Do scientists believe in the existence of aliens?

The researchers have surveyed several hundred astrobiologists specialists in the study of extraterrestrial life, whether they themselves believe in what they are researching, that is, the existence of extraterrestrial beings, intelligent or primitive. Here are their answers.

Aliens. Source: phys.org

Scientists investigating extraterrestrial life

When it comes to life on other planets or even near other stars, the question for most people is decided on a “ believe-don’t-believe” level. However, for astrobiologists, that is, scientists who investigate the possibility of life beyond Earth, this approach does not work. They should form their expert opinion based on theory formation and their verification through experimentation and observation.

And they are human beings, after all. So outside of their laboratories, they may have personal opinions as well. Researchers have recently surveyed them anonymously about whether they agree with the notion that there is other life somewhere in space. And they were asked separately whether they believed in simple extraterrestrial beings and highly organized beings.

During February and June, researchers sent several hundred scientists letters with questionnaires on extraterrestrial life. And 521 professionals provided them with their answers. As a control group, the scientists used the responses of 534 respondents who were not astrobiologists.

Survey results

Analysis of the answers showed that 86.6% of the astrobiologists surveyed agree or strongly agree with the statement that life beyond the Earth exists at least in some form, albeit in the most primitive form. However, it is worth noting that there is no hard evidence that it exists there. But even in the Solar System, there are enough places like Mars or Jupiter’s moons where conditions might be suitable for it.

12% of astrobiologists were neutral about the existence of life beyond Earth, which makes them real scientists who don’t take anything for granted. And 2% of the scientists said they didn’t believe what they were studying existed. Apparently, they were joking.

The most interesting thing is that the results obtained are very similar to those who are not experts in astrobiology. About 88.4% of respondents agree or strongly agree with the statement that there is life beyond Earth.

If we talk about the possibility of the existence of complex, highly organized life beyond the Earth, the percentage of astrobiologists who believe in it is noticeably lower – 67.4%. For non-specialists, it is 58.2%. That is, scientists even believe in highly organized aliens. This can be seen particularly well by the fact that only 10.2% of scientists completely disagree with their existence.

According to phys.org

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