120 light years away from us, there’s an exoplanet called K218b that has the potential to host alien life. This super Earth is 2.6 times larger and almost nine times more massive than our own planet. Scientists believe that K218b could be a habitable exoplanet with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and liquid oceans, making it a promising candidate for alien life.
However, the distance to K218b is so vast that it would take over 1.3 million years to reach this distant world. Despite its potential for hosting life, the extreme conditions on K218b, such as a frigid temperature of -100°C and a methane-rich atmosphere, make it challenging for human exploration.
The discovery of dimethyl sulfide traces on K218b raises the possibility of alien life, although it may not necessarily be intelligent. Scientists have used advanced telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope to study the exoplanet’s atmosphere and search for signs of life.
While K218b is an intriguing exoplanet, researchers have also identified other potentially habitable worlds closer to Earth, such as Proxima Centauri B and Ross 128b. These exoplanets offer more promising conditions for sustaining life, albeit with their own challenges.
In conclusion, the search for alien life continues to captivate scientists and space enthusiasts alike. Whether we will ever make contact with extraterrestrial beings remains uncertain, but the exploration of distant worlds like K218b brings us one step closer to unraveling the mysteries of the universe.
Watch the video by What If
Video Transcript
120 light years away from us there’s an exoplanet that can potentially host life it’s called k218b and it’s a world you’d want to visit k218b isn’t exactly like Earth it’s more like a super Earth yeah it’s 2.6 times larger and almost nine times more massive than our
Planet scientists think it could be a hyen exoplanet which is just a fancy way of saying that it likely has a hydrogen Rich atmosphere and is covered in liquid ocean that means that k218b could be home to alien life only it would take a really long time to get there
If you were hurdling toward this space Rock from Earth you’d reach your destination in about 1.3 million years yeah you heard right million k218b has a lot of methane and carbon dioxide in its atmosphere that’s not exactly breathable air so you’d still need a space suit to walk on this
World and I wouldn’t be too hyped up about its ocean either if an exoplanet has liquid on it it doesn’t mean that the liquid is water it could be methane or ammonia even acid like even in our own solar system There’s a Moon covered in liquid Lakes but these are methane
And ethane lakes and I wouldn’t recommend swimming there k218b could have a pretty mild temperature for an exoplanet that is at -100° C you’d find this world incredibly cold now the most exciting thing we found out about this world is that it could have traces of dimethyl
Suide woot woot well on Earth this molecule can only be produced by living things and that means k218b could be home to alien life now it doesn’t mean that this life would be intelligent it could be aquatic or microbial maybe even complex life if the condition for it are just right we won’t
Know for sure unless we travel to explore this Interstellar world now how do we know all this well we had the James web Space Telescope look at this distant world and take detailed measurements of its atmosphere most of the exoplanets have been discovered using What’s called the
Transit method it’s when a planet passes in front of its star and blocks its Starlight that’s when scientists study the wavelengths around the planets and some of those wavelengths can tell us what kind of atmosphere those distant planets have the problem is exoplanets are really far away trying to figure out
What their surfaces are like just by peering through even our most powerful telescopes is not easy some scientists will argue that k218b isn’t a super Earth at all but a mini Neptune and that’s a bummer because as you know Neptune is an ice Giant and if k218b is
Also an ice giant then the chances for alien life on this planet don’t look so good now you don’t have a million years to travel to this world to discover it for yourself so maybe we should look at a world that’s a lot closer to earth like Proxima centor p
Proxima centor is the closest star we’ve discovered only 4.2 light years away from Earth it’s part of the alpha centory star system with not two but three stars orbiting each other the exoplanet Proxima centor B orbits only one of these stars but you’ll still see the other two stars as
Bright dots in the sky this exoplanet is slightly larger than Earth and revolves uncomfortably close to its host star luckily that star is a red dwarf and that’s much cooler and smaller than our son which is good news because that means this planet isn’t getting toasted like Mercury scientists estimate Proxima
Centor B has an average temperature of about – 39° c that’s pretty comfortable as far as alien worlds go the bad news is that we still don’t know much about the exoplanet’s gravity or atmosphere it might be our best candidate to set up an Interstellar base but it also could have
A harsh environment unsuitable for Humanity’s future home it might even have an ocean of acid or something deadly like that the only way to find out is to travel there and if Proxima centory B doesn’t work out well don’t worry there are plenty of potential habitable worlds out there like this
One Ross 128b is 11 light years from Earth it’s the second closest potentially habitable World scientists have discovered and it’s more promising than Proxima centor B the thing is they both orbit red dwarf stars only Proxima B’s host star is a lot more active and violent it occasionally erupts and
Bathes Proxima be in radiation Ross 128 B’s star is nice and quiet and even though this world orbits 20 times closer to its star than Earth is to the sun it still lies in the habitable zone because like I said red dwarfs are way cooler than the Sun and
By Cooler I just mean temperature this world could have a baly average temperature of 23° C that’s so only slightly hotter than the average temperature here on Earth I don’t know about you but I could settle there now we don’t know enough about this world to call it our new home it
Likely has lots of harmful radiation reaching its surface and its atmosphere might not be breathable but hey that’s not much worse than Mars with efficient life support systems in place we could make it work besides this super Earth might have its own life on it if Ross 128b did have alien life it
Could be extremely different from what you might imagine just think about making the first contact with an alien species what would that be like I mean it could go very wrong too for one we might not survive the trip to any exoplanets even the nearest ones so far we’ve discovered and confirmed over
