The possibility of life beyond Earth has long been a topic of deep fascination, but to avoid sensationalism and misreporting when humanity detects signs of extraterrestrial life, NASA scientists have called for establishing a framework so that everyone has a clear idea about the real level of progress. NASA already has multiple missions in place that are looking for signs of life on Mars, one of Jupiter’s moons named Europa, and beyond.
So far, the agency has not discovered any concrete sign of extraterrestrial life. But that doesn’t mean life beyond planet Earth doesn’t exist. “The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space,” Carl Sagan once said. However, scientists have spotted conditions in some pockets of space that are theoretically conducive for ing some form of life. For example, a recent study claimed that the sunlight filtering through Venus’ atmosphere could allow Earth-like phototrophy, which means certain organisms might be able to harness the sunlight and survive in those conditions.
Alien life could exist in any form — it could be primordial at the level of microorganisms or even more complex and advanced than human beings. However, the discovery of life could be a long-drawn-out process, and the final result could be anything. And that’s why a team of researchers, including NASA scientists, wants to make sure that the reporting of alien biosignature discovery should be done in a responsible manner. And to do so, a comprehensive mere signs of biosignatures should not be reported as concrete evidence of extraterrestrial life.
A Scale To End Speculations And Exaggerations
And to achieve that, the team of researchers proposes creating a scale that provides a better idea of where an alien life discovery mission stands. This could be done using something called the “Confidence of Life Detection” (CoLD) scale. Each level of this scale will show how close scientists are to detecting alien life. At the lowest level of scale, scientists will put the identification of biosignatures. At the higher levels of the scale, scientists will be capable of linking initial results with solid evidence. Ranking a discovery on a fixed scale will ensure that there is little to no room for misreporting or exaggeration.
Scientists argue that a definite ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to the search for alien life and related discoveries is not the right approach. Instead, it is vital to study all possible evidence over a long period of time and across multiple stages. However, creating such a scale for ranking the ‘discovery of alien life’ findings is not yet a reality. Therefore, the team is inviting the broader scientific community to engage in a dialogue and collectively create the standards to decide the progression levels. A great example of such a scale is the TRL (Technological Readiness Level). The TRL scale allows NASA to identify the exact stage of a mission where Level 1 stands for basic observed principles, Level 2 denotes technology concept, and the final Level 9 suggests that a flight system has proven its efficiency with successful mission operations.
Source: Nature