Although you’ve just written a book about alien life, you’ve got three young children. Has that made you reassess life in general?
I think a new baby makes you reassess a lot of things in your life, from home furnishings right on up to the existence of God. But the reason for writing the book – which was started three or four years ago – was to continue from where I left off with my first book, It’s Not Rocket Science.
I found that I was fascinated by biology and the extraordinary advances being made in that area, and I also kept stumbling across different areas where people were talking about alien life and I just thought it would be a great thing to bring all of those things together in one book and talk about the real science of aliens. So my route into The Aliens Are Coming! was sort of through that. It’s why this book starts where the last one leaves off, because I ended the first with a discussion of extraterrestrial life.
You say in your book that, as a boy in the 1970s, the hopes of finding life kept diminishing the more space was being explored. Was that disappointing for you?
It was a really depressing time. It was beautifully summed up by [late astronomer] Carl Sagan in his book, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision Of The Human Future In Space, in 1994: “The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbour life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate.” The 1970s was a golden age for robotic missions and that was an extraordinary period: we sent stuff to Venus and all the way out of the Solar System. Amazing. But then things just slid. We’re actually now entering a golden age for telescopes and I think it’s amazing what our telescopes can do now; just incredible.
Denne historien er fra Issue 144-utgaven av All About Space UK.
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Denne historien er fra Issue 144-utgaven av All About Space UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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15 AUTUMN STARGAZING TARGETS
Go on a night-sky treasure hunt as the brighter evenings give way to the cooler months
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE WHY IS VENUS SO DRY?
A new study reckons the answer lies high in the Venusian atmosphere
WHEN BLACK HOLES TURN WHITE
Can bouncing black holes help physicists find the ultimate theory of everything?
THE MOON'S THIN ATMOSPHERE IS MADE BY CONSTANT METEORITE BOMBARDMENT
While the solar wind also contributes to the atmosphere, meteorites are the main culprit
INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL AND HOW TO BECOME A SPACE TOURIST
Having explored much of the Solar System, attention is now turning to the stars beyond
NASA'S PERSEVERANCE ROVER FINDS POSSIBLE SIGNS OF ANCIENT RED PLANET LIFE
Further analysis is needed, but a rock contains potential evidence that life once existed on Mars in the distant past
A NASA TELESCOPE MAY HAVE FOUND ANTIMATTER ANNIHILATING IN POSSIBLY THE BIGGEST EXPLOSION SINCE THE BIG BANG
The massive explosion was captured in 2022
Jameel Janjua "This is how we get to Mach 3”
Jameel Janjua made it to the bitter end in a Canadian government astronaut selection in 2009, but wasn't chosen. He found a different path to space through Virgin Galactic
BOEING NEEDS TO IMPROVE QUALITY CONTROL ON THE SLS MOON ROCKET
The NASA Inspector General's report finds serious quality-control issues affecting the upgraded version and expects cost overruns and delays
DARK ENERGY
THE MOST DOMINANT FORCE IN THE UNIVERSE IS ALSO ITS MOST MYSTERIOUS AND MOST UNANTICIPATED