What to Know About Scientists Potentially Discovering Hints of Life On A Distant Planet

A team of astronomers have found what they claim are the most promising—but also tentative—signs of possible life on a distant planet.

Transcript

00:00The confidence we have is at a 99.7%, which means there is still a 0.3% chance that this

00:06could be a statistical fluke. But in scientific discoveries, especially like a discovery like

00:11this, which is completely game-changing for science and transforming our understanding

00:15of the universe, we want to be absolutely sure because it affects science and society

00:20in so many ways. So we want to go to a Phi Sigma level where we want to make sure that

00:24there is less than one in a million chance of it being a statistical fluke. And then

00:29even if we detect the molecule, it will be very good news that that molecule is there

00:34and it will be a very good sign of life. But we still want to do more experiments, theoretical

00:39work to make absolutely sure that that sign is uniquely from life as it is on Earth and

00:45not from some other process that we may not even have thought of so far. Given the magnitude

00:49of result, any investment of time and effort we make in this is totally justified because

00:54if it holds true, that will change our view of the universe forever, right? So the sky

01:00that we look at today is a physical sky, physical objects, planets, stars, galaxies. But if you

01:04find that this is actually true, it is due to life, then what you would be looking at is

01:09a living sky. And that's a major transformation to us as a species. So we want to make sure we

01:16do everything we can to establish that we don't make an early claim of life without doing our due

01:23diligence. And that would also inform how life originated here on Earth, which is still an

01:28open question. So if we can observe many planets with different conditions whether or not they

01:33have life, we could potentially piece together the puzzle of how actually and under what conditions

01:38life emerged here on Earth. So that's a scientific aspect. But more on a societal level, I think the

01:44fundamental transformation that has to happen and will happen amongst our species, humans,

01:49some sooner than others, is that for once we will realize that we are all representation

01:54of the same planet. We are one entity. And that, in my personal view, that should bring us all together

02:02as a society, as a civilization.