The existence of probable alien life has been perplexing human beings for years and despite no concrete evidence of extraterrestrial existence, 'Homo Sapiens', the dominant species of the earth continues its journey to spot their living cosmic neighbors. There are several factors that play their crucial role behind human being's unending journey to locate alien life at least in its microbial form in the deep nooks of the universe, and the primary one being that staggering curiosity to know whether life on this vast universe is confined only to the earth.
Look up the sky, it has all the answers
This human curiosity was shaped up over the course of many years since the day we started watching the skies. Recent archeological discoveries including cave paintings unearthed from India suggest that ancient human beings were also very much interested in unveiling the mysteries surrounding extraterrestrial existence. Citing an example, one cave painting depicts images of humanoid beings dressed up as astronauts, and another image shows disc-shaped flying saucers with antennas attached to its body.
Conspiracy theorists strongly believe that these images indicate the fact that aliens from an advanced civilization had visited the earth in the ancient past. On the other hand, critics argue that these cave paintings might be a futuristic work of art by ancient humans. Whatever be the case, these images indicate the obsession of human beings towards the presence of possible alien living forms.
The unquestionable role of conspiracy theorists
Even though conspiracy theorists used to make outlandish claims about alien existence, they have an unquestionable role in shaping human search to locate alien life. It all happened in 1947 when an alleged flying object crashlanded in Roswell.
On the very next day, the majority of the newspapers including 'Roswell Daily Record' claimed that the United States Air Force has captured a flying saucer on ranch in the Roswell region. As interest surrounding the crash news got elevated to new heights, the United States Army Air Force confirmed that the crashed object was actually a weather balloon.
Even though the Roswell incident is a thoroughly debunked claim, it made many people start watching the skies, and the trend still goes on. Even in the second decade of the 21st century, online streaming platforms like YouTube are loaded with hundreds of thousands of videos that show alleged alien ships flying across the skies.
The admission from the United States Navy
Another intriguing factor that catalyzes the search for aliens is the recent admission made by the United States Navy. Between December 2017 and March 2018, 'To The Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences' had released a couple of videos that showed weird flying objects screeching across the skies, defying all laws of physics.
Last month, Joseph Gradisher the spokesman for the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare, in a statement given to the Black Vault revealed that these clips were authentic. In his statement, Gradisher called these objects 'unidentified aerial phenomena', and he did not use the word 'UFO', that was made popular by conspiracy theorists. In his statement, Gradisher also made it clear that the clips released were just a fraction of incursions that usually happen in Navy training sites.
Discoveries backed by science and potentially habitable space bodies
Space agencies like NASA have spotted several exoplanets that orbit in the habitable zone of their stars. Interestingly, some of these exoplanets have also shown signs of hosting liquid water, and if it is real, there might be alien life at least in the microbial form in these space bodies.
It should be noted that NASA had recently discovered the basic ingredients of life bursting out from an ocean in Enceladus, Saturn's moon. The newly discovered organic compounds in Enceladus contain oxygen and nitrogen, two elements crucial in building amino acids. Considering the living forms on earth, amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, and without proteins, no life exists on earth.
A few months back, a study report published in the Journal of Astrobiology and Space Science had suggested that alien life forms might be harboring on Mars. The research led by Regina Dass, a researcher at the Molecular Fungal Genetics and Mycotoxicology Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, School of Life Sciences, Pondicherry, India, revealed that her study team had spotted algae, lichens and mushrooms in a set of Martian photos.
The ultimate quest to conquer the universe
Several space experts believe that the earth in which we live will soon become inhabitable, and to ensure the safety of our species, it is highly necessary to colonize other planets. Space agencies like NASA and private space companies like NASA have already started preparing for Mars colonization missions, which will be materialized in the coming decades.
After completing the Mars colonization mission, humans will surely start thinking about interstellar colonization, and to achieve this goal, it is very much necessary to understand more about alien life and potentially habitable planets on the universe. As this universe is so vast and mighty beyond human imagination, there could surely be extraterrestrial life somewhere in the cosmos, and the point of the 'first contact' will provide a solution to 'Fermi Paradox'.