5,000 alien worlds 63 of them are potentially habitable but we just can’t know for Sure Europa the icy moon of Jupiter a frigid world that would turn you into an astronaut popsicle and an atmosphere that would take your breath away literally because europa’s atmosphere is so thin it’s almost non-existent and while it’s mostly made up of oxygen this oxygen isn’t breathable for you you just wouldn’t be
Able to inhale it in this extremely low pressure environment and this Frozen world has a dark secret deep under under its thick crust of ice it might just hide life that’s why we’re sending a member of our team on a mission to explore Europa and find out if anything can
Survive in this unforgiving environment Chase we need you on this one-way trip to Jupiter’s neighborhood Mission Control this is Chase orbiting Europa and ready for landing did you know it would actually take you like 6 years to get here from Earth but luckily I’m already here and I love finding new
Alien buddies when they’re not trying to kill me all right Chase initiate the landing sequence already on it Rico start the landing sequence I totally forgot Landing sequence Initiated 500 M and descending 400 m 100 touchdown confirm oh it’s bright it’s bright oh my eyeballs that’s strange Europa is five times farther from the Sun than Earth and gets much less sunlight than we do must be so bright because of europa’s icy surface all that ice is highly
Reflective that plus an almost absent atmosphere could make the light feel very harsh so just use the protective tint advisor and your eyes will be fine Chase what’s your status yeah I’d say Europa is pretty similar to Earth if Earth had no atmosphere was covered in ice and had absolutely no interesting
Oceans to see so in short it sucks what if guy I’m freezing out here yeah you’d need an advanced thermal insulation layer in your suit to keep you warm the surface temperature on Europa is about -45° C and it can get as cold as- 220° C it’s also bathed in
Radiation that’s because Europa orbits so close to Jupiter and Jupiter has a massive magnetic field that traps a lot of high energy particles inside it your space suit would need to be able to withstand that too great Europa is one of the four largest moons of Jupiter it’s still slightly
Smaller than our moon but it’s a lot more exciting mainly because it has the potential to host life looks pretty lifeless if you ask me well it is on the surface look life needs three ingredients to exist on any world the first one is liquid water well Europa
Has plenty of that NASA’s Galileo spacecraft which spent 8 years orbiting Jupiter gathered some data on Europa too and that data LED scientists to believe that this moon has twice as much water as all of Earth’s oceans well I regret to report that your scientist data is
Wrong I don’t see no water only ice this mission is a waste of my precious time no no no it isn’t you don’t see them because these enormous oceans aren’t on the surface they’re deep below europa’s thick icy crust that brings us to another ingredient for Life Energy on Earth life
Mostly gets energy from the Sun but that’s not the case on Europa first of all because Europa is so far away from the Sun and secondly because if there is life on Europa it’s likely we’d find it under the ice where there’s no sunlight at all Europa gets its energy from the
Effects of tidal Heating and it has Jupiter to thank for that yeah the enormous gravity of the Solar System’s biggest planet is constantly pulling on your Europa bulging and cracking its ice this causes friction and the friction Heats this moon from the inside that’s why europa’s subsurface
Ocean doesn’t freeze over like the rest of this frigid World Europa might also have hydrothermal vents on its ocean floor just like Earth does these vents spew out heat energy and chemicals potentially creating a habitable environment around them the last ingredient for life is chemical elements most living things are
Made up of stuff like carbon hydrogen nitrogen oxygen phosphorus and sulfur and based on the data we collected about Europa this Moon’s got all that but of course no one has ever been on Europa to confirm this until now and and what’s that yeah those are europa’s famous cryo
Volcanoes these volcano don’t erupt with lava but with water and ice ice volcanoes that’s sick oh my God okay okay so how do you suggest I find life here this ice looks thick yeah you’d have to drill through it and you’d need special equipment like a high performance drill designed for extreme
Cold electrically powered by a portable nuclear generator lightweight with a heating mechanism and a sample retrieval system right great so just like the everyday stuff that you would just happen to carry around with you on your spaceship no I’m serious I happen to have that on my spaceship I have the
Best drill in the universe I’m so excited to meet Who’s down here oh hold on the chances of seeing any kind of life with your own eyes are slim because that life if it exists is likely microscopic but if you get a sample of that salty water well you can examine it
And maybe find traces of microorganisms eh it’s not I pictur this Mission but I since we’re here let’s do this while you can’t improve the odds of seeing aliens on Europa you can increase the opportunity of seeing more of Chase’s Epic Adventures on what if we’ve already traveled with them to Titan
Venus even Uranus and there’s so much more we want to show you that’s why we launched our what if Explorers Club on patreon that’s where we give you the tops secret behind the scenes extended director’s Cuts mind-blowing art epic merch discounts and Our Endless Love and gratitude support us on patreon to get
Exclusive content and help us send Chase to his death over and over and over again hey I don’t feel so good I I think it might puke your body temperature is rising you’re experiencing the symptoms of radiation poisoning I did warn you that radiation levels on Europa are high
Even in your space suit you’d still feel headaches nausea dizziness all the fun that comes from radiation sickness and all that after spending only a few hours on this Moon if you don’t return to your shielded spacecraft immediately this exposure will kill you huh oh no no I’m
I fine now I’m good Rico you I just need to lie down for five minutes just that’s a bad idea you need to return the samples to the spaceship right the samples I have to get the samples The this is still so sick though the impact force from the cryo volcano has damaged your space suit you’re losing oxygen I should have subscribed to the top tier of what have patreon in the extreme conditions of Europa without the full protection of a suit you’d only have a few minutes to
Get to Safety in just 1 minute severe frostbite would damage your Exposed Skin after 2 minutes you’d start shivering Q hypothermia another 10 minutes later and you’d lose Consciousness and freeze to death oh wait scratch all that looks like Chase’s suit lost all the oxygen and he just
