Extra-terrestrial life?

THE POSSIBILITY of extra-terrestrial life was the subject of a talk and panel discussion at Shetland Museum on Saturday.

Professor Charles Cockell, from the University of Edinburgh, Professor John C. Brown – Astronomer Royal for Scotland, University of Glasgow – and 17 year old Aidan Redpath took part in the event, entitled ‘Extra-terrestrial life – possibility, probability or certainty?’

Aidan attended the inaugural Astrobiology Summer Academy in 2013, set up by Professor Cockell as a direct result of discussions he had during his first visit to Shetland in 2012.

The talks provided a fascinating overview of what is now known about the Universe, its age and development, together with all the clues we have so far found that may, one day, be pieced together to answer the age-old question with certainty.

In the talks and panel discussion that followed, there were some challenging and wide-ranging conversations emphasising just how far we have come in that quest in the past decade alone, with hints to the sort of discoveries that await in the not-too-distant future.

But even if there is life on other worlds, it will probably be too far away to ever travel there, and the same is likely to be the case in reverse – so we may never be visited either. 

Austin Taylor