More Scientists Believing in ET

The reasons not to believe in extra-terrestrial life are steadily dwindling. That is the view of US astronomer Professor Eric Wilcots, who is one of the speakers at SciFest Africa 2008, the annual event which began in Grahamstown on April 16. Wilcots chairs the astronomy department at the University of Wisconsin, a key member of the international team behind the Southern African Large Telescope (Salt) in Sutherland, in the Northern Cape Karoo. If life existed at the bottom of the deepest ocean trench, he said, it was no more improbable that it existed in outer space. “Progress in this sector has been extremely fast. In the mid- 1980s we knew of just one solar system. Now we know of 200. We now know as well that the basic raw materials for life, like amino acids, sugars and methane, are out there in the form of gases between the stars.” Potentially habitable zones where water appears to exist as a liquid have also been identified. “On Europa there is a 3km-thick ice sheet, underneath which we suspect there is water. If there is water, there is quite possibly life in it.