Suffocated now we’ll never know if those samples had any life in Them researchers have detected strange radio signals coming from deep space these mysterious radio waves might just just be bursts of cosmic energy from a distant neutron star or it could be that scientists have discovered a highly Advanced civilization 90 light years away from Earth so what kind of civilization would
Have the ability to send strong signals like this well scientists classify civilizations on something called the kardashev scale it’s a scale that measures a civilization’s techn Tech ological ability to harness energy while it’s a hypothetical scale that could eventually have five or more levels most scientists only refer to the first few
But don’t be underwhelmed we’re the only civilization we know of and technically we’re still stuck on type zero at this stage we’ve managed to harness some but not all of our planet’s potential energy we could consume about 18 trillion watts of power every year and if we wanted to bump ourselves up to
A type one civilization we’d need to consume over 500 times that every second to do this we’d need to harness store and utilize all of the energy available to us that includes all raw materials and every bit of sunlight that reaches Earth we’d also have to tame volcanoes earthquakes and other Natural
Forces at the rate at which we’re developing now it’s possible that we could be a type 1 civilization within the next 200 years but whatever civilization scientists may have discovered in the far reaches of space could already be a type 2 civilization or higher once our civilization has all of
The energy available on our home planet under control and we graduate to a type one on the CF scale then we need to take the next step time to crank up our energy consumption to 10 billion times what it was before to do this we’d need to harness not just
All the solar energy that reaches Earth we’d need all of the energy our star generates period if there is a type 2 civilization out there they’re probably using an incredible system to do this a Dyson Sphere theyd build this Mega structure around their star to collect all the
Energy it radiates out in every direction they could even assemble other Dyson spheres around the first Dyson Sphere to guarantee that little to no energy escapes but there’s nothing simple about this technology and that’s why only Advanced civilizations could construct something like it for one a Dyson Sphere
Must be larger than the star itself and if these Mega structures are bigger than Stars well they should be easy to spot right well this could be tricky once a civilization is finished building the Dyson Sphere the mega structure blocks nearly all of the visible light from its star a civilization this advanced
Could make its own solar system invisible lucky for us visible light isn’t the only way to detect a star even with a Dyson Sphere blocking its light a star would still radiate heat and we could detect the Star by the infrared light it gives off but that wouldn’t be the only way we
Might discover a civilization this Advanced remember that strange radio signal it originated about 90 light years away from Earth coming from the Star HD1 64595 was this powerful radio signal created by an alien race and intentionally pointed toward Earth a civilization able to pull this off would
Need to be far more advanced than our own this type 2 civilization would be able to utilize the raw materials on every planet in its star system and maybe even Beyond they may have built Fusion reactors that orbit their Planet fueled with gas from other worlds with hydrogen-rich
Atmospheres and they might be mining precious metals from rocky planets just like Earth they could terraform other planets into livable worlds for their populations and they wouldn’t live in fear of civilization ending natural disasters like asteroid impacts ice ages or global warming because they’d have technical solutions for these too this
Alien civilization would be at the stage on the kardashev scale where they’d be able to master Interstellar travel but if that’s true there should be no reason for them not to pop by for a visit right well not so fast with all the advanced technology they might have at
Their disposal these aliens could be waiting for us to catch up that way when our civilization meat we would do so as equal Partners who knows they could be so Advanced that they’re no longer a fully biological race they could be more like cyborgs with a mix of robotic and organic
Material this would make them capable of incredible things that humans could only dream of but they wouldn’t stop there an advanced world like this would want to go farther up the kardashev scale and as they became a Type 3 civilization they’d rely on something other than the power
Of their own star system they would harness the power of several stars in their Galaxy with this much power a civilization would have no problem meeting its ever growing energy needs they just hook up another star when they needed more power if we ever advaned to this level
We’d have 100 billion stars available to harness in in the Milky Way galaxy alone a civilization like this would no doubt be the rulers of their Galaxy and they’d have the power to move entire star systems merging them to harvest the energy they need more efficiently so if
One of these civilizations existed well you could detect them by observing the sudden disappearance of many stars in a far away Galaxy this could be a sign that Dyson spheres have been constructed around not just one but several Stars a Type 3 civilization could already be out there after all
Scientists have announced that they found two galaxies with a highly unusual amount of infrared light this is something we usually observe in galaxies where new stars are being born but some unusual and sudden spikes in infrared light could mean that we found the first signs that civilizations many times more
Advanced than us exist maybe they’re about to make contact or maybe they already have we might not be alone in the universe scientists from all over the world have their eyes and ears wide open trying to detect signals of life beyond our planet but we’re a bit tired of just
Sitting and waiting so so hop on our spacecraft because today you have a very important mission to search for alien life how would we prepare for this journey what kind of life would we be looking for and what would happen if we found it this is what if and here’s what would
Happen if we went on a search for alien life so far we’ve detected over 4,000 exoplanets in our galaxy and there may be as many as trillions to make your Expedition easier you’d need to consult with NASA first NASA has developed the confidence of Life detection scale or cold to measure
Progress in life detection research the scale has seven levels ranging from signal detection to follow-up studies once life beyond Earth is confirmed first you’d need to look for Bio signatures this is physical evidence of past or present life on another planet such as chemical compounds or molecules that indicate biological
