Do Aliens Exist? | Colossal Questions

For as long as humans have existed, one specific mystery has inspired more curiosity than all others. Are we alone in the universe? Or is there alien life in outer space? Let's find out on today's episode of Colossal Questions. Okay guys, let's start with something you might not be expecting. There's actually a pretty good chance that aliens do exist. Space is so enormously huge that the chance of there being intelligent life somewhere in outer space is pretty good. That's because there's billions and billions of planets in our galaxy alone, and some of those are considered Earth-like by NASA because they have a lot of the same conditions as Earth. Scientists have been searching for Earth-like planets that can support life, and they're finding some pretty cool stuff. In 2015, a NASA mission found the first planet that might be a candidate for supporting life. The terribly named planet Kepler-452b, which they're calling Earth 2.0, is about the same size as Earth and is the right distance from its sun to support intelligent life. It likely even has a rocky surface that could support water and plants. And Earth 2.0 isn't the only candidate for alien life. As recently as February 2017, NASA discovered seven more Earth-like planets while searching through space. Okay, so there's a planet out there that's really similar to Earth, but what does that have to do with aliens? To understand that, you need to know the basic ingredients that create life on Earth. Water, basic elements like carbon or nitrogen, and an energy source like the sun. It doesn't matter if you're talking about a microscopic bug or a big blue whale. All life on Earth is created using these same general ingredients. That's why scientists have focused on planets that are Earth-like. If all the ingredients that we know can create life are there, then maybe, just maybe, they'll find aliens. So have we found alien life yet? No, we haven't. But space is a really, really, really big place. And our instruments for searching the galaxy are pretty limited today. So it's likely that aliens exist somewhere in space. It's just gonna take lots of searching to find them. And that won't stop us from trying. Maybe the coolest attempt so far happened in 1977 when NASA launched a space probe called Voyager 1. The probe was launched carrying a golden record for an alien civilization to find and listen to. The hope is that if the Voyager spacecraft is ever discovered by an alien race, it'll be a great way for them to learn about us and find where we live. It contains greetings in 55 languages. Earth sounds like volcanoes, wind, rain, frogs, elephants, a heartbeat, Morse code, a train, a tractor, and even a kiss. It also contains pieces of traditional music from different cultures, recordings of brainwaves, 116 pictures detailing human life, and even directions back to Earth. Every day Voyager 1 floats further away from Earth and the golden record on board should stay in playable condition for over a billion years. In the 40 years since Voyager 1 was launched, it has traveled more than 11 trillion miles through space, which is nothing compared to how big the galaxy is. So if there are aliens flying through space, let's just hope they happen to pass by our little puttering probe and come say hi. And now you know that there may just be aliens in space. Comment below if you have a burning question you'd like to know the answer to. We may just answer it. Oh, and don't forget to subscribe for more episodes of Colossal Questions only on DreamWorks TV.