How NASA could determine the extraterrestrials is real and say to the world

NASA does not announce the existence of extraterrestrial life.

The James Webb space telescope has detected a possible sign.

On Wednesday, a study evaluated by peers reported new observations from a planet covered by the ocean called K2-18 B, around 120 light years from the earth. Webb had detected the abundance of a molecule which, on earth, is only known to come from living organisms as algae.

The discovery is intriguing, but it is not a smoking pistol for extraterrestrial life. Many additional research is necessary to exclude the non -biological sources of this signal.

If scientists announce extraterrestrial news, however, the world may find it difficult to understand.

You just have to look at the last years of the UFO mania – or, rather, the mania on “unidentified abnormal phenomena” or UAP. (This is the government’s term for mysteries that most people call UFOs.)

Do you remember the “Chinese spy ball” that the Pentagon shot in 2023?

Suddenly, the United States seemed to spot mysterious flying “objects” everywhere, and American fighter planes have shot three others in the sky above Alaska, Canada and Lake Huron. Even Elon Musk weighed with an extraterrestrial joke.

Then, last year, there were “drones”. From New Jersey, UAP night observations reported on the East Coast, then the whole country, causing wild speculation and more than 5,000 advice to the FBI.

Observers and enthusiasts have also expressed their feelings on foreigners to the NASA UAP Independent Study team, which concluded in 2023 that there is no evidence that UAP has extraterrestrial origins.

Throughout their study, the team faced a “nasty and hostile” online harassment, in the words of David Spergel, president of the Simons Foundation and president of the team.

Harassment and threats have been so bad, said officials that they initially refused to share the name of the senior NASA UAP official.

These breathtaking rumors and these hostile messages are just an overview of what scientists and NASA leaders could face if they never discover real proofs of life beyond the earth.

“You cannot overestimate how important this discovery would be. How we will confirm this and announce it in a responsible manner, I think it is a really important question,” said Lori Glaze, who led the planetary science division of NASA in 2022.

“The biggest challenge is to try to keep this communication on a uniform keel, right? With an excitement, and yet we also understand that we must define the expectations that we must follow the scientific process.”

How NASA scientists could explain the extraterrestrial results – gradually

Perhaps the James Webb space telescope detects a revealing molecule in the atmosphere of a planet far from the earth. Perhaps the samples of Mars of Perseverance reach the earth in a decade, and scientists find fossils of ancient microbes inside.

Many astrobiologists (exactly what it looks like – people who study the idea of ​​biology beyond earth) think that evidence of extraterrestrial life could soon happen.

However, it is unlikely that all proof will be completely, irrefutable, obviously foreigners. Scientists will probably disagree and will not be confident 100%. It could be difficult to explain to the public.

“It will be a very, very difficult thing to get the scientific community, I think, to get along – unless we really saw something moving and waving, which is unlikely,” Glaze at Bi told.

This is why NASA has tried to develop an evaluation and sharing procedure of such a monumental and sensitive discovery. The conversation is underway, said Glaze, but in 2021, the agency published a framework as a starting point. This could help scientists, journalists and NASA itself explain science.

This is called the scale of “confidence of life detection” (cold), noting scientific confidence in any potential discovery of extraterrestrial life on a scale from one to seven. Possible detection can increase to higher levels of trust as evidence is strengthened.

For example, level one detection could be the discovery of a molecule which could be linked to life in a sample of persistence Mars. The evidence is graduated at level two once scientists would confirm that there was no contamination in the sample, or the instruments involved, which could have influenced their results. By excluding the non -biological sources of the molecule, or confirming that it came from an environment suitable for life, scientists could raise it further in the scale.

Other scientific teams should measure the sample of March themselves, with different methods, and confirm the initial conclusion to obtain their diploma at level six.

According to NASA, in this example of a March molecule, additional evidence of a different part of the red planet may be necessary to bring it to level seven – where it is probably life.

Each new level of confidence could mean a new public announcement.

The discovery of extraterrestrial life is probably a slow accumulation, rather than an explosive moment of Eureka.

“Until now, we have put the public to think that there are only two options: it is life or it is not life,” said Mary Voytek, head of the NASA astrobiology program, in a press release when the new scale was published. “We need a better way to share the excitement of our discoveries and to demonstrate how each discovery is based on the next, so that we can bring the public and other scientists on the trip.”

The president or other countries could be involved in the announcement that extraterrestrial life exists

To announce the existence of an extraterrestrial life would be a matter “at the level of the administration,” said Glaze, referring to the American presidency. It would not only be NASA explains during press conferences.

NASA may not even be the first entity to discover proofs of life on another planet. Another space agency in a country could find it first.

The discovery of clever The extraterrestrial life would be even more overwhelming. It would come with his own puzzles: how to communicate with them? What do we say? And how could they react?

Even the small clues of ourselves in the void were controversial. In 1974, astronomers sent radio signals containing numbers one to 10, information on the composition and structure of DNA, a figure of a human and our world population, and a graphic of the solar system with the earth highlighted.

Critics like Stephen Hawking have said that contact with any extraterrestrial intelligence could present an existential risk of humanity.

Needless to say, any discovery of extraterrestrial life would probably lead to chaos – at least in public discourse.

Glaze said that NASA’s objective is to be a source of confidence and transparent of clear scientific information. It could be the agency’s greatest challenge to date.

“I’m not sure that we even have words to describe it,” she said. “The confirmation that we are not alone in the East Universe, I think, which will be likely to realize that the universe does not revolve around the earth. It is a very different way of thinking that we are, from where we come.”

This message has been updated to include new events. It was initially published on February 18, 2023.