Processes if an alien astronomer was taking measurements of Earth they’d look for oxygen and methane those are bios signatures that indicate life on our planet if you’re a Celestial technology geek you might scan for techno signatures these are signs showing the negative uses of technology that cause artificial air pollution this means
Aliens could figure out we exist because of all that smog we send into the atmosphere embarrassing right now that you know what to look for where would you look for it you could start this search in our own Cosmic backyard alien life could be hiding on the subsurface oceans of
Europa one of Jupiter’s moons or deep beneath the surface of Mars ground telescopes have already detected methane on Mars sending probes to measure surface levels that already puts you on the second level of the cold scale or you could go further and look for alien in life on rocky planets outside our
Solar system you’d need to locate planets orbiting a star in its habitable zone that’s the area where a planet is not too close to the star and not too far allowing for temperatures to be just right for liquid water to form the scientists have already done the hard
Work for you here using the Kepler object of Interest exoplanet archive researchers identified systems that might have rocky planets that meet the criteria they found 24 super habitable planets and one of them is very promising koi That makes koi The Next Step would be to predict what type of source could generate such a signal scientists would need to confirm this signature couldn’t have come from a non-biological Source once that was done you’d be on level four of the cold scale at this level scientists would test the
Signal with other Advanced measurement methods NASA’s powerful James web Space Telescope would confirm the exoplanet contains a strong signature for life and you would be able to proudly say you found alien life and then scientists would be able to Kickstart follow-up studies at level seven that means you’d
Now be ready to fasten your seat belt and see these aliens for yourself but how would you get there yeah that’s when things get tricky koi 3,000 light years away from us that’s 700 times further away than Proxima centor the closest start to our solar system if we used developing ionic
Propulsion engines it would take over 55 million years to get there wow you’d have to make use of some futuristic Solutions like a laser sail this technology uses ultra thin mirrors to capture the momentum of light from stars and then uses this momentum to push a spacecraft to high speeds if you
Managed to build laser sails with diameters of 320 km you might be able to reach koi 571 5.01 in about 8,500 years setting aside the fact that you wouldn’t live that long what would you find once you got there alien light life could be extremely complex or very basic and the
Alien’s appearance would depend on the world they evolved on things like gravity density and the amount of energy given off by its star they would probably have something that resembles fingers or tentacles to build tools and since two legs and two arms are more efficient than four legs the aliens
Might have evolved to walk upright you want to invite them for a stroll well first you’d need to figure out their form of communication and it might be a little more advanced than speech or writing they might just exchange pheromones or even use telepathy and finally you’d want to know how they
Reproduce we can’t be sure if alien reproduction happens by seeding fishing or egg laying so maybe it’s to leave the romantic stuff here on Earth while your journey to find alien life might be successful in our hypothetical story in reality it’s still very far-fetched with technology evolving to detect
Signals from outer space we might be able to identify them at some point but there would still be the issue of getting to them what good does it do knowing something is out there if we can never see it up Close what if you found out that you had a long lost relative and what if that long lost relative was from a different planet in our galaxy and what if this far away planet was home to billions of humans just like Earth but these humans don’t look anything like us because
They’re from the future could aliens be future versions of humans how far ahead of us would they be how much would they have evolved would we be able to understand each other and what would meeting future humans mean for Humanity on Earth This is what if and here’s what would happen if aliens were future humans in 1947 a mysterious object crashed in the desert near Roswell New Mexico you all know this story but could it really be aliens the mysterious object was officially declared to be a US Army Air
Force balloon but then decades later US Navy Commander George W Hoover who had top secret clearance revealed that the mysterious crash involved time trving humans somehow these future humans had developed the technology to overcome the technological limitations that prevent us present day humans from making the same type of
Trip some theories suggest that these future humans travel back back in time in order to understand their biological past maybe these same time travelers helped our ancestors to make huge leaps in scientific and technological knowledge in a relatively short amount of time but if any of these theories are
True should we be prepared for another alien human visit sometime in the near future and what might we expect from this close encounter of the Third Kind if aliens I mean future humans were to come and visit us again they would probably look similar to how they appear in
Movies like us they’d still walk on two feet but their heads and their eyes would be much larger this fits with predictions of how present day humans will continue to evolve we can expect our heads to be bigger and our upper skull to become more rounded to accommodate a larger
Brain and as our civilization advances enough for interplanetary travel our eyes would get bigger so we can see better in dimmer environments that are further away from the Sun future humans might also find a way to slow the aging process so it would be possible to make several trips to places thousands of
Light years away within one lifetime if we want to travel somewhere that’s 60,000 light years away and if our technology could do it then it would be a 60-year flight for anyone on board but when they got back to Earth 60,000 years would have passed we’d like to think
That humans of the future would solve this problem so they could visit Earth and come home to tell their family and friends about their trip but if future humans find a way to live for thousands of years would that lead to a massive overpopulation on whichever Planet they
Inhabit well chances are if they make it possible to live that long they will probably succeed in optimizing their existence before that their civilization would undoubtedly be a lot more efficient than ours the reason being is that they could be centuries if not Millennia ahead of us in evolutionary terms
