NASA scientists think alien life will be found within the next 10 years

(Image credit: Twitter.com/NASA)

published 7 April 2015

Several NASA scientists believe it is only a matter of time before we find out that we are not alone in this solar system.

During a panel discussion Tuesday on NASA's efforts to locate alien life, the agency's chief scientist said that NASA could make a huge discovery within the next 10 years. "I think we're going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth within a decade, and I think we're going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years," Ellen Stofan said Tuesday. "We know where to look. We know how to look. In most cases we have the technology, and we're on a path to implementing it. And so I think we're definitely on the road."

There are several signs that point to life around the Milky Way. NASA's Kepler space telescopes suggest that rocky planets like Earth and Mars are likely more common in the galaxy than gas planets like Jupiter and Saturn, Space.com reports, and could all be habitable. The Milky Way is a "soggy place" Paul Hertz, director of NASA's Astrophysics Division said, and "we can see water in the interstellar clouds from which planetary systems and stellar systems form." NASA also plans to send out more rovers to Mars and the icy moon Europa, in order to determine if life really could exist there.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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