The Great Silence

Written By Faith Bugenhagen Photos provided by Faith Bugenhagan

We look up to the stars on clear nights, pointing to constellations. If we get lucky and the timing is right, we may even get a glimpse of a planet. Space seems so close to us. It encourages us to focus on what lies beyond.

So what does lie beyond? The Fermi Paradox, or “The Great Silence,” are terms coined by physicist Enrico Fermi (Harrington). Fermi identified a lack of space exploration in twentieth-century science— more specifically, there was no debate about life on other planets. Whether it be planets that sustained other beings or could sustain the human population, scholars were not searching for answers. Thus, the notion of “The Great Silence” was born: a thread of thought-provoking questions about life on other planets for later academics to explore. Around the 1980s, researchers started to seek answers and found the main elements required to sustain life. These include carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, sulfur, and hydrogen, and make up the building blocks of life: proteins and amino acids (Sagan). These findings helped piece together the basics of their search. As the search grows more complex, technological innovation has allowed scientists to tackle larger obstacles. The James Webb Space Telescope, designed to investigate super-Earths, surveys habitable planets (Sagan). Researchers are hopeful that it is capable of detecting an outsized version of Earth. The Nancy Grace Roman Telescope analyzes the environments of the planets in our solar system (Sagan). It scans their planes for oxygen and water vapor, the first indicators of potential life. Technology is not the only instrument being used in this search: many experiments have been created to help in this effort. One of the most revolutionary is linked to the initial search for water on planetary surfaces. This practice is called capillary electrophoresis, a liquid-based extraction process that separates chemical compounds of a sample (Greicius). The method is especially important in surveying ocean-based planets.

This work has proved beneficial. In 2015, researchers found an Earth-like planet close to the Sun. Scientists referred to it as “Earth’s bigger, older cousin” and named it Kepler-452b (Greicius). More recently, In 2019, researchers found TRAPPIST-1, a star with Earth-like planets orbiting it and a solar system remarkably similar to ours. Three of TRAPPIST-1’s planets even appeared to have water— the search for a safe planet is not as far-fetched as it seems. The main obstacles in this search tend to stem from environmental limitations in these planets. Human life requires regulated temperatures to survive, temperatures that are not often met on cosmic landscapes. The few spots where these conditions can be found are called Goldilocks zones (Greicius). Their distance from the Sun creates environments that could be fit for human life, but they still lack the rest of the building blocks needed to support it. Despite the fruitless investigation on this front, planets have been found that may sustain other organisms. The debate about extraterrestrial beings in the universe was once in the science fiction ballpark, but it is now a matter of scientific consideration. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI Institute) is committed to finding and communicating with extraterrestrial life. One of SETI’s most significant moments occurred in 1977, when they came into radio contact with another planet. The breakthrough, now referred to as the Wow! signal, played a key role in convincing NASA to make official the search for extraterrestrial life. The possibility of beings existing in outer space was no longer science fiction. Despite these advances, why have we not yet come across any tangible evidence? The aestivation hypothesis is a commonly supported theory: extraterrestrials are in hibernation, waiting out their home planet’s hostile temperatures. Or, according to the Super Planet Theory, extraterrestrial organisms could be trapped in the atmospheres of their own planets (Greicius). Whatever the reasons may be, the search continues for an Earth-like planet as new motivations arise. The current climate crisis has made space exploration even more pressing. Technology continues to evolve, assisting researchers in making strides towards their end goal. Their perseverance is fueled by the hope of life beyond Earth, a hope that may soon transition into a need for the human race.