Future humans would be a lot smarter and they’d have better technology to maximize their space and live in densely populated worlds without producing the same high levels of pollution that we do on Earth in fact you could bet that future humans wouldn’t just have better technology they’d be
Technology just like some humans today have implants to perceive sound or to detect atmospheric pressure the humans of the future would likely have dozens of technological implants to make their lives easier think about everything your cell phone does for you now imagine you could command it with your thoughts and that
It would only be a small chip in your brain a chip or implant like that might also explain why those who claim to have encountered aliens have said that the aliens spoke to them in their native language could future humans simply have automatic language translators implanted
In their brains or would humans of the future evolve past different languages instead using one universal language like espiranto What if the moon was more than just a lifeless Rock under that that bright light it could be hiding an alien civilization when did this alien life begin on the moon what would these lunar dwellers breathe and what would our neighbors look like this is what if and here’s what
Would happen if aliens lived on the moon until Galileo showed up on the scene with his telescope all we knew about the moon was that it was bright and shiny while we certainly know more now its Origins are still a mystery yeah we still don’t know how the moon became well the
Moon some scientists think a chunk of the Earth broke off about 4 and 1/2 billion years ago after a violent collision with another planet all the debris eventually came together to form this body and the moon landing in 1969 did more than Inspire Humanity to reach the Stars it made this rock
Something real to humans everywhere but we didn’t stay for long so what if the astronauts missed something big up there the lunar surface is a rough place to live without an atmosphere there’s no protection from the sun’s radiation or even a way to keep oxygen on the ground but maybe it
Wasn’t always like this after that piece of Earth broke off microscopic life like cyanobacteria could have survived in this harsh environment we call this the panspermia theory the idea that life can be transferred by meteoroids asteroids or even spaceships considering the moon or Us in the habitable zone there could have been
A time billions of years ago when it had fresh water and volcanic activity could have released the gases needed to sustain life so why isn’t their life there now well who’s to say there isn’t when these conditions existed the moon could have incubated life for hundreds of millions
Of years before humans existed while dinosaurs our planet the moon could have been teaming with life that would look Stranger than some of those behemoths the moon’s magnetic field is a fraction as powerful as the Earth’s so over millions of years solar winds Stripped Away all of its atmosphere with
Nothing to protect it life on the surface would have to adapt to survive the sun’s intense Rays on Earth melanin in our skin protects protects us from ultraviolet rays but instead of having a darker skin tone the moon aliens could have developed new colors carotenoids are organic pigments
Found in vegetables like carrots and they contain cells that protect against skin cancer if the aliens evolved to have carotenoids instead of melanin they might have tough orange skin that would resist the dangerous UV Rays around them and the differences don’t end there since the moon’s gravity is only one
Sixth of that on Earth these aliens could get around by jumping or gliding but without an atmosphere holding oxygen on the surface what would these creatures breathe well even with an atmosphere that’s only 100th as thick as ours that doesn’t mean that life can’t exist recently scientists have found a
Parasite that doesn’t need oxygen to live maybe over millions of years these aliens could have evolved in the same way without breathing well anything now while this diversity of life might exist on the surface you couldn’t say the same for the lunar oceans I mean if they
Existed while the average ocean on earth goes down 3.7 km the moon’s Seas would only have a depth of 1 km there’s not much that could be found in these Waters but if life did exist on the moon how would that have changed our history well if these aliens had evolved before
Humanity they might have visited us before we landed on the moon and if they had waited until after the Space Race the increasing tensions of the Cold War might never have happened instead humans could have United in fear over an invasion from a superior life form the militaries around the globe would have
Deployed counter measures to assess the threats these visitors pose and as scientists and politicians tried to communicate with our Celestial neighbors everyone else would be hunkered down rcing for the worst you know sharing our corner of the solar system with a much more advanced civilization might be overwhelming but
It’s either that or an allout war and considering how much more evolved these aliens are we might want to think of a peaceful Solution scientists have pieced together a pretty clear picture of what life was like on Earth thousands even millions of years ago but if you fast forward 1 million years from now would alien civilization be doing the same to learn about us what would Earth look like 1 million years from
Now what remains of human civilization would still be around and would we end up clones in a human version of Jurassic Park this is what if and here’s what would happen if aliens came to Earth a million years in the future we’re living in the anthropos Epic and in this historical period the
Human impact on the world around us has been significant enough to geologically alter it 100 years from now it could be an era defined by ecolog iCal collapse and mass extinction big bummer right now there’s no way for us to know how or when our species may take its final walk on our
Home planet a team of alien scientists could find evidence of nuclear fallout climate change or maybe a massive asteroid that ended our existence or maybe they’d even find us already living on another planet maybe 1 million years from now you’d be an alien on board a Starship that has
Just entered into orbit around Earth I can’t tell if you’re joking or not but despite your best efforts to scan the planet below for intelligent life you’d find nothing your trip down to the surface would be slightly delayed by an ongoing super volcanic eruption the planet would be blanketed in the
Darkness of Ash you might even have to wait a few years for your alien crew to clean it up before you could even land finally you’d get approval to visit Earth down there you’d find everything to be Barren and lifeless storms fires and earthquakes would have erased nearly
