By 
November 26th, 2019
Gemini Observatory operated by a partnership of six countries including the United States, Canada, Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Korea.
Credit: Joy Pollard
In the past three decades over 4,000 exoplanets have been revealed. This “discovery rate” will surely grow unabated year after year. Some researchers now estimate that the average number of planets per star is greater than one.
Given a convergence of ground and space-based capability, AI/machine learning research and other tools, are we on the verge of identifying what is universally possible for life, perhaps confirming the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence?
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is on the search for planets outside of our solar system, including those that could support life. The mission will find exoplanets that periodically block part of the light from their host stars, events called transits.
Credit: NASA/GSFC
Is 2020 the celestial payoff year in which objects of interest are found to offer “technosignatures” – indicators of technology that may have been developed by advanced civilizations?
What do leading experts think? Go to my new Space.com story:
Will 2020 Be the Year We Find Intelligent Alien Life?
Posted in Space News
