Kind: captions
Language: en
[Music]
You have a question. You have a
question. You got a question on the
universe. You are Marie. Hello. Sheena.
Sheena. Hello. Um, so recently
scientists made headlines um by
discovering exoplanets and I was
wondering what do you think the chances
of Nova Science Now viewers um being
able to live long enough to see
discovery of life on these planets? I
think life is like the next discovery
waiting to happen. Yeah. You know, well,
first there might be life on Mars, which
is our backyard. So, you you want life,
you won't necessarily have to go to an
exoplanet to find it, but it could be
there like like there. Now, the kind of
life most people want to find is like
intelligent life that you might have a
conversation with and learn something
from. But right now, we'll take any kind
of life at all. And one way to look for
life on exoplanets is to see if their
atmosphere has what we call biomarkers,
the telltale signs that the chemistry of
life is at work. For example, in our own
atmosphere, we have oxygen. Oxygen, if
you left the atmosphere the way it is
and removed all the life, the oxygen
would slowly go away. It's not stable.
So, if you see oxygen on a planet,
something's there manufacturing
in real time. That's right. And so, you
check for biomarkers. Another thing you
might check for is smog.
So I have to ask, would that mean
there's an intelligent life on there or
stupid life on that civilization on that
planet? So So I think we will know
whether or not there's life on those
planets within the next 20 or 30 years.
Certainly within the natural life
expectancy of Nova Science Now viewers.
Certainly a life expectancy of you. Oh,
good to know that. Okay.
[Music]