All signs of immediately visible life but your team of archaeologists and paleontologists would know that if they wanted to find evidence of past civilization they better start digging you’d be investigating what are called boundary layers these are geological signatures that indicate a transition from one period to the next so you’d be looking
For animal and plant fossils as well as changes in rock layers you could find a thin layer of clay that marks the boundary to our anthropocenic era the top layer would contain not much more than small small fossilized remains of a few plant species the layer below would
Contain older rock but not only that there would be an abundance of diverse plant fossils this would be a breakthrough for your team as they now confirm there was some form of mass extinction period as you searched through this layer the nature of what happened to Earth over the past million years would
Be revealed you’d discover an unnatural amount of carbon deposits from fossil fuel emissions evidence of global temperature changes and widespread chemical pollutants but the effects of climate change may have reversed themselves over the 1 million years humans have been absent if your team were to uncover the regions where our Coastal populations
Used to be you could excavate the remains of cities relatively well preserved in the sedimentary rock imagine discovering the ancient subway tunnels and sewers of New York but nothing you would find would be in pristine condition bricks would have gone from their characteristic red TO gray and steel would have rusted and
Dissolved leaving only imprints in the soil finally you’d make the biggest discovery of all fossilized human bones just like the dinosaurs these too would most likely only be found in encased in sedimentary rock almost all of the fossils of dinosaurs that we discover today are from species that
Would have lived near lakes or rivers that flooded floods covered their remains in mud and silt very quickly and this prevented their bones from rotting the same would apply to Homo sapiens your alien team would piece together the puzzle that many of these human fossils were the result of catastrophic floods or tsunamis
And based on how much these bones have fused with the Rocks around them your team could start to assemble a timeline of our unfortunate demise usually bones take decades to decompose if buried in a dry environment like a funeral casket they could last for 100 years mummified bones can
Survive thousands of years finding any of these would tell your team that the last humans to walk the earth weren’t all that far in the past but discovering only fossilized remains would reveal our Extinction point being further back than you’d hoped there wouldn’t be any samples of soft tissues like muscles
Just rocks that used to be bones oh but you’d probably find fossilized plastic in the layers of sedimentary rock to it’s not yet known how long plastic waste needs to decomp compose into organic matter it could take hundreds of years maybe thousands or as you and your crew could discover
Millions what you’d keep your hopes up for would be the real Holy Grail human DNA the oldest DNA samples found in our modern times date back 800,000 years and come from insects and plants but studies conclude that DNA could take about 7 million years to disintegrate and Eureka you’d find human
DNA samples trapped in ice cores in what was once Greenland now the big question would be what do you do with them study human genetics for scientific purposes or have a little fun one idea would be to clone these ancient humans you could even create some kind of Jurassic Park
Filled with people they accept it would be called anthropos Park and based on all that you’d put together about our tragic history there would be so many entertaining things to do in this amusement park maybe you could clone other animals and play a game of mass extinction the winner would be the one
Who could kill the most species in the shortest amount of time you could dig for hidden oil reserves increase carbon emissions for fun to watch icebergs melt or how how about a game of nuclear war sadly though you and the other scientists probably wouldn’t be able to
Figure out what life was like for humans at the end of our civilization billions of years ago another planet smashed into Earth an event of this epicness could have created our moon it also could have brought alien life to our planet what evidence of this planet still exists on Earth
Today could there be life deep inside the Earth’s surface and could that life be an advanced civilization of humanoid aliens this is what if and here’s what would happen if aliens are living inside the earth 4 and A2 billion years ago Thea a protoplanet the size of Mars struck our
Young Earth this Collision scattered pieces of both planets into space and many scientists argue that these pieces eventually coalesced into our moon but what happened to the rest of Thea is still a mystery the existence of blobs of material inside Earth’s mantle known as low sheer velocity provinces could be
Evidence that parts of Thea fused with Earth these chunks are up to 1,000 km in height and several times that in width they sit below Africa and the Pacific Ocean straddling Earth’s core like a pair of headphones but other theories some dating back centuries suggest a completely different explanation of what
Exists under the surface a lush tropical par Paradise for aliens the Earth consists of four layers the crust the mantle and the outer and inner core but there hasn’t been any successful exploration below the crust so there’s much we don’t know about the realities below the surface this has led
To spectacular speculation like the hollow Earth theory according to this Theory our planet could be a series of Ed spheres centered around a central core in between these shells atmospheres could exist that are capable of supporting life in the 17th century Edmund hiy the scientist who discovered Hal’s Comet backed this Theory many
Others have added to it suggesting a small Sun could be hanging in the center of the earth and plants animals and humans could be living there and not just humans but a race of superhumans Immortals who possess sophisticated technology to build hundreds of subterranean cities but if
There were aliens inside the earth what would the conditions for life be could the inside of our planet be a luscious Paradise or a hot hellish dump if you were to visit one of the low sheer velocity provinces is you’d have to go 2900 km below the surface here
You’d be surrounded by magma or liquid rock with temperatures as high as 3700 de C and the weight of the crust and mantle above you would increase the pressure to over 237,000 times the atmospheric pressure you know on the surface of the Earth whatever life you find here would
Need to exist in these extreme conditions and these life forms would need to evolve to extract oxygen directly from the magma or live without it they’d need to survive without any sunlight radiation would be the primary energy source and lucky for them the radioactive decay of uranium thorium and
