---
title: "Scientist: “Alien Life Now Seems Inevitable and Possibly Imminent”"
description: "A scientist argues that the number of potentially habitable planets and moons coupled with the existence of water in space makes alien life inevitable."
date: "2019-04-26"
modified: "2019-04-26"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientist-alien-life-inevitable-imminent"
categories:
  - "Off-World"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "extraterrestrial life"
  - "space"
  - "the digest"
---

# Scientist: “Alien Life Now Seems Inevitable and Possibly Imminent”

![A scientist argues that the sheer volume of potentially habitable planets and moons coupled with the existence of water in space makes life inevitable.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/scientist-alien-life-inevitable-imminent.png>)
*\<em\>Image: prettysleepy1 via Pixabay/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Playing The Odds

The cosmos are filled with roughly Earth-sized exoplanets. [Various moons](<https://futurism.com/alien-life-nasa-chief-bridenstine>), comets, and planets have stores of water, organic molecules, and amino acids like those that make up life on Earth.

Cathal O'Donnell, a 3D bioprinting researcher at St. Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne, likes those odds — he [argues in](<https://theconversation.com/why-the-idea-of-alien-life-now-seems-inevitable-and-possibly-imminent-115643>) *The Conversation* that the abundance of potentially habitable worlds out there makes the discovery of extraterrestrial life "inevitable and possibly imminent."

## One In 40 Billion

O'Donnell argues that the sheer [vastness of space](<https://futurism.com/nasa-et-life>) and quantity of exoplanets orbiting in habitable zones — the sweet spots where they're not too close nor too far from their star — makes the discovery of extraterrestrial life overwhelmingly likely, [citing research](<https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/10/31/1319909110/tab-article-info>) that calculated that billions of such planets may exist.

And just because a planet doesn't have a temperate climate doesn’t mean life couldn't exist there — O'Donnell argues that terrestrial life can be found in Antarctica, in deep-sea hydrothermal vents, and other seemingly inhospitable settings.

## Numbers Game

The fact remains that we've only encountered life in one place: Earth. But O'Donnell predicts that we'll be able to probe for life in the near future.

"The ancient question 'Are we alone?' has graduated from being a philosophical musing to a testable hypothesis," O'Donnell writes. "We should be prepared for an answer."

**READ MORE:** [Why the idea of alien life now seems inevitable and possibly imminent](<https://theconversation.com/why-the-idea-of-alien-life-now-seems-inevitable-and-possibly-imminent-115643>) \[*The Conversation*\]

**More on extraterrestrial life:** *[The Scientist Who Reevaluated The Drake Equation Still Thinks Alien Life is Out There](<https://futurism.com/life-universe-scientist-drake-equation-study>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)