---
title: "Scientist Wins Nobel Prize, Then Announces Belief in Aliens"
description: "Nobel Prize-winning astronomer Didier Queloz is \"convinced\" that aliens exist — and that we could find signs of extraterrestrials before 2050."
date: "2019-10-11"
modified: "2019-10-11"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nobel-prize-belief-aliens"
categories:
  - "Off-World"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "alien life"
  - "didier queloz"
  - "Nobel Prize"
  - "the digest"
---

# Scientist Wins Nobel Prize, Then Announces Belief in Aliens

![Nobel Prize-winning astronomer Didier Queloz is "convinced" that aliens exist — and that we could find signs of extraterrestrials before 2050.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/nobel-prize-queloz-find-alien-life.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Numbers Game

Astronomer Didier Queloz is "convinced" aliens exist — and that we could find them before 2050.

"I can’t believe we are the only living entity in the universe," he said during an event on Tuesday — the same day he found out he'd [won the Nobel Prize in Physics](<https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/professor-didier-queloz-wins-2019-nobel-prize-in-physics-for-first-discovery-of-an-exoplanet>) — [according to *The Telegraph*](<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/08/cambridge-university-planet-hunter-says-mankind-could-find-alien/>). "There are just way too many planets, way too many stars, and the chemistry is universal. The chemistry that led to life has to happen elsewhere."

## ET's ETA

*The Telegraph* story quotes Queloz as saying he's certain we'll detect signs of alien life within 100 years.

However, he also thinks it's "realistic" to believe humanity will develop a device capable of detecting the bio-chemical signs of life on exoplanets within just 30 years.

## Matter of Time

Queloz isn't the only notable scientist to talk aliens this week.

Former NASA scientist Gilbert Levin wrote an [opinion piece for *Scientific American*](<https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/im-convinced-we-found-evidence-of-life-on-mars-in-the-1970s/>) on Thursday in which he said he also believes alien life exists — because he's ["convinced" we already detected it on Mars](<https://futurism.com/nasa-scientist-found-life-on-mars>), back in the 1970s.

Whether Levin can persuade others to join him in that belief or not, it seems Earth's time as the only known life-harboring body in the universe could be drawing to an end.

**READ MORE:** [Cambridge University planet hunter says mankind could find alien life in 30 years as he wins Nobel prize](<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/08/cambridge-university-planet-hunter-says-mankind-could-find-alien/>) \[*The Telegraph*\]

**More on aliens:** *[Former NASA Scientist "Convinced" We Already Found Life on Mars](<https://futurism.com/nasa-scientist-found-life-on-mars>)*

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)