Astronomers Inform Committee on Science, Space and Tech that We’ll Encounter Alien Species

Scientists working with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute told Congress on Saturday that they believe we will encounter aliens in this lifetime as they continue their search for extraterrestrial beings using three methods.

During a meeting with the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, two astronomers of the SETI Research Center - Dan Werthimer and Seth Shostak - told congressmen that the possibility of microbial life on other planets is close to 100 percent and we will encounter them in this lifetime.

The SETI Research Center is an exploratory science that seeks evidence of life in the universe by looking for some signature of its technology. The center's research is divided into two areas: Research and Development (R&D) and Projects. R&D encompasses the development of new signal processing algorithms, new search technology, and new search strategies whereas the Projects aspect provides new ideas for R&D.

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology was originally the Science and Astronautics Committee, which was first established in 1892. The committee changed their name in 1974, when the scope of their responsibilities to energy, the environment, the atmosphere, and civil aviation research and development. In 1977, the House decided to then add civilian nuclear research and development.

"If you extrapolate on the planets they discovered, there are a trillion planets in the galaxy. That's a lot of places for life," Shostak told the committee in this ABC News article. "We know that the majority of stars have planets," but what "fraction of stars has planets that are more like the earth? It might be one in five. It would be a cramped mind that didn't wonder what other life is out there."

The researchers use three methods to search for alien life: the first method involves the search for microbial extraterrestrials or their remains through rover missions conducted on other planets; the second method examines the atmosphere of planets in orbit around other stars for traces of oxygen or methane as well as other gases that could be produced by biological processes; and the third method involves the search for intelligent life, which is conducted by SETI pioneers, where they search the universe signals in a variety of spectrums to find extraterrestrial civilizations.

Through these processes and methods, the SETI researchers think this can be achieved in the next 20 years.