On January 31, 1958, mankind’s first artificial satellite was successfully launched, which opened the prelude to mankind’s march into space. Now that 62 years have passed, human science and technology have undergone tremendous changes, and tremendous achievements have been made in space research and exploration.
In many aspects of the exploration of the universe, the exploration and research of alien civilization has always been a hot direction in the scientific community. Every year, scientists have an improvement in their understanding of the exploration of extraterrestrial civilizations. Although we have not discovered any extraterrestrial life and extraterrestrial civilization until now, the cognition of life continues to increase, and the cognition of the universe has risen sharply. Let us be more convinced that alien civilizations exist, and humans will come into contact with them sooner or later.
In a blink of an eye, 2020 will also end. This is an extraordinary year. The virus epidemic has lasted for a full year and has not yet ended. Various natural disasters have also continued to appear, which has brought considerable impact to human life. Despite this, the pace of human science and technology has been advancing. On the road of exploring extraterrestrial life and alien civilization, what important achievements and discoveries will be made in 2020? Below we will briefly introduce six of them.
1. Bacteria and other microorganisms may exist in the atmosphere of Venus. Venus is one of the eight planets in the solar system and a neighbor of the earth. The mass and volume of Venus are very close to that of the earth, so scientists call it the sister planet of the earth. Earth-like planets that are so similar to the earth have a world of difference in the ecological environment on the surface. The environment of Venus is very harsh, and it can be said to be a world of purgatory.
The atmosphere of Venus is very thick, the main component is carbon dioxide, which causes the greenhouse effect to be particularly strong, and the surface temperature reaches 460 degrees Celsius. In addition to the high temperature, there is also a sulfuric acid cloud in the atmosphere of Venus, which often rains sulfuric acid, which aggravates the harshness of the surface of Venus.
The planet that humans first explored after leaving the earth was not Mars, but Venus, which is closer to the earth. When the probe reaches the orbit of Venus, we see a terrible world of purgatory. The thick atmosphere hinders our detection of the surface of Venus. In addition, the surface environment is too harsh, and it is difficult for the probe to land safely on the surface.
Even if they barely landed successfully, they can only survive a short time before losing contact. After many attempts, scientists finally gave up on launching a probe to Venus and focused on Mars. Although we have not achieved detailed detection of the surface of Venus, many probe observations have allowed us to collect a lot of data about the atmosphere of Venus.
For a long time, scientists believe that Venus is the preferred target for survival. But in September of this year, scientists released a heavy news: Phosphine was discovered in the atmosphere of Venus, which is a rare and toxic gas, but this gas is always related to living organisms on the earth. Therefore, scientists speculate that there may be microorganisms such as bacteria in the atmosphere of Venus.
2. Oumomo may be a masterpiece of alien civilization. On October 19, 2017, Oumomo rushed into the solar system from the direction of Lyra at a speed of about 26 kilometers per second, almost perpendicular to the ecliptic. It is cigar-shaped as a whole, about 400 meters long and 40 meters wide. It is reddish in color and has a solid surface, but it cannot be distinguished from rocks or metals. This is the first time that humans have discovered extra-system celestial bodies in the solar system.
At the beginning, scientists thought that Aomomo was a special celestial body that broke into the solar system, but with a series of unusual behaviors after it entered the solar system, scientists realized that things might not be as simple as we thought.
After Omomo entered the solar system, no one imagined that it would slow down due to the influence of the gravitational forces of each planet. On the contrary, it has been accelerating after entering the solar system, and it seems that some matter is moving forward without it. This puzzled scientists. Harvard University astrophysicist Avi Lobb said that the interstellar visitor may not be a comet, but an alien probe propelled by a light sail.
The light sail is a wide and thin substance that accelerates under the propulsion of solar radiation. Many scientists have questioned this. They believe that the melting process of hydrogen ice on certain objects is similar to rocket motors or other propulsion methods. It’s not that easy to heat up. Therefore, Oumomo is unlikely to be a masterpiece of alien civilization.
