Through these centuries people have
always wondered about the outer space and have been proposing possibilities for
life on other planets in our solar system.
Around 400
B.C, Metrodorous, an ancient Greek philosopher has stated “It is unnatural in a
large field to have only one shaft of wheat and in the infinite universe only
one living world”. He has expressed that it would be rather strange for a
single shaft of wheat to grow in a larger plain as like as a single habitable
world to exist in this infinite universe. He has proposed the idea that there
must be life on other planets as well.
Here we go
with another remarkable speculation made by Giordano Bruno, an astronomer who
expressed his idea that in this infinite universe there must be an infinite
number of suns with life around them. He insisted that there are also other
earth-like planets revolving around their suns.
The
invention of telescope to see stars, planets and other planetary bodies has made
a remarkable breakthrough in the search for life beyond the earth.
William
Hershel, a famous scientist, while studying the craters on the moon has made a
fascinating speculation that he believed that the craters on the moon to be a
fantastic work done by an extraterrestrial intelligence.
The first
person to interconnect life and habitability on other planets in our solar
system was Percival Lowell who observed the surface of Mars and believed that
they were canals build by some intelligence on Mars.
In 1960, a
famous physicist, Christian Huygens proposed an idea that life can exist in
many other planets while observing spots on Venus, Mars and Jupiter.
Around
1830, an interesting experiment has been made by Carl Friedrich, a German
astronomer!
The first step was made to communicate with
extraterrestrial intelligence. He proposed an idea to create a forest in the
shape of a triangle to signal the extraterrestrial intelligence that we are
familiar with Pythagoras theorem in our planet. Though the forest was not build
he managed to express the idea to try to communicate with extraterrestrial
intelligence.
The space age begun with our exploration to the
outer space in 1959. It was the year when USSR launched the first Sputnik. Our
Apollo mission on Moon in 1969, Viking landers mission on Mars in 1975 and
missions on the surface of Venus have also engaged in the exploration in search
of life on other planets in our solar system.
A
remarkable experiment was done around 1970!
The first signal was sent to outer space from
Arecibo Dish Observatory in Puerto Rico. It was in binary code. It included a
diagram of DNA, a diagram of a human body, a map of our solar system and even
the numbers from 1 to 10. They believed that some intelligence out there in
space will communicate back by understanding the message.
Through these experiments and explorations search
for extraterrestrial life is still emerging rapidly.
o 》Images
captured on Mars hold evidence that there is presence of liquid water on Mars.
o 》The
Cassini spacecraft that flew through the geysers emerging out from the south
pole of Enceladus, a moon of mighty Saturn discovered different elements,
complex organic carbon and water.
o 》Images
captured by the Huygens probe from the surface of Titan depicts that the
surface of titan is made up of rocks of ice and icy water.
Even though there are no signs of extraterrestrial
life have been discovered yet, the hunt is still on!
Maybe
the future holds some remarkable journeys and surprises!
Please share your views in the
comment sections. Do you think that we are alone in this universe?
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