years. There are no effective ways to
travel these vast distances. In order to make contact that a very high speed or a very long
travel time is needed. The time it takes with most realistic methods would be
from decades to millennia. Hence an interstellar ship would be much more severely exposed
to the hazards found in interplanetary travel, including
hard vacuum, radiation, weightlessness, and micrometeoroids. The distance from Earth to the
Moon is 1.3 light-seconds. With current spacecraft propulsion technologies, a trip to the
moon will typically take about three days. That means light travels approximately two
hundred thousand times faster than current spacecraft propulsion technologies. The distance
from Earth to other planets in the solar system ranges from three light-minutes to about four
light-hours. Depending on the planet and its alignment to Earth, for a typical unmanned
spacecraft these trips will take from a few months to a little over a decade.
The nearest known star to the Sun is Proxima Centauri, which is 4.23 light-years away. The
fastest outward-bound spacecraft yet sent, Voyager 1, has covered 16.596 billion km reaching
end of solar system in 30 years and is currently moving at 17Km/s. At this rate, a journey to
Proxima Centauri would take 72,000 years. There is no way for us to leave our solar system
with our current technology. Then how do we know we are not alone?
SETI
The only possible solution is to check for communications from outer space. If each
intelligent life forms realize they are not unique make effort to contact civilizations elsewhere
in the universe, this line of thought brings a group of scientists to form an organization called
SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence). SETI began early in the Space Age. Only two
years after the launch of Sputnik, two physicists at Cornell University, Philip Morrison and
Giuseppe Cocconi, published an article in the journal Nature in which they noted the relative
ease with which radio messages could be sent between the stars. This led to the remarkable
suggestion that it might be possible to detect the presence of extraterrestrial civilizations
using radio telescopes. The SETI Institute's search of nearby star systems is known as Project
Phoenix. The first Phoenix observations - 2,600 hours over almost six months - took place at
the 64-meter Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales, Australia. We can only listen to
radio signals from outer space, if we detect any life forms which are millions of light years
away that seems the signal transmitted from the source millions of years ago. But radio
transmission from earth begins only nearly 100 years ago that shows the signals from earth
may only reached 100 light years from earth that is the signals reached about 76 stars only.
On August 15, 1977, SETI project at The Big Ear radio telescope of The Ohio State
University detected signal of potential non-terrestrial and non-solar system origin. It lasted
for 72 seconds, the full duration Big Ear observed it, but has not been detected again. This
was the only signal detected by SETI telescopes that matched the expected signature of an
interstellar signal in the antenna used and is called WOW signal we are talking about
possibilities of life in other galaxies, let’s get back to our solar system.
Life on Mars
Scientists have long speculated about the possibility of life on Mars owing to the planet's
proximity and similarity to Earth. Although fictional Martians have been a part of popular
entertainment, it remains a question whether life currently exists on Mars, or has existed there
in the past.
There was great excitement in the media when a group of scientists from NASA announced
they had found evidence of life on Mars. A group of scientists had studied a meteorite
(ALH84001) that had been found in the ice of Antarctica. Previously, it had been determined
that this meteorite had originated on Mars by studying the gaseous content of glass-like
components of the meteor. The gas composition matched very well the atmosphere of Mars.
This conclusion seems reasonable. So, they presumed they had a meteor from Mars. Next
they looked for evidence of life on and in the crevices of the meteor. They found two types of
molecules that can form as a result of life processes, carbonates and complex molecules
called polyaromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs.

image of meteorite ALH84001 under electron microscope

They also found shapes in the rock that resembled those of known microfossils on Earth.
Microfossils are fossils of one-celled organisms which are rather tricky to interpret.
Well, what does this mean? Obviously, the NASA scientists felt the things just mentioned
provided ample evidence to conclude that life once existed on Mars. However, the chemical
signs could all be due to processes that have nothing to do with life, and the supposed
microfossils are 100 times smaller than any such fossil found on Earth. Other groups that
studied this same meteorite concluded that either the temperature of formation of the
chemicals was far too high to allow life (over 700 degrees C) or that other chemical signals
for life were absent. There are reasonable non-life explanations for each of the evidences
presented, but we just think that they mean there is life on Mars. The evidence was
challenged by many other scientists.
Face on Mars
Many people consider the concept of UFOs and aliens to be something that belongs in sci-fi
movies. However, there are many people who believe that aliens have landed on the Earth,
and they point to a host of evidence to support this belief. A Newsweek poll said 48% of
Americans think UFOs are real. Another 29% believe we have made contact with aliens and
48% believe there is a government cover up regarding alien life. There are many things that
make believe in alien stories one such story released by NASA is called ‘Face on Mars’. In
1976 two unmanned Viking spacecraft went into orbit around Mars. Each sent a lander down
to the surface, while the orbiters radioed back over 60,000 photographs of the Martian
surface. Not long after the orbiters began their mission, Viking scientists noticed a picture
mile-long low hill or mesa in the Cydonia region of Mars that looked sort of like a face. They
released the image to the press as a sort of joke, an example of our tendency to see apparently
familiar shapes in complex landscapes. The researchers and the press recognized the Face as
an unusual rock formation created by weathering. The dramatic low angle of late-afternoon
lighting in the photo made the outcropping look like a face.

Face on Mars taken by Viking Orbiter

Three years later, two computer scientists with no particular expertise in Martian geology
working for a contractor at NASA came across the image while going through
the Viking photo archives. They experimented with some image-enhancement programs and
concluded that the Face did not occur naturally. And ‘why does the Face look human’? that’s
the question they asked. Perhaps evolution worked the same way on Mars as it did on Earth
and so the Martians looked human. Certainly the rock outcropping on Mars is suggestive of a
human face. But that doesn't mean it is a monument deliberately constructed to look like a
face. According to psychologist Human brain have a capability to go for familiar faces or
images while looking through some random patterns. We see animal faces on clouds. The
original Viking photograph of the Face on Mars is riddled with black dots. These dots
correspond to areas where data was lost during the transmission of the picture from
the Viking orbiter to Earth (such transmission losses are common given the problems of
communicating with spacecraft over interplanetary distances). If we look carefully at the
original image, we see that a black dot of lost data happens to fall right about where we
would expect to see a "nostril'' on the Face. This makes the rock look even more like a face,
but doesn't correspond to any real feature on the Martian surface. With more advanced
imaging instruments in future probes the ‘face on mars’ was proved to be a natural occurring
phenomena. Life on mars is not validated yet but the search is going on.
Conclusion
We now know that our solar system was formed in a way that is common to many stars. We
have observed disks of matter orbiting young stars, and even old ones that is probably dust
and asteroidal material. We have even detected signs of planets orbiting several stars. So, I
think the chances are high.