This past December 2018 an exciting event took place: NASA researcher Silvano Colombano, who works for the agency’s Ames Research Center in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, published a white paper that Enrico Fermi would have given a rave review titled “New Assumptions to Guide SETI Research.” In short, the document was a fresh look at the Fermi Paradox that attempts to answer the eternal human question: Are we alone? Where is evidence of another advanced civilization?
“I don’t know how anyone can see the Hubble ‘Deep Field’ image and not feel like something else is going about its business out there,” writes Tracy K. Smith, U.S. poet laureate, whose father was an engineer on the Hubble Space Telescope.
“It’s amazing to think that the enigmatic intermediate-size exoplanets could be water worlds with vast amounts of water. Hopefully atmosphere observations in the future–of thick steam atmospheres—can support or refute the new findings,” said Professor Sara Seager, Professor of Planetary Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and deputy science director of the recently-launched TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission, which will search for exoplanets.