Pottassium in the Earth’s crust and mantle all already account for the primary source of heat in the Earth’s interior there could be all kinds of undiscovered creatures down there but until you could withstand the pressure and heat to find out we’ll never know attention human you are receiving an Interstellar radio transmission and
It could be coming from one of the nearest exoplanets Proxima centor B what conditions make this planet a candidate for alien life what types of civilizations could have flourished there and should we expect them to be knocking on Earth’s door any day now this is what if and here’s what
Would happen if there were an alien civilization on Proxima B at a distance of 4.2 light years away Proxima centu is one of the closest stars to our sun in 2016 a planet was discovered orbiting in Proxima Cent’s goldilock Zone that’s where conditions for liquid water could
Exist meet Proxima b a planet that registers at 0.87 on the earth similarity Index this scale measures how similar a plan planet or moon is to Earth and anything above 0.8 is considered earthlike as another example Mars has an ESI of 0.64 in 2020 astronomers recorded a mysterious
Radio signal coming from the direction of Proxima centor could it be that an alien civilization was attempting to contact us though Proxima B is similar to Earth life forms on this Alien Planet would likely develop very differently for starters the planet is about 20 times
Closer to its star than Earth is to the sun and it only needs 11.2 days for one full Revolution that’s a lot of New Year’s celebrations but still Proxima B receives about the same amount of solar energy as Earth and that’s because Proxima C is an mtype Red Dwarf star
Compared to our gtype star these stars are generally cooler in a range of 2200 to 3200 de C but there would be some extreme conditions that an alien civilization would have to adapt to these extraterrestrials would need to be able to withstand radiation and lots of it
The planet receives about 400 times more more x-rays than Earth and dwarf stars like proximus and Tori give rise to coronal mass ejections that would blast the planet with lethal radiation without a protective atmosphere this would be deadly for any potential life forms another challenge for approxima B civilization would be
Tidal locking that’s when a planet takes the same amount of time to spin on its axis as it does to orbit its star imagine living where you permanently face the scorching sun while the other side of the earth is in a constant state of Frozen Darkness this is what life would be like
On this exoplanet civilizations on Proxima B would likely develop in the so-called Terminator zones these are the strips of Twilight between the day side and the night side here winds would carry warm air and create life supporting conditions and Aliens would build thermal reactors with the mix of cool and hot water to
Have that H2O always available but if civilizations appeared on either of the sides of the Terminator Zone they’d need to develop different survival tactics but collaboration and unity could allow them to supply each other with heat or ice effectively and if a civilization developed on the light
Side would they even know that there were other stars or objects in the universe would they even think about other life out in space that brings us back to the radio signal the Breakthrough listen project recorded in 20120 this signal occupied a very narrow band of the radio spectrum at 982
Mahz this is startling because it’s a portion of the spectrum rarely used used by human-made transmitters researchers haven’t ruled out the possibility that these signals originated on Earth but there are many unanswered questions one thing they’re sure of it didn’t come from a natural world only manufactured or alien-made
Technology seems to produce signals like that so if an advanced civilization was trying to communicate with us from proxim be what would their society be like they could be a type one civilization like us and use the energy available from their Planet like oil wind or geothermal power or they could
Be a type 2 civilization using energy on the scale of their planetary system that would mean they were thousands of years more advanced than us would they have developed complex languages and live in cities would they have Democratic forms of governance or would they live under the rule of a
Dictator you must have so many questions for our alien neighbors and they would have so many questions for you or maybe they already know everything unfortunately we likely won’t be able to visit them anytime soon using current Technologies it would still take between 19,000 81,000 years to reach them of
Course maybe they could travel faster than the speed of light and get here First just north of the Martian equator lies a 45 km wide impact crater that scientists believe may have been the sight of an ancient Lake here at jazero Crater scientists theorize that its frozen soil may contain the most significant discovery of humankind life on February 18th 2021 NASA’s perseverance Rover started
Searching this crater to find out if we’re true truly alone what is the likelihood of Life on Mars what would these Martians look like and how will we send samples back to Earth this is what if and here’s what would happen if we discovered Life on Mars as Scientific American puts it it
Would take a near miracle for Mars to be St bar astrobiologist Chris McKay at Nasa believes that Earth and Mars have been sharing materials for billions of years kind of like using your roommate’s spice rack what I thought you said it was communal comets or large meteorites that
Have hit Earth may have also sent debris onto Mars a tiny fraction of this debris on Mars could have carried the same microbes that kickstarted LE as we know it on Earth but what would this alien life look like many scientists agree that whatever life on Mars we might find would need to
Be incredibly robust with the combination of radiation and freezing temperatures on Mars could any life form survive such a harsh environment as far-fetched as it sounds microbiologists have discovered many organ organisms that thrive in extreme environments the tardigrade or water bear is a highly resistant extrem aile it can withstand heat cold pressure
Radiation and even a complete lack of oxygen there are also certain types of bacteria on Earth that rapidly produce spores when faced with hazardous conditions the bacteria can then hibernate during an extended period of drought and withstand intense ionizing radiation a team of 1,000 geologists chemists physicists and biologists
Worldwide have drilled 4.8 km into the Earth and discovered robust life forms Mars has a similar geological past to Earth so looking underground could be a great place to start by drilling into the gzero crater we could encounter spores associated with relatively recent geological era and on future missions to Mars we may
