Alien life: are we about to find it?



The thought of finding alien life has fascinated people since the time of the ancient Greeks—but developments in astrobiology could be about to turn this possibility into reality. How do you hunt for life beyond Earth—and might this be the decade when we find it?

00:00 – Is there life beyond Earth?
00:56 – How has the search for life evolved?
02:36 – What signs of life are scientists looking for?
03:48 – What are biosignatures?
04:28 – How to find intelligent life
06:03 – How telescopes today have improved our search
07:52 – Expanding the search beyond Earth

Read more of Alok Jha’s coverage on the search for life in space: https://econ.st/3zw1Hxt

Find our most recent Science and Technology coverage: https://econ.st/39lCCuK

Sign up to The Economist’s daily newsletter: https://econ.st/3gJBH8D

Why have humans never found aliens?: https://econ.st/3HhIEZA

How to improve the search for aliens: https://econ.st/3HgfYQX

Read more about the James Webb Space telescope: https://econ.st/3xrZC30

Listen to our podcast episode on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence: https://econ.st/39uGB82

Everything you need to know about UFOs: https://econ.st/3zA55aF

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50 thoughts on “Alien life: are we about to find it?”

  1. I think, Maths need new standard numerals representing trillions of kilometers or "light years"

    For example 1000000000000000 as 1♤ or 1×□ or ☆
    Something like that.

    Or represent 1light year (9.4607 × 10^15) = ☆

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  2. It's all in the minds. If one wanted to human kind, they would have done it long ago. It is strange that they came all the way to our world but disappear suddenly and quickly.

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  3. The title should be they're about to find us. And the hole video is pointless they are interdimensional "aliens" they have power, and authority to guid us to our destruction. Look up Aiwass, it was a demon summoned by Crowley, he drew a picture perfect image of a Grey alien before Greys were even seen in any kind of entertainment. CHRIST is Alpha and Omega he is allowing this for his purpose.

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  4. Let's hope the cosmic community is based off stewerdship instead of ownership so some rich aliens don't come and buy our planet from underneath us. Lol 😂

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  5. There is definitely cockroaches living out there. Or even ants. Fungus and bacteria . Living Cells. What if the life is inside of the planet similar to hollow earth ha

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  6. I understand people asking but when spending a lot of money and time wouldn’t you look for life ‘as we know it’? If that fails then move on to less likely. Carbon isn’t just some random choice, it’s got some very unique properties, as does water

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  7. I am so glad to be alive in this period of transition for human history. I can tell when we are gonna find aliens it would be a massive revolution never experienced before. Out life will change enormously

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  8. The trouble is we are looking for data to be perfect, we are looking for planets to be perfect, it's bizarre thinking considering this universe was created on luck really just because we on Earth survived off of water and other resources whos to say there isn't a planet out there where they are just living off staying with what they got like for instant i think not every planet has to have water for life like they could be living off another type of resource other then just water and yes i do understand the logical view would be to look for water since all living creatures we've studied including ourselves we use water to survive but whos to say life out there has to have the same resources as us on earth like i said our planet was created on luck so to go looking for that luck/perfection it will be millions of years before we find that yes i know its a wild speculation and there's no solid evidence of that but many things discovered on this planet/our universe half of it was based on speculation sending rockets etc to orbit earth or to moon that was based on speculation then put into practise got to think outside the box rather then thinking to hard and thinking we will find prefection with data and telescopes or some probes it wont happen

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  9. Aliens Metamorph Higher Technologies Mix In Well With Humaniod Creatures Same Species Different Creatures Dogs Birds Fish Different Creatures Same Species Seperate Kinds Draconian Reptilians Zeta Riticlii Satanic Occultists National Socialist Satanic Criminals Minds Are Problems Trouble Makers NOT All The Aliens Descendants WWII NAZISZ NATIONAL SOCIALISM SATANISM Aleister Crowley Types Satanic Occult Are The Worst Behavior Inherited Heriditary Permanent DNA Genetics Do Harm To Innocent People AND Have Attempted Harm Altuisitic Aliens Bad People ARE Together Satanic Socialist Satanic Occult

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  10. @TheEconomist Do vaccines make people ill or cause autism? Is there a slight risk of it making people ill or causing autism? You will not be able to ask, and soon you will not be able have a opinion on anything but what is told to you. No Free Think Allowed. How long till it is your opinion?

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  11. picture this. out of all the "life sustaining" planets weve found, not a single one has plant life. very disheartening for the search for life

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  12. I'm so tired of people accepting the existence of alien life as a given. There's more factors to the likelihood of aliens existing than the simple size of the universe or number of habitable planets out there, there's also the process of creating said life organically, something we don't understand so well. The truth is that the sample size we have to work with right now is one. That could change, we clearly haven't explored much of the universe, but it's not a guarantee that aliens DO exist.

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  13. It makes no real sense as a question, but most people don't seem to understand it. If there's life on Earth it probably comes from elsewhere, or more to the point what we call life probably is the latter form of a more primitive mode of being (as opposed to nothing). Make what you will of this, little heads))

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  14. I believe we will find proof of microbial life on mars within 10 and possibly learn the truth about actual alien visitation within the same time frame. Problem is, when the government tells you about aliens, you need to question why they're finally telling you, because they always have an agenda.

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  15. No point going up there looking for alien .
    Alien are probably more clever then us , they already on earth , and indisguise .
    They cannot reveal themselves or else bad human will cut them up to do experiment ..

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  16. I have a friend who follows me. If there were aliens do you think they would make contact or treat us like natural selection in the wild not get involved directly. If you met my friend you would freak. Are you ready?

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  17. We are in an alien simulation. A controlled environment. A human farm.

    The grey and green aliens are not the aliens that are in control. They were created by bigger aliens for this universe, this space.

    ➡️aliens created universes and created their own aliens
    ⬇️⬇️then these aliens created their own universes and created their own aliens
    ⬇️⬇️⬇️then these aliens created their own universes and created their own aliens
    ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️then these aliens created their own universes and created their own aliens….

    It goes on and on. ♾ infinity. It’s a Rabbit Hole.

    ⬇️means lower tier or level.

    It all started with one criminal who created a space to harvest life beings.

    Too hard to believe? Think of the many virtual worlds humanity can create in computer programs. Add the Metaverse idea, only this one, people are sleeping in pods, their consciousness is in the simulation.

    They leave clues of their reality in movies and children tales.

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