Space and Physics
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The question if life exists elsewhere in the universe is one of the biggest our species has ever pondered. Statistically, philosophically, and scientifically, we want to say yes. There are too many planets; if life evolved once, it will again, and the building blocks of living beings are found everywhere. Despite all those arguments, valid as they are, we have to face the fact that we have no concrete evidence that there’s life out there (yet).
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.In a recent interview with American podcast host and journalist Brian Tyler Cohen, President Barack Obama said aliens are real, and to be fair, he was not wrong. But the internet is what it is, and that comment has taken a life of its own, leading to Obama having to issue a clarification, which you can see below. So, what did he mean?
In a lightning round of question Cohen asked: “Are aliens real?”
To which Obama replied: “They’re real, but I haven’t seen them, and they’re not being kept in … what is it …?”
“Area 51?” Cohen guessed. Obama then continued: “Area 51. There’s no underground facility. Unless there’s this enormous conspiracy, and they hid it from the president of the United States.”
Cohen continued by asking what the first question Obama wanted answered when he became President was, and Obama replied, laughing: “Where are the aliens?” Thus, the internet was set afire with comments and conspiracies.
The former president shared the video on Instagram with a clarifying caption. “I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention, let me clarify. Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there. But the distances between Solar Systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”
Congressional hearings, reports, and declassifying government information about Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (or UAPs, formerly UFOs) have been very popular in recent years. A UFO task force was even launched by the Pentagon in 2021 to investigate. But beyond big claims and shaky videos, no evidence has been put forward to support the idea that aliens are already here.
So, where are we on discovering alien life?
Scientists take the study of possible alien life very seriously, a field known as astrobiology. The existence of life elsewhere is profoundly linked to the questions of how life evolved on Earth. It may not look like life as we know it, but researchers estimate that our galaxy alone has 100 billion planets – are we likely to be the only life out there?
Radio surveys like those conducted by SETI have not found anything yet. NASA’s Perseverance rover has found some interesting rocks on Mars that have signs of alteration that could be explained by living organisms, and some chemical abundances spotted by NASA’s Curiosity rover could be explained by the presence of living organisms. The complex chemistry and hydrothermal vents on Enceladus could make Saturn's moon a suitable environment for life. How about the icy moon of Jupiter?
All of those are places we are looking at either right now or setting up missions to investigate soon, but they are not evidence of alien life. We have found over 6,000 confirmed exoplanets, and over 10,000 are waiting to be confirmed. So far, we have not found an Earth twin. But this also doesn’t mean that we won’t.
So, yes, the odds are good that aliens exist. At the same time, we have not found them, and they clearly are not being held in a US military base in Nevada.
