Bookosmia Spotlight
Hey, Sara here! Here is a very pragmatic take on Extra Terrestrial (ET) by 14 year old Avinav from Vadodara. While it is our favourite topic for fictional writing, I love his scientific approach to segregates facts from folklore.
Essay- Do aliens exist? #SaraReads
E.T – Do aliens exist?
Whenever you hear the word ‘alien’ the first thing that comes to mind is probably going to be some vaguely humanoid figure from a movie. The actual definition of an alien is ‘extraterrestrial life,’ a hypothetical life which may occur outside of earth and which did not originate on earth.
Such life might range from simple prokaryotes (or comparable life forms) to beings with civilizations far more advanced than humanity. The million dollar question about aliens is – Do they exist?
An astronomer named Frank Drake devised a mathematical equation in 1961 to approximate the presence of extra-terrestrial life. While his is not a solid formula for detecting alien life, it provides a base for discussions about the same.
A 2015 poll showed that 54% of Americans feel confident that extra- terrestrial life exists. That certainty is most likely inspired from science fiction novels and movies. Fiction notwithstanding, many scientists believe that the known and also unknown universe is undoubtedly littered with sentient life.
However this does not mean that one day out of the blue, an alien mother ship will swoop down on us. If life does indeed exist, it is proven, will most likely be less biologically advanced as the inhabitants of Earth. Also as a further reassurance, if ET existed, he would be living millions to billions of light years away.
To conclude I would say that while intelligent life is certainly a major possibility owing to the sheer number of celestial bodies, there is less possibility that we will have some heavenly visitors soon.