Earth 1 isn't too happy a place to be in for everyone. There are so many of us who would prefer not to be here. But this is simply not enough for many others, so the search for the next planet, where life is possible, continues.
Here is the trail that follows it on a war footing---NASA's search for Earth 2. One NASA director claims that it is a search that will be over in a decade.
"This next decade, we're going to hopefully answer the question, 'Is there life beyond Earth in the solar system?'" stated Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division.
Scientists have discovered so many 'extra-solar planets'---outside our own neighbourhood solar system---that they are actually leading a search for Earth 2.
The nearest one, Proxima B, a mere 4.22 light-years from Earth, or nearly 25 trillion miles, may even be discovered to have some life form. If you are lucky enough to last out this century, you may even see some of it.
Green gave a checklist of the various features that are needed for life to exist and extend in other planets: organic material, energy, and water. Some of the planets that have these features are even close to Earth---Mars, Saturn's moon Titan, another Saturn moon Enceladus, and Jupiter's moon Europa.
There is solid evidence about the features on these planets. Images captured by the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter include lakes and snowmelt-fed streams----features that were never imagined to exist, and were even thought of as impossible by scientists.
These lakes and streams are not, however, vacation hotspots, but footprints of natural phenomena that were dynamic about a billion years ago. They seem to suggest that the red planet had a microbial life then.
However, is there more than meets the eye? On questions about conspiracy theories and government secrets on unidentified flying objects (UFOs), he clarifies that there is nothing that the space agency is hiding from the public.
"As a scientist, because we know the concept of life beyond earth - if it exists - is revolutionary, there would be no reason we would hide it. I would dearly like to find life and announce it. The last thing I would ever want to do would be to hide it," explained Green.
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