Look Down To Find Aliens
By Anne Pawsey
Astronomers’ really have got life sussed; this Friday will see the ceremonial “first light” for their new toy, a $175 million telescope – the largest in the world.The Gran Telescopio Canarias been built at one of the world’s best observation locations, La Palma in the Canary Islands, a location which just happens to be warm and sunny with barely a cloud on the horizon and is obviously a horrible place to work (see an image).
There is only one small fly in the ointment; a report out this week says that astronomers should spend much less time looking up telescopes and more time looking down microscopes in order to further the search from alien life.
According to the report, the search for extra terrestrials has been hampered by Earth-centric assumptions about which planets can support life.
Currently the search is focused on finding planets in the “Goldilocks Zone”, a distance from a star which would allow liquid water to be present (not too hot, not too cold). The report, prepared by a committee of chemists, biologists, geologists and astronomers, suggests that this is too narrow an approach.
We should be looking for novel forms of life on Earth, either in the lab or in extreme environments such as volcanic vents and geysers before taking the search to the skies.
The idea is that life doesn’t actually need water; life could equally happily exist in liquid ammonia or formamide, a derivative of formic acid.
Being as both of these compounds are pretty whiffy we may need to workout a way of avoiding the smell should we make contact.
So does this spell the end for the astronomers’ jollies to the seaside? Are all the huge shiny telescopes to be turned into boring microscopes? It’s unlikely.
Telescopes are needed for all types of research in addition to the search for ET, such as looking for the origins of the universe, searching for that pesky dark matter and mapping our galaxy. Astronomers won’t have to hang up their swimming kits just yet.
Find out more about the Gran Telescopio Canarias. Alternatively, enjoy the big and the small on Anne's page or get starry-eyed with these stories:
- Brilliant - Super-Earth discovered
- Bizarre - NASA go on the search for Spock
- Holidays - Our guide to visiting Saturn
- Interesting - Telescopes: a history
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