“Don't assume life is widespread in the universe,” said Charles Cockell, director of the UK Astrobiology Center at a meeting of the Royal Society on 11 March this year.
Cockell identified three main criteria that guide astrobiologists in their search for extraterrestrial life. These criteria, in his opinion, limit our search capabilities and do not allow us to expect a high success rate.
First, these are biomarkers, gases, the presence of which indicates the presence of life forms. Life forms are commonly associated with oxygen or methane.
Secondly, total colonization by life forms of their habitats. For example, on Earth, life penetrates everywhere, to its most remote corners. Therefore, we assume that in other places in the universe, life will behave in the same way.
Third, life forms on other planets must produce sufficient quantities of the corresponding gases so that we can detect them with our telescopes. Otherwise, we can look at them point-blank and not notice.
These criteria sharply narrow the number of places in the universe where life can exist, and in this light, the fact that we have not yet been able to detect it does not seem surprising, Cockell said.