Dig deeper and uncover fully vegetative microbes to find rock samples that might support life NASA’s perseverance Rover uses an array of lasers called a super cam it can study the surface of Mars at a distance one of the lasers will heat a rock sample and vaporize it this creates
A plasma that can be analyzed to understand its Elemental composition another laser will reveal which compounds are in the dirt if the super cam detects organic molecules or elevated concentrations of elements like nitrogen or phosphorus the Rover will head over to take a closer look it will
Then scan the soil in Greater detail to detect any organic material hiding in the dirt NASA’s team on Earth has only one shot at picking the right spot to gather these samples with limited space on board the Rover only a few dozen samples can be collected so no pressure and fingers
Crossed if all goes well NASA plans to bring back samples known for preserving bio signatures on Earth bio signatures are faint molecular traces left behind by microbes billions of years ago once the sample are collected NASA and the European Space Agency plan two missions to get them back to Earth this involves
Blasting tubes of rock and soil samples into orbit to be collected by another spacecraft and then return to Earth wa this looks kind of fun if perseverance is mission is successful the discovery of Life on Mars would be as groundbreaking as the discovery of Deep DNA in 1543 Copernicus boldly shook the status
Quo with his theory that the planets orbited the sun his discoveries completely changed our worldview no longer putting Earth at the center of the universe discovering life beyond Earth could be just as powerful but not finding any life could raise more questions is the earth truly special are we alone out
Here even if we don’t discover Life these Martian Rock samples will allow chemists to study the geochemistry minerology and foundational Bedrock materials of Mars in detail this could provide us with essential insights into the climate history of Mars and help us better understand earth’s climate as well in
1976 two Viking Landers became the first spacecrafts from Earth to touch down on Mars they too probed for life in the Martian soil and the results are still debated to this day one experiment indicated that the Martian soil tested positive for metabolism on Earth this would almost certainly suggest the presence of life
But another related experiment found no trace of organic material whatsoever while While most scientists have not reconciled the conflicting results the consensus is that there’s no conclusive evidence of Life on Mars but several researchers disagree recent discoveries of terrestrial microorganisms surviving outside of the ISS indicate that life may be resilient
Enough for Mars and methane in the Martian atmosphere could be a sign of microbial methanogens a type of microor organism that produces a significant amount of methane stinky aliens mind you it’s possible that life on Mars didn’t have the right conditions to start at all or maybe it died off
From an Extinction event similar to the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs or it’s even possible that we might end up finding life that was accidentally brought to Mars by one of our many Rovers let’s hope this perseverance Mission doesn’t turn into a $2.7 billion face
Palm do you ever feel like you’re being watched not by a creepy stalker but by aliens well it might be happening just like we watch animals at the zoo aliens may be out there watching us like we’re the zoo animals but why exactly would they be doing this in the first
Place could they be afraid of us this is what if and here’s what would happen if we lived in a galactic Zoo imagine being trapped in a zoo well if we really do live in a galactic Zoo then you’d already be in one aliens could be out there watching your every moveie
Move they may want to study the human race or learn from our technology or maybe they’re planning to attack us but what if instead of attacking us the aliens are afraid of us attacking them wait what if you’ve watched any sort of sci-fi movie you may think of aliens as
The bad guys the ones who attack our planet and steal all our resources hey shoot get out of there get away get go but never mind humans being afraid of aliens they may be afraid of us think about it it’s entirely possible that aliens have been watching Earth since
The birth of humanity if aliens have been hanging around since the beginning think of all the horrible destruction they’ve seen humans cause deforestation pollution and let’s not forget about war lots of War humans are constantly trying to kill each other it’s estimated that almost 1 billion people have died from war throughout
History so from the aliens perspective humans might seem like an incredibly violent scary species they may not want to make contact because they’re afraid of how we might react which could very well be with violence and while aliens might be watching us we aren’t confined to a zoo
We have left the Earth and gone to the moon but are we sure that intelligent life is even out there well the odds are pretty good the existence of alien life could be explained by the fairy Paradox we have our sun but in the universe there are billions of other Suns and
They’re billions of years older than our solar system orbiting these other Suns could be earthlike planets and on earthlike planets Planet there’s a good chance of there being highly intelligent life with so many worlds out there there’s an even better chance that at least one of them has developed
Interstellar travel the fairy Paradox suggests that with Interstellar travel it would take a few million years to travel through the entire Milky Way galaxy you may think that sounds like an incredibly long time but if there’s a civilization that is billions of years older than us it would just be a tiny
Fraction of their history so if all this is true which is very likely the aliens may have already found us and apart from us being a pretty violent species we may not be interesting enough for them to make contact with us we may just be another life form out of the thousands or
Millions that the aliens have seen after all if you see an ant colony on the ground do you try to make contact with it you most likely go along with your day to other life forms out there we may just be a simple group of ants
Ants they don’t want to hurt or bother just observe another thing we have to keep in mind is how we communicate with the aliens ants in our world might be trying to communicate with us but unless they send the right signals we’ll never know the same goes for the aliens and us we
May not be communicating with the aliens the right way they may not even know that we want to make contact with them so they just leave us alone what is the best way to communicate with aliens we’ll leave that story for another what If 120 light years away from us there’s an exoplanet that can and potentially host life it’s called k218b and it’s a world you’d want to visit
Video “How Close Are We To Finding Alien Life?” was uploaded on 03/13/2024 to Youtube Channel What If