However, in August of this year, Lobu once again made a counterargument. He pointed out in a research report that hydrogen ice is easy to heat. Even in a state of deep low temperature in interstellar space, it may sublimate before Omomo enters the solar system. Gain acceleration power. The identity of Aomomo may always be a mystery. It is constantly moving away from us, making observation more and more difficult. Unless we achieve sublight flight technology in the future, we may be able to catch up with it and see what it is.
3. Alien civilizations call us from Proxima Centauri? Detecting the mysterious radio signals of the universe has always been an important way for scientists to find extraterrestrial civilizations. There are a large number of various signals in the universe, and these signals are basically emitted by celestial bodies.
Some time ago, some researchers claimed that they captured a beam of mysterious energy in the radio part of the electromagnetic spectrum with a frequency of 980 MHz, which came from the neighboring star of the Earth-Proxima Centauri. Proxima believes that many friends know that it is a neighbor of the solar system, only 4.2 light-years away. The alien civilization in “Three-Body” comes from Proxima Centauri.
According to current observation data, scientists have discovered a gas giant planet and a rocky planet 17% larger than the Earth in the vicinity of Proxima Centauri. And this rocky planet is just in the habitable zone, which means that there may be liquid water resources on the surface. This mysterious signal comes from Bilingxing. Whether it is a natural phenomenon of celestial bodies or the greetings of Bilingxing civilization to mankind is still unknown, and more signal data research is needed.
4. Alien life may breathe hydrogen. Life on earth needs oxygen to survive. Without oxygen, life on the surface will end. The content of oxygen in the universe is only 0.1%, but hydrogen accounts for 92%, so will alien life use hydrogen as breathing gas?
In May of this year, scientists conducted experiments on E. coli and ordinary yeast. Their survival in different environments. Experiments have found that E. coli and yeast can survive without oxygen. If they are placed in a flask filled with pure hydrogen or pure helium, they will continue to grow. It’s just that the growth rate will slow down a bit.
Through this experiment, we realize that life in the universe may be diverse, and life in different planetary environments may have huge differences. Life on earth breathes oxygen, but alien life does not necessarily breathe oxygen, it may be hydrogen. Of course, this is just a guess at the moment. We have not yet discovered any extraterrestrial life, and we don’t know their life forms and the requirements for the environment and atmosphere.
5. Life can survive around a black hole. A black hole is the product of a supermassive star’s super-new explosion yesterday, and it is the most domineering celestial body in the universe. In the cognition of many people, black holes are the terminator, it swallows everything and everywhere. As long as the black hole exists, the surrounding celestial bodies will be eaten by it, and there will be no life around it.
However, in March this year, scientists published a paper in which it described planets orbiting black holes and being heated by black holes. The black hole will not suck everything around it, but there is a gravitationally stable orbit. There can be celestial bodies, galaxies, and even life on this orbit.
6. The Milky Way may be full of the ocean world. Water is the source of life. Among the material members that make up life on the earth, water occupies an absolute position. 70% of the human body is water. This shows the importance of water to life. The earth is a planet rich in liquid water resources, so are there many planets with liquid water in the universe?
Let’s talk about the solar system first. The only planet with abundant liquid water resources on the surface is the earth. However, scientists have discovered through detection that many planets in the solar system are covered with a large amount of water ice, and there may be a liquid ocean world under these thick layers of ice.
In a study released in June this year, scientists observed 53 exoplanets that are similar in size to the Earth and analyzed variables such as their size, density, orbit, surface temperature, mass, and distance from the star. In the end, scientists concluded that among the 53 planets, about a quarter of the planets may have conditions suitable for the existence of the ocean world, indicating that planets with oceans may be very common in the Milky Way.
The above six are some of the discoveries and new insights made by scientists on the exploration of alien civilizations in 2020. From these we can see that human beings are not alone in the universe. The reason why we still can’t discover extraterrestrial life and extraterrestrial civilization is that our technology is still relatively backward and cannot realize interstellar navigation.
Even with the current human technology, the range of solar system and planets that can be explored is very limited. Currently, the only planets that human probes actually land on are the Moon and Mars, and at most other orbital explorations. When we can truly explore the solar system freely one day in the future, we may find that there are signs of life everywhere.