Is there life outside our planet? This issue is tormented by more than one generation of scientists, who with bitterness can say that so far we know only one representatives - earthlings. Of course, there are other planets enrolled in the “habitable” category, but this is not the same as “inhabited”. No one knows exactly where life came to Earth from, so it’s difficult to estimate the probability of its occurrence elsewhere in the Universe.
Over time, the concept of “life came about by chance” turned into the conviction that space is teeming with it. But where to look? Scientists for decades have been persistently scanning the sky with radio telescopes, trying to stumble upon signals. In response, only dark silence is heard.
But astrobiologists manage to find signatures of microbial life, both on objects of the Solar system, and in exoplanet atmospheres. If life really needs exclusively terrestrial conditions, then it could begin only here. Although some believe that life forms do not have to correspond to earth forms and then the search conditions change. This opinion is shared by cosmologist, theoretical physicist and astrobiologist Paul Davis. Member of the Breakthrough Audition Committee and led the SETI group. He defended the idea that life appeared on Mars and came to us by means of emission. In his future book, The Demon in the Machine (The Demon in the Machine) plans to figure out how to find life outside the Earth and whether humankind has any chances for space exploration.
