From the Editor's Desk

Gaiasignatures: A new way to search for alien life

Hunting for life on other planets is hard; it’s like trying to spot an ant on the other end of a football field. The closest potential host, Venus, is 25 million miles away. Beyond our Solar System, exoplanets that have piqued astronomers’ interest are light-years away.

To search for life from these sizable distances, scientists look for biosignatures: elements, molecules, or substances that might have been made by life. These include oxygen and methane, among other compounds. But there’s growing doubt that biosignatures will ever constitute concrete evidence of extraterrestrials. After all, as philosopher of science Peter Vickers at Durham University notes, our knowledge of exoplanet chemistry and geology is almost as lacking as our conceptions of aliens. From so far away, how could we ever be sure that any potential biosignature didn’t come from non-life?

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