The first ever alien-life detector was devised by researchers in Switzerland and Belgium, according to new reports.
The researchers developed a tiny sensor to detect motion, which has already been tested to recognize nearby human, plant and mouse cells. Since the sensor can detect life on Earth, the researchers believe it could be used to find microscopic alien life on other planets as well, The Daily Mail reported.
"The nanomotion detector allows studying life from a new perspective: life is movement," Professor Giovanni Longo of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne told The Daily Mail. "This means that the nanomotion detector can detect any small movement of living systems and deliver a complementary point of view in the search for life."
When a living organism is near the sensor, they "produced an increase in the amplitude of the measured fluctuations," the researchers reported.
While the researchers were testing the new alien-life detector they discovered they can manipulate the movements of the life forms by adding nutrients for the cells to consume, or conversely, adding chemicals that would kill them and make the motion stop.
The researchers are writing a proposal to show the device to either NASA or ESA so they can get approval to use it in space.
In the study, the researchers also suggested the sensor could be used on Earth to detect life in areas difficult to get to, such as in volcanoes and on the deepest ocean floors.
"Motion-detection on such a scale has never been attempted before as an extraterrestrial life detection approach. If it is as technologically simple to implement as the authors claim, then it could be worth integrating into future mission concepts," said Ariel Anbar, a professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and the department of chemistry and biochemistry at Arizona State University, who was not involved in the study, the Daily Mail reported.
