Trying to find extraterrestrial life 'really tough'

MANKIND IS “nowhere near” finding extraterrestrial life, the head of astronomy’s world governing body has said.

International Astronomy Union (IAU) general secretary Dr Ian Corbett said breakthroughs have been made in the discovery of exoplanets – planets orbiting around other stars – which were similar to Earth, but it would be problematic trying to confirm that life existed on such bodies.

He said technology was being developed to look at the bimolecular signatures that point to life elsewhere in the universe, but confirming such a discovery would be “really tough”.

The IAU, which has 68 representative countries including Ireland, is involved in the promotion and co-ordination of astronomical events internationally, and is the only organisation that can name celestial bodies.

Dr Corbett gave Astronomy Ireland’s Christmas lecture last night at Trinity College Dublin, where he spoke about the importance of astronomy through history.

He stressed the importance of astronomy in getting young people interested in science and technology.

“Astronomy is accessible because it is all around us and it attracts people to do science, and we desperately need in the western world trained scientists and engineers.”

Dr Corbett said the search for life was one of four key questions that astronomy was seeking to address.

The origins and the nature of dark matter and dark energy and whether the laws of physics apply throughout the universe were other questions being addressed, as were the early history of the universe and the origins of black holes.

He said that some of the most exciting developments planned for astronomy include the James Webb telescope, which will replace the Hubble telescope. He also cited the ALMA array in Chile, which will be the world’s most advanced ground-based telescope, and will expand our ability to answer some of astronomy’s fundamental questions.

Dr Corbett admitted it was not a great time for manned exploration at present, with missions to both the Moon and Mars on hold indefinitely.

He said the Apollo missions to the Moon of the 1960s and 1970s would be “inconceivable” now because of the costs involved.

However, he said robotic probes had improved to the extent that many of the questions that astronomy wanted to answer, including the presence of water on other planets, could be discovered without the need for human space exploration.

Dr Corbett also predicts that mankind will never be able to master interstellar travel or even reach the outer reaches of the solar system because the distances are too great and the laws of physics too difficult to circumvent.

“I don’t believe that it is possible with the timescale that is envisaged now and the technologies we are trying to develop,” said Dr Corbett.