Intriguing purple

Despite scarce resources and so far small opportunities, we have been persistently searching for extraterrestrial life in deep space for many years.

“By 2040, we will discover extraterrestrial life,” Seth Szostak of the SETI Institute recently argued on various occasions. It is worth emphasizing that we are not talking about contact with any alien civilization. The search for advanced civilizations in space has been written poorly for a while, and Stephen Hawking recently warned clearly that it could end badly for humanity.

In recent years, we have been fascinated by subsequent discoveries of the prerequisites for the existence of life, such as liquid water resources in the bodies of the solar system, traces of reservoirs and streams on Mars, the presence of Earth-like planets in the zones of life of stars. Alien civilizations, space brothers, intelligent beings are not talked about, at least in serious circles. Conditions favorable for life and traces, most often chemical, are mentioned. The difference between today and what happened a few decades ago is also that now the traces, signs and conditions of life are not mutually exclusive in almost no place, even in places like Venus or the interior of distant satellites. Saturn.

To be continued subject number You will find in the July issue of